Ok, so with the news from BBC this morning that UK file sharers are to be given 3 strikes and your out notices (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7522334.stm) - what do people think the pro's and con's are to using services like TOR or anonymous proxy servers? Obviously sharing copyrighted files is illegal but how are the ISP's going to physically monitor P2P traffic and then telling legal content from illegal content would require them to snoop traffic (warrant anyone?)? I have, for example already changed my P2P software to a non-default port. With TOR encrypting the traffic only through the TOR and not at either end, would the ISP be able to detect P2P traffic before it entered TOR and tell where it is coming from? Likewise with proxy servers. What is everyones opinion on this? Regards d Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 2x1Gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800Mhz Sapphire x1950Pro 160Gb Seagate Baracuda 500W FSP Bluestorm PSU

what do people think the pro's and con's are to using services like TOR or anonymous proxy servers? Think about this..... The ISP's are talking about doing this. Your ISP is between you and the online proxy. (Just in case you don't get it, if your ISP wants to monitor your traffic and it's unencrypted, they see it before it ever gets to the anonymous proxy service so they can easily see what you're doing and shut you down. In plain english, the online proxy won't help you if your ISP decides to go after you) Something like TOR may help hide exactly what you're doing from your ISP, but, if they decide to monitor bandwidth usage, then you're still in trouble even if you do hide exactly what type of traffic it is because if you're using exhorbitant amounts of bandwidth it becomes rather obvious you're a thief engaged in illegal file trading.

I agree, you should keep away from criminals, and crooked activities. The crooks the run those things are likely to also steal from you. Spyware, virus and other malware would not be unlikely. May sound bad but honesty is the best policy. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10