Blocking applications from accessing the internet

FreheitOverture

Basically I am trying to prevent my flatmates from using torrent programs such as BitTorrent and uTorrent to download music and applications illegally from the internet. So far I have managed to block access to most torrent sites through the router, however the actual torrent programs can still connect to the internet.

I have a Thomson Gateway and was wondering how I should go about blocking the access to these programs. I assume it has something to do with port blocking but am not sure where to start

FreheitOverture

Cheers. I have turned that off, although not sure if it will make any difference. She isnt particularly tech savvy and I know that with most torrent programs you have to manually enter the port number to use. She probably wont have a clue.

Any further suggestions would be great

deejayen

You could try blocking them [The Programs] with your Firewall - assuming you have one running --
-- Dave

kevsan

You could try using opendns.

It should allow you to blacklist sites by type / or name etc.

opendns.com

trcooke

Blocking 6881-6889 probably won't slow them down for long. Any self respecting BitTorrenter will change the ports to something else as they all know that ISP's have a habit of throttling traffic on these ports because they are the default BitTorrent ports. By default router firewalls are generally set to block all incoming connections but allow all outgoing. Try blocking all outgoing connections above 1724 (I think) and then open only those which you need for your applications such as IM etc.