Qbittorrent: IPFilter - URL Support, Automatic Updates, additional formats, UI updates and more

[RanceJustice]

Wishlist - As of version 3.0, qBT's IP Filter is missing a number of a key features to facilitate better security and ease of use -

1. Blocklist URL support. At the moment, qBT will only recognize a locally stored blocklist file. Thus, the user must go through the tedious task of manually navigating to and downloading a blocklist file to a local machine every time they wish to update. Please add the ability for a user to link to a remote blocklist via URL, such as those provided by "I-Blocklist".
2. Automatic Updates - Currently, users must manually click the "reload the filter" button in order to update or add to the blocklist. This is another tedious task that could be avoided if qBT supported automatic reloading/updating. For instance, users could set qBT to (combined with the aforementioned feature) download and import an updated blocklist from the indicated location, upon various schedules and events as per user preference. I suggest options for "Update at Client Startup", Daily Update, Update every 2 Days, 3 Days, 5 Days, Weekly Update, Monthly Update to give users flexibility, in addition to allowing them to manually reload/update whenever they wish.
3. Filter Formats - qBT does not support any archive filter formats currently. As many blocklist sources use compression, this can be troublesome. Offering support for existing filter formats such as .dat, etc... inside .zip, .gz , .7z archives will make users experience easier.

4 . UI updates - At the moment there isn't a way to "browse" or see information about the IP Filter at current. The most the user can see is if they enable the log, they can see IPs blocked because of the filter. I would suggest a more comprehensive UI, such as one that allows the user to see how many current rules are in the blocklist (this could also be listed on the bottom of the main window next to where DHT Nodes are currently listed. There could also be a number in parentheses that would indicate how many IPs have been blocked that session. So if the IP Filter has 500,000 rules and there have been 11 blocks so far in the session the area could read "IP Filter: 500,000 (11) " or similar). There could also be a "browseable" list of the current ruleset , basically visualizing the blocklist data (both the IPs themselves and the comments listed) which could be manually interacted with to delete or add an entry. Perhaps the IP Filter should have its own tab in the options menu?

1. More extensive ideas - The above I consider necessary for feature parity with other highly regarded clients, but for qBT to really stand out perhaps, either as a plugin or as part of the IP filter functionality, there could be a user friendly "blocklist selector" that would give users who don't want/know how to find a blocklist for import, to have another option. A "prefab" selection of list URLs would be present and users could add one or more of them to their queue, meaning that those lists will be downloaded and imported with whatever automated frequency the user selects (see: 2). Information about each list would be present to help the user make the decision.

The addition of these features will help bring qBT's IP Filter to parity with other highly regarded open source clients such as Transmission, Deluge, Ktorrent, and Vuze/Azureus. Thank you.

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[futwick]

I agree 100% with every one of these suggestions, especially 1-3.

[sledgehammer999]

Just a question why don't use programs like:

PeerBlock for Windows
Pgl(peerguardian linux) for linux?

These programs will control ip traffic universally and you wont have to enable each p2p program's ipfilter.

[RanceJustice]

I actually wrote about this on the qBT forums when the issue came up -

"Peerblock and similar projects can be useful, but they can ultimately become more troublesome than not when applied to general use. For instance, I may not want my torrent client to be connecting to a known Time Warner IP block, but browsing to Comcast account pages on Firefox to see about an upgrade isn't an issue. In addition, I often run many a client from a box designed to act as NAS/LAN Server etc... and being able to configure the blocklist from within the client (with a WebUI I can turn on and off at will) as opposed to having to run PeerBlock/PeerGuardian on the box itself, have a way to get to it remotely and "manage" it so that it won't impede any of the other actions etc.. Peerblock can often be a sledge when I need a very particular watchmaker's mallet."

[sledgehammer999]

Ok. I just want to mention that you can specifically allow http traffic for every IP even the blacklisted ones. And on pgl you can whitelist whatever port/service(eg ftp) you want for every IP.

