How does the provider know when I'm using a torrent?

Question

VPN

We are talking about the countries of the developed west. Can and in what cases can providers see the use of torrents? Watching movies online on any sites? Is it safe to browse sites over https? In this case, you can only see the access to the site without traffic content, right?

Answer 1

1. Detection of torrents
For this, telecom operators, as a rule, use one of the DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) solutions - a piece of iron that is able to get into the L7 layer of the OSI model and understand what it is.
Unencrypted protocols (HTTP, FTP), and DPI sees and parses without problems.
In the case of torrents and some streaming services, one has to use heuristics: indirect signs that are more or less characteristic of the detected service.
In addition to the usual protocol (TCP / UDP), ip-addresses and port numbers, the following are used:
- typical byte sequences
- numerical and temporal characteristics of traffic (in the spirit of "first three packets of 70 bytes, then a pause of 100-350 ms, then transfer from speed 100-200 kbps")
2. HTTPS
In the TLS level, starting from version 1.1, recently used in HTTPS for encryption, there is an SNI (Server Name Indication) extension, in the fields of which the domain name of the site is transmitted in clear text.
Actually, the operator can peep the name of the site there and can, although he will never know the full URL and content of the pages, without having the private key of the site.

Answer 2

looking inside the packet or channel. when creating a torrent transmission channel, there are standard bit sequences that precisely define the type of transmission. there are similar markers in the utp package.
Inside the https channel, everyone who has encryption keys to it has access. In Kazakhstan, the possibility of state structures to be introduced into any https channel through mitm is legally prescribed.
Accessing a site without traffic content is like ?? so then they go to the site for some content ??

Answer 3

for 1.5$ buy ru vps, set up vpn and download torrents
https://github.com/jlund/streisand