P2P Security, Also router question Options

[Timbo]

What are the best ways to maximize p2p security/privacy these days?

Also, I recently got Cox cable and it would appear that using the router I normally use with my connections appears to break the internet. I've read a bit about this issue, and am not certain what to do. Albeit, this is relatively little information to diagnose the problem, I find myself a bit frustrated that this would happen. Router is a Linksys router with fully updated firmware.

[pebkac]

Does it happen all the time or does it work for a little while and then quit?

If it works and then quits, you probably need to cap the number of peers you're connecting to via bittorrent. What you have to understand is that when you download a torrent, you can easily connect to literally hundreds of peers in a few seconds. Since the router can only handle so many connections at once, you'll probably notice that the connection will die off.

If it's happening all the time, my guess is that the router would be misconfigured. Since it's Cox, you want to make sure it's configured to get your IP address automatically. You may want to call Linksys and figure out the best way to configure it. Cox will probably be less than helpful about it since they want you to buy their home networking solution (if they're like most ISPs).