[RanceJustice]

I know that is possible, but its a ton more trouble and time consuming. If I have specific things that I want to whitelist or blacklist I can add them to my firewall or other forms of protocol control and connection, but the kind of blocking and whatnot I want when using file sharing software typically I don't want under any other circumstances. Its much more efficient simply to have a blocklist that is swiftly and automatically updated, protects my privacy and whatnot where I need it; refusing connections to the most-up-to-date-as-possible list of potential "bad" IPs when I'm running BitTorrent (in this context), without impeding anything else I am trying to do.

I really hope that qBT can add the functionality I listed above soon, to make it a choice for users who want a full featured, user focused, open source, secure/private, BitTorrent client

[DenyDarko]

The only thing that IP Filtering offers in a torrent client is false sense of security.
Nothing more, nothing less.

My opinion: Remove this once and for all and just keep a simple internal local database for manually banned peers.

[RanceJustice]

I completely disagree. IP Filtering is much like using anti-malware programs in that it isn't going to provide 100% protection, nor is a license to purposely engage in risky behavior thinking yourself untouchable, but it provide a moderate to significant protection over using nothing at all. The quality and protection of an IP Filter list in a torrent client is greatly based upon the source list and how frequently/completely it is updated; users that can frequently update their own blocklist from quality sources with ease will have the most protection. Some (in many cases, a significant increase ) protection is better than none. There are many users who can attest that prior to adding blocklists they received warning letters from ISPs or accusations from content-cartel thugs, yet with blocklists enabled and frequently updated, this ceased - if the "bad guys" can't connect to you, they can't assert you're sharing the 'correct' material to others.

This is one reason I feel it is imperative for qBT to maintain a IP Filtering featureset that is comprehensive, to make it as easy as possible for users to update frequently from the best sources. If you don't like the idea of a blocklist you're welcome not to use it, but I think the option should be there with the same features and quality of many other high-end open source clients, to make qBittorrent the best it can be!

[UrbanPotato]

PeerBlock and PeerGurdian cause more issues then they solve I agree with the OP block-lists should be limited to the torrent client its self and nothing more

[xnoreq]

_thumbs up_ for point 1) to 3).

[sledgehammer999]

Referencing #1012 here.

[typhoon71]

Sorry if I dig up this old thread, but I wanted to knopw wha happened to the support of .gz blocklist and automatic updating. I see this is not closed and has (quasi) recent activity, so is it planned? Thanks.

[sledgehammer999]

AFAIK no one is working on this ATM.

[Forceflow]

I'll fork and look into it, the support for gzip files should be an easy fix using https://docs.python.org/2/library/gzip.html

[romainguinot]

support for archives / automatic downloader etc would be nice but can be dealt with an external script, scheduled by cron.

However, support for automatic reload of the local filter (or a way to trigger the update externally through a script via e.g. a DBus call or similar ) would be really useful.

[UrbanPotato]

not everybody runs linux or whats to screw with external scripts

[seth100]

+1 for automatic filters list update

[BeepBoopBap]

+1 for this suggestion

[kaizokan]

+1 for the automatic URL updating and visual indication of blocks
Deluge for example already has a default blocklist feature with these options, but we want to use qBittorent instead : )

[Balls0fSteel]

@sledgehammer999 Should we break this report up? I mean it's three+ things in one ticket. Some may be easier to implement, some may be harder. I will look into the gz/format reading.

[Cruysen]

There is a other project on Github:
http://davidmoore.github.io/ipfilter/
This little program does an automatic update of the Ipfilter.dat file. Maybe implement this project in the Qbittorrent project?

[oleghristov]

+1 again in 2019

[webrockers]

+1

[Balls0fSteel]

To be honest, blocklists should not be used at all. They only hurt the swarms, and hurt the Bittorrent community. It offers you 0 protection whatsoever, except you block thousands of mostly legit addresses.

If you want to protect yourself, use a VPN or SOCKS5.
But using blocklists will only hurt swarms. :( Don't do it if you want p2p, Bittorrent to survive.

[sledgehammer999]

Out of curiosity, nowadyas is there a public URL for an ipfilter filter?

[xavier2k6]

Out of curiosity, nowadyas is there a public URL for an ipfilter filter?

@sledgehammer999 I use this ipfilter from emule-security

usually rename the file from guarding.p2p to ipfilter.dat & load it in to qbittorrent to apply the rules as for some reason leaving it as guarding.p2p parses the file but applies "0" rules.