One of the biggest problems with using an IPFilter to block bad IPs in a BitTorent client or other P2P software is remembering to update it. An IPFilter is only as good as the provider, and how often the list is updated by both you and the supplier of the list. Blocklists & ipfilter.dat files don’t update themselves automatically – but here’s a cool new utility that now makes it possible with just one mouse-click! Introducing IPFilter Updater – a tiny script that you can use to update a blocklist for virtually any torrent client.

It’s always been somewhat of a nuisance to remember to update your ipfilter.dat file. Old lists won’t recognize new threats, so it’s fairly important to keep it current. The IPFilter µpdater is a sophisticated, yet very straight-forward and simple batch script to automatically update your ipfilter for most BitTorrent clients.

• http://ipfilterupdater.sourceforge.net

µTorrent

The µpdater package for µTorrent will, by default, extract itself to the variable ