Block p2p downloading in my office?

"Try opendns.com, sign up, add your identified IP address, check off what you want to block, and be sure to add the OpenDNS dns addresses to your linksys router...usually on the first page in the router. Make sure you have secure login/pw assigned to your linksys and of course a good pw for opendns.

Go here to get instructions for your router: store.opendns.com/setup/router/

Also...if your provider gives you dynamic IP, you will need to check on the frequency of the IP address change and change your settings occasionally otherwise you are blocking nothing when it changes."

"Try opendns.com, sign up, add your identified IP address, check off what you want to block, and be sure to add the OpenDNS dns addresses to your linksys router...usually on the first page in the router. Make sure you have secure login/pw assigned to your linksys and of course a good pw for opendns.

Go here to get instructions for your router: store.opendns.com/setup/router/

Also...if your provider gives you dynamic IP, you will need to check on the frequency of the IP address change and change your settings occasionally otherwise you are blocking nothing when it changes."

"Should be pretty easy. For most Linksys routers it'll be something like this: Go to the admin interface of your router, (just point your web browser at the router. I think it defaults to 192.168.1.1, but you should be able to tell from your pc by using ""tracert google.com"": the router should be the first entry) and click on the tab that says, ""Access Restrictions"" and under that you should see a couple of tabs that say ""Blocked Services"" with a button underneath that says ""Add/Edit Service""

Click the Add/Edit button, and put in the range of ports you want to block. Limewire defaults to 6346.

Unfortunately the off-the-shelf versions don't allow fine grained control. If you post your router hardware model, I'll check for updated firmwares. If you can find something that offers full IPTables support, you can do port whitelisting, which is the best way to go...Block EVERYTHING except the stuff you want.

@Nik: Yep, you're right. But this is about all you can do with an off-the-shelf linksys. Setting up bandwidth throttling and such requires configuring an actual proxy, and that pretty much requires a server, and a whole boat load of knowledge (or a bunch of ready cash).

If I was going to do it, I'd set up a squid proxy to throttle by content, and if that didn't work, I'd just throttle the hell out of my problem users (or fire them)."

"If you control the machines in the office, then rather than trying to block the ports on the router, why don't you just block the P2P application in Windows firewall?

As it works at the application level rather than at the ports/protocols level. Then the application is blocked regardless of what port it's trying to use.

Note: If the application is not listed in the list, you can add it to the list by using the Add Program button at the bottom of this window."