Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Bypass Bandwidth Throttling for Android

Since mid-January 2014, Globe has been a limiting their postpaid "UNLIMITED" Data Plans to 1GB/day or 3GB/month. Not to mention the massive slowdown in P2P downloads. There are 2 methods to avoid this:


METHOD 1: USING SPOTFLUX:

This method makes use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

1. Download an app called "Spotflux" on the Play Store. 
Link Here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotflux.android&hl=en

2. Open the app. There are some introductions on the first run so just go along with that. Notice the red icon above. That indicates the status of your VPN (DISABLED).

CLICK "ENABLE".





















3. The red icon should turn green now, together with a key icon.





















4. Exit using the "Home" button of your phone (not the "Back" button as some phones close the app when using this).

In your status bar, you should see that Spotflux has been ENABLED, and you have been assigned an IP Address in your VPN.





















5. That should be it. You can now download torrents without Globe noticing you're above their cap nor even passing torrent traffic.

[NOTE: I have only tested this using uTorrent. Some custom torrent apps that initiate torrent downloads for you do not work. You should download .torrent files (...or the use of Magnet Links which is highly recommended) using your mobile browser.]






















METHOD 2: SWARM + ORBOT

Ever heard of The Onion Router (Tor)? This method makes use of that Network. Please be warned that using this method is NOT a good idea. Check this blog post from years ago: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/bittorrent-over-tor-isnt-good-idea.

This combination will make you vulnerable to security and privacy attacks as your (...and pretty much everyone else's) IP will be visible to the whole network. So it's best to get your client connected to a VPN, and your VPN connected to Tor. It's a method I use in desktops, but I still have no idea how to do this using the available apps today. PLEASE DO NOT ABUSE THIS AS YOU WILL BE HOGGING BANDWIDTH FROM THE NETWORK WHILE DOWNLOADING, SO LIMIT YOUR USE.

1. Download Orbot here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject.android
...and Swarm here: http://www.apkmania.co/2012/05/swarm-torrent-client-v1310-apk.html

While "Vidalia" let's you connect to the Tor Network on desktops, "Orbot" does it on Android.
[NOTE: Orbot is best used on rooted devices, but can still support unrooted ones]

"Swarm" is basically just a torrent client only with a support for Orbot. It is not available in the Philippines when using the Play Store. You need to download the .apk and install it yourself.

2. Install both apps.

3. Open Orbot and start it. 





















The onion icon indicates that you're connected to Tor. Having arrows in this icon tells you that an upload/download has been going on. Your gray android should turn yellow when initializing, and becomes a happy green one when all has been successful. You can trace the traffic on your upload/download below.




















4. Open Swarm and open Preferences through Options. Check "Use Tor". This will let you route your traffic through the Tor network to avoid Globe detecting you have P2P traffic.





















5. That sums up everything. You can now download torrent files using the Swarm Torrent Client. This is not as fast as the first method as this depends on the bandwidth of the relay you're connected to, but still you can go undetected and pretty much safe from throttling and capping.