[TomD22]

My ISP throttles all traffic that doesn't use HTTP ports to 20kBps.

This is obviously very, very annoying, not least when I want to use bittorrent.

I have enough spare parts around the place to build a basic machine. I am thinking of putting some Linux distro on it, turning it into a VPN server and putting it between the rest of the machines and the internet. I am forced to be using a BT HomeHub wireless router to link them all together, and act as a modem. If necessary I also have a spare wireless router as well, if needed.

Will this even work? Can I use a VPN like that to turn miscellaneous traffic on various ports into all HTTP traffic? I am pretty much a newbie to this, so would appreciate some advice on whether it's foolish or not before trying....

Cheers

[zx10guy]

No. A VPN is used to tunnel traffic through an encrypted tunnel from one end point to another. A VPN here has no purpose. You need a proxy type service but it's still not going to work here either. If you convert all your web traffic to use port 80 coming out of the proxy, you need to have a corresponding proxy server on the other end which will break out the connection to the real ports the target internet server is operating on.

[TomD22]

Hmmm. I guess I've misunderstood it, then. Thanks for the reply