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torrent stop donoading in u.a.e????


lj007

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Hi everyone,

I can confirm that utorrent has been blocked in UAE. The issue is related to the submarine cut, but it's not caused by it as one of the members suggested at the start of this thread, leading to pointless discussion instead of looking for a solution. It's funny when someone calls another person an idiot only to be wrong themselves.

Anyway, there are two ISP's in Dubai, Du and Etisalat. Because the uplink bandwidth has decreased after the cut, Etisalat have decided to block bitttorrent and youtube. Du is running at full speed, and have resorted to backup links through FLAG to Japan and satellite uplinks to tier 1 ISPs.

Youtube is blocked by dropping the DNS requests. It's a very dodgy way to do things because they already have a blocklist filter which shows an Etisalat warning page, but they are just pretending the server is not available so nobody can blame them.

Torrents are blocked by preventing communications with the trackers. That is, if you have protocol encryption on and a list of peers, you can continue downloading normally. However, if you are downloading a new torrent, then you won't be able to get a list of peers from the tracker, and DHT is blocked as well.

Also, there are a number of users not effected by this, as they are selectively blocking by regional areas. Dubai seems to be highly targeted, and also all business customers.

I don't know if this is permanent, but obviously the only reason for it is greed. Etisalat could have paid for extra bandwidth through alternative routes like Du did. And now that the cables are almost fully restored, they could drop the ban, but I guess they are enjoying paying less for a lower uplink.

Sources: My buddies who work in Etisalat and Du, and a regional FLAG manager in another GCC country.

Solution: Can somebody figure out how they are blocking trackers only? I tried different tracker ports and sites, and there's no way they have a list. Are tracker communications encrypted? I've got wireshark running in the background so let me know what to look for.

Alternative Solution: Screw Etisalat, and move house to an area services by Du!

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Ive hated etisalat from the VERY beginning but since my mothers company pays for my internet connection i get 4mbit/sec connection for free

Du is new and wants gain a class over etisalat who enjoys a monopoly over all telecommunications

Du has had some network problems but their internet connections are good and cheap

Do you know that in the UK one would get a 10mbit/sec connection for dhs. 70

But Etisalat gives a 256 kbit/sec connection for dhs.149

512 for 289

1 mbps for 389

4 mbps for 489

All they want is MONEY............

Screw them and take du net connections

----

TxDtester

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thanx for that jack187 and that gives me a very strong feeling that torrenting here in dubai is doomed. i'm surprised though that they managed to block bittorent communication and in my opinion they won't unblocked it after the cables are fully fixed.

EDIT:

causing a network timed out error for youtube is a absolutely dodgy. they have blocked it before around late october for like 15 minutes, i think they're doing a test or something and they managed to block google.com along with that, it was funny.

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Thanks Jack for proper update.

It is really very sorry that etisalate has blocked torrent upload.

It is really not easy to leave etisalat and shift to Du immidiately.

Expecting some help from torrent experts, if they can able to bypass this restriction.

Any torrent expert like to comment on this ?

Anoop

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Ok guy I just spoke to a etisalat hot line and a guy there told me that the internet problem is still there and they are not running @ 100%. So looks like there is still hope. Any way when the media announces that the net problem is fixed and if the tracker blocking is still there, I think we should all call up the hot line and tell them to stick the net up their a#@ and we are moving to du.

.................

in France 100mbps line is only 140dirhams (with HD-TV) :(

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^ dude a 512 kbps here in UAE (Etisalat) is 189 dirhams per month that's 2268 dirhams per year and yeah plus the substantial internet filtering, i'm grateful that i could at least send emails but for the price?

and i don't see Kuwait in the list of countries where internet is filtered, i could move over there or to Bahrain.

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guys what jack187 said is true and i think i figured out how it is blocked, but i need confirmation. most probably etisalat is blocking utorrent's useragent and therefore it will stop all http connections done by utorrent, including connections to the trackers. Moreover, etisalat blocked other bit torrent clients useragents. If somebody can confirm what i am saying is true, then we have to use an unblocked bit torrent client until the cables are fixed or find a way to change utorrents useragent or maybe encrypt connections to trackers.

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Today in Khaleej's newspaper there was an article about the cable being fixed and everything is restored. However, they also mentioned that there're two other cables which need fixing which will be done in January 2009.

I live in Dubai, and have the same problems as you guys (torrent and youtube).

I'll keep checking this page for solutions. Thanks!

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hi all thanks for responding .It was working with proxy from the day first i raised the question.But all of you must know its illegel and risky.

Any way i am not so techy .thanks to all

and wishing all of you and your families happy new year 2009

thanks again

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