PeerBlock is a free and open-sourcepersonal firewall that blocks packets coming from, or going to, a maintained list of blacklisted hosts.[2] PeerBlock is the Windows successor to the software PeerGuardian (which is currently maintained only for Linux).[3] It blocks incoming and outgoing connections to IP addresses that are included on blacklists (made available on the Internet), and to addresses specified by the user.[3] PeerBlock mainly uses blacklists provided by iblocklist.com.[4]
Development
PeerBlock 1.0 is based on the same code as PeerGuardian 2 RC1 Test3 Vista version.[3] It adds support for 32- and 64-bitWindows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. When the PeerGuardian project ended, its developer Phoenix Labs encouraged current PeerGuardian users to migrate to PeerBlock.[5]
PeerBlock is under development by a small team of developers led by Mark Bulas.[6] Hosting, as well as the signeddriver, is funded by donations from the public. Future donations are intended to contribute to future signed drivers, hosting and to possibly rent a virtual private server on which the team should be able to build a "real" online-update feature for future releases of PeerBlock.
Features
PeerBlock has added multiple features in the latest version of the program. Such as a constantly updating blocklist managed by the home site and a manager that lets you choose which lists to include in the block.[7] The program allows for a user to turn on and off both IP and HTTP trackers as well as including a log showing the time, source, IP address, destination, and protocol of the tracker. A list of settings allows users to both customize their program's interface as well as its operations.[citation needed][8]
Until September 2013, I-Blocklist, the supplier of the blocking lists PeerBlock uses, supported unlimited free list updating. Since September 2013 updates were limited to once weekly, except to paid subscribers. PeerBlock is hard-coded to use I-Blocklist lists and has entered into a revenue-sharing agreement with I-Blocklist.[9] In late 2015 blocklists were no longer available without payment of a subscription.[10]
^Chen, Xi; Kai Lin; Biao Wang; Zhe Yang. "Active measurements on bittorrent and emule ecosystem over the internet". 2nd International Conference on Consumer Electronics, Communications and Networks.