Automatic ipfilter.dat updater

uTorrent ipfilter.dat updater 1.02

by Requi3m

Email: requi3m(at)requi3m.net

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ABOUT:

This program automatically downloads the peerguardian level1.txt file and converts it into an ipfilter.dat file that utorrent can read. I've also included the Visual Basic 6 source code so that you can modify the program yourself.

It works on win9x, XP, 2003, and probably vista, however it has not been tested on vista. It requires nothing other than msvbvm60.dll. Let me know if it doesn't work on your OS. Also, if you find any bugs please contact me using my email above so that I may correct them.

INSTALLATION:

Put "ipfilter.dat updater.exe" and "7za.exe" in your utorrent folder (or whatever folder you want the program to run from.) If you want, you can also create a shortcut to "ipfilter.dat updater.exe" on your desktop for easy access later.

USAGE:

First make sure uTorrent is setup to use the ipfilter. Open uTorrent and go to "Options > Preferences > Advanced > Advanced options > ipfilter.enabled" and set it to "true"

Then just run "ipfilter.dat updater.exe" and click the button "Update ipfilter.dat!". The program will do the rest for you. Make sure to restart uTorrent afterwards.

http://www.requi3m.net/ipfilter.dat%20updater.rar

If there's enough interest I could create a version that runs in the background and updates the file every so often. Post any questions/comments here.

You do know that ut doesn't auto-reload the ipfilter, right?

I'd like to try it Requi3m, but the link is broken.

My server was down for a while today. Sorry about that. It's back up now.

You do know that ut doesn't auto-reload the ipfilter, right?

I'm pretty sure uTorrent does automatically reload the ip filter. Whenever I replace the file, if I go to the logging tab it says xxxxxx entries loaded.

edit: I've noticed peerguardian's mirrors have been having a lot of problems lately. You might get errors when you try to download level1.txt. Just keep trying or increase the number of times it retries the download.

I'm pretty sure uTorrent does automatically reload the ip filter

It doesn't; auto-reloading has never been implemented. I just tested to confirm, and it never reloaded until I manually selected the relevant item in the Peers list context menu.

Haven't tried this out yet but I've been using the one from here and it works fine so far, no problems. You do have to manually reload the filter in utorrent but its a once a week thing for me so no problem for me.

Yeah I guess it doesn't automatically reload it. So after you update it you'll have to restart utorrent or disable the ipfilter and enable it again.

or Right-click in the Peers list and click Reload IP Filter like Ultima said.

I'm pretty sure uTorrent does automatically reload the ip filter

It doesn't; auto-reloading has never been implemented. I just tested to confirm, and it never reloaded until I manually selected the relevant item in the Peers list context menu.

Ultima is right, though this has been changed in the latest alpha build. Something can trigger the re-load but I haven't figured out what. Also you want to check out Ultima's manual (µManual in my signature). It has a wealth of knowledge.. and it looks cool.

Never seen a reload happen automatically; I tested it using 1.8 and 1.7.5, and any amount of fussing with ipfilter.dat didn't cause a reload...

As I said I haven't been able to figure out what triggers it... Could you poke your head into http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=288763#p288763 and see what you can come up with, I've got no idea whether that type of IGMP response is normal.

It seems to work up to a point. I'm using on Windows Server 2003.

Run-time error '53'

File not found.

The error box appears after:

Successfully created ipfilter.dat (6034961 bytes)

There is no ipfilter.dat file after I click okay.

The level1.txt file is intact.

It's a stupid thing to do anyway. Those blocklists are worthless.

I guess they changed the archive so that it extracts to level1 instead of level1.txt. I just fixed it in version 1.02.

Firon why do you think they are worthless? I've never had a problem from using them. I don't know if I would have had a problem had I not used them, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

An article in which the effectiveness of blocklists was tested, states that of the Media Defender IPA's leaked, very few were in the sample taken from blocklists, coupled with the fact that IPA's change, makes using blocklists a game of cat and mouse, in which we are on the loosing side. Coupled with the fact that Bluetack blocks legitimate sites including a couple anti-virus update servers, makes them quite ineffective. The people at Bluetack can't be trusted to make a list, and from what I can tell forum members reject them due to the claim blocklists keep you safe, when they can't accomplish any such thing. Somewhat helpful perhaps, but also VERY hurtful.

I think you're referring to blocking is useless

The idiots at bluetack don't deserve the (sometimes blind) faith people give them... For instance, utorrent was/is on there.

And this is always exciting to see http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1187767&postcount=14

I am .

Yeah I realize it's not going to block all of them but something is better than nothing right? I'm not worried about it blocking websites because the generated ipfilter.dat is only being used on utorrent.

... The only useful ipfilter.dat is one you make yourself. Otherwise you're likely cutting yourself off from potential peers.

I will say this however. People who use ipfilter.dat in utorrent are more "protected" as uT won't allow or connect to peers on the list whereas for using peerguardian it blocks/kills the connections AFTER they are made.

It's up to the user, but the fact remains, for ANY organization to add update servers for a KNOWN anti-virus vendor without ANY corroboration AND with the sentiments the heirarchy in said organization apparently feel towards other human beings..... they deserve any and all bad press they get.

Requi3m - thanks for the updated RAR, I just tested it and it is working correctly. The ipfilter.dat is saving to C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\utorrent - My ipfilter.dat is actually in c:\program files\uTorrent but I prefer to merge your output file with my own blocklist since I block bad clients as well. Blocking all those ranges does have its disadvantages, but you're less likely to receive takedown notices from media companies. If you choose to play, at least you're in the cat and mouse game, versus not playing at all.

Is there a better method to minimize risk that doesn't cost money? EFF says leech and stop your torrent right after your download is complete.

FYI, ESET categorized PeerGuardian as malware when it clearly is not. Bluetack blocking ESET is a reasonable counter to the miscategorization.

ESET vs. Peer Guardian issue has been addressed...The reason as discussed at te Peer Guardian forums is that because Peer Guardian blocked ESET from updating at regular intervals, it was considered Malware by the company. I would too if a program started blocking proper updates of my system protection...According to the forum info however this has been addressed and the programs now play well together, ESET updates.. and Peer Guardian stays...The SourceForge servers actually went down last week and stayed down for quite some time only issuing blank files, blocking 0 IP's...They offered Bluetack support for all lists and then some and if I am not mistaken, the servers are now back up.. Right now with all of this..LOL.. I am currently blocking 1,357,101,765 IP's total...Plus I am using the IP Filter List..

I think an auto-updater is a great idea, but it would be cool to be able to change and add more than one list..

Actually, Bluetack blocked ESET, PeerGuardian uses their lists.

Peer Guardian 2 is likely to prevent any outgoing connections from leaving your computer OR incoming connections from reaching uTorrent...but it won't prevent the attempts on both ends, so it's "wasteful" in terms of cpu and networking.

uTorrent will not even attempt outgoing connections to ips in the ipfilter.dat and will block incoming attempts...though they may still be able to detect a computer is on that connection. The same would likely be true even with Peer Guardian 2.

Nice tool, however I am not so sure that it works:

Just enabled ipfilter.dat in uTorrrent, ran the tool, reloaded ipfilter.dat from the peer list (rightclick)

When running PeerGuardian (updated block list) in addition to utorrent (with ipfilter.dat) I would somehow expect, that there are no more blocked events in the PeerGuardian log, at least no outgoing connections from my IP to banned IPs. But there are plenty.

Also I restarted uTorrent, but in the PG2 log there are still blocked outgoing events

Am I missing something here? Or is there either an error in the generated ipfilter.dat file or in uTorrent?

Thx

(BTW: I checked: the newly generated ipfilter.dat file (5.92MB) is in the application data directory)

I don't know. I'm pretty sure you have to enable Verbose Logging to see connections in 1.7, in 1.8 all you have to do is select the appropriate option in Logger->Peer Traffic ... Turn on in/out connections and blocked connections to see what uT is doing, and compare it to your PG log.