1. Introduction
Thanks to YiQi, we confirmed that tmnet is blocking bittorrent based on user-agents. So if you change the user agent, you will be able to connect to trackers. We can achieve this by using a proxy server which allows use to change the HTTP header.

Sounds complex? Well it isn't really. I went around looking for proxy servers for windows which can do this for free (no need for cracks and shit). I came across PAW, I've tested it and it works THIS WILL NOT SOLVE THE THROTTLING PROBLEM. It only allows you to connect to the tracker, a slow download is better than no download

2. Installation & Setup

2.1 PAW
Perform the following steps

• Download the "paw_release_0.27.zip" zip file. .
  Mirror 1: Rapidshare
  
• unzip it to wherever you like
• run "startServer.bat"

Now you got the proxy server running.


2.2 Proxomitron
Alternatively, you can use another software called proxomitron. To set it up, follow the instructions here. Thanks to newbieockids for the alternative method.

3. Configuration

3.1 Proxy Server
If you want to change the port number, go to "conf/server.xml". You can change the username and password there too (recommended).

For those of you who downloaded paw from sourceforge, you will need to edit a file before it will work. run "startGUI.bat". This will load the admin GUI. Then edit according to the following screenshot:



If editing through the GUI doesn't work for you, go to "conf/headers-request". The file doesn't have an extension, open it with notepad or any text editor. And edit according to the screenshot above.

Here's a list of possible user-agents to use:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent_string#Browsers

3.2 Bittorrent Client
So now to configure your bittorrent client.

server: localhost
port: 8080 (default)

I'll show you a screenshot of utorrent's configuration.


4. Conclusion
And now you should be able to connect to trackers Remember, this DOES NOT improve your download speed, it just enables you to connect to trackers.

5. Problems & Solutions

1. Can't run startServer.bat, it automatically closes!
   Your JAVA version might be outdated or broken. Go download the latest JAVA version and try again.
   
2. Getting error 404 proxy offline
   Try restarting your client. It worked for LEVIATHAN. If you're still getting the error, we'll try to find the problem.
   
3. Getting error 500
   Try downloading the torrent file again. If that doesn't work, set a user-agent instead of leaving it blank. The instructions are given above.

Edit: updated download file, since the attachment is corrupted.
Edit2: Thx to MX510 for putting up a rapidshare link. Also fixed the layout of the first post.

This post has been edited by silverhawk: Jan 21 2007, 08:37 PM

run "startGUI.bat" (server must be running)
in the left panel, click on files -> headers-request

you will see a few "#user-agent: blablabla"
make one of them
"user-agent: ";

this makes it empty, and thus removed from the HTTP request header. You can put anyname you like "user-agent: d3x".

edit: updated the download file. Used my own server instead of LYNs.

This post has been edited by silverhawk: Jan 18 2007, 02:01 PM

If I'm not mistaken, you could always connect to international peers/seeders. The block was on the tracker. Since i had a few torrents where i was connected to the peers but not the tracker.

You need to connect to the tracker or you wont be able to get an updated peer/seeder list. This method allows you to connect to the international trackers.

Nope, your bandwidth is still throttled... but at least you can connect to trackers.

Yeap. That's the proxy server. If your close it, the proxy server will stop running, and thus you won't be able to connect to the tracker. A little annoying that you have to have a window open for it, but if you want to use your BT... then its an inconvenience you have to get used to.

What does the tracker status say when you try to connect?

I assume you've started the proxy server. Try running "startGUI.bat" to see if the proxy server is really running. If "localhost" doesn't work, try "127.0.0.1". Out of curiosity, are you connected using a modem or router? Not sure if it'll affect anything, but might be worth knowing.

If you can't connect to trackers, your torrents will have a red icon instead of a blue one. If the tracker status says "connection closed by peer", then this would help solve it. If your error is something else, then this solution might not work for you.

This post has been edited by silverhawk: Jan 18 2007, 05:07 PM

admin/paw
you can change it in the "conf/server.xml" file.

Hmm I'm also behind a router, and no problems on my end. To test if the proxy is working, set up firefox to use your own proxy and try surfing. If sites load means your proxy is working.

I have no idea why you're getting a 404 error though.

If XP says the file is still running, open your task manager and kill the process manually. If you don't have any other java apps running, you'll see the process as "java.exe"

Your steps wrong liao, you're supposed to run "startServer.bat" before you run "startGUI.bat". In either case, you don't really need to open startGUI.bat. Only "startServer.bat" is important.


Means there's an error. Open the command prompt. Go to where you unzipped paw and run the startServer.bat file from there. You would be able to see the error now. The command prompt would look something like this



Check your firewall settings on your PC and on your router. Instead of spending time setting up different rules for testing, just disable the firewalls. If the proxy works, then we know its a firewall setting. If not, the problem lies elsewhere. So lets hunt it down

As for those who asked about using PAW as a socks4/5 proxy. Sorry PAW is a HTTP proxy, it doesn't handle socks4/5. It wouldn't really matter anyway as tmnet checks the actual packet. Even encrypted connections have problems.

To those who have problems with this, try downloading the latest JAVA version. Document the steps you have done and post them here if it still doesn't work. Then we can hunt for the problem.

Lets keep this topic about BT proxy connection and not go off topic discussing other areas where tmnet is blocking us.

This post has been edited by silverhawk: Jan 19 2007, 08:02 PM

No authentication is required unless you set it up that way. By default, connection doesn't require username/password.

Its running, as you can see you're connected to the tracker. You got a list of seeds and peers. However you're not connected to any of them.

Hmm, try setting the user-agent to the same one as firefox or something similar. At the moment the user-agent is removed completely. Setting a user-agent might bypass this problem.

Read the first post, the instructions on changing the user-agent is there.

I'll add it to the first post

I'll see if i can find a way to fix that.

supadupa, are you connected to the tracker? If so then this solution has worked for you already. If you cannot connect to international peers, that's another problem.

I'm also starting to face problems connecting to international peers. I'll be checking the packets sent and received by bittorrent to see what's happening. Hopefully we can find a way to bypass this.

My networking knowledge is actually pretty basic. Doing this is actually teaching me alot Hopefully someone with better networking knowledge can lend a hand.

As i asked you before, can you connect to the tracker? This isn't going to help you in your peer connections or speed.

I'm having the same problem atm, trying to find a way around it.

An offline tracker means the tracker is down. Most modern BT clients have "peer exchange" or "DHT" which allows you to download without the tracker. To put it simply, if you've connected to the tracker before, your client keeps a list of seeds/peers which it can use if the tracker goes down.

Default configuration for most firewalls would allow port 8080. You should check it though.

I'm having the same problem too. It will connect to local peers in the list, but not to international peers. Still havent figured out a way to solve this problem.

No, that's not normal.


It seems your bittorrent can't even connect to port 20000. Try disabling UPnP and do your port forwarding manually.

Just Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.01; Windows 98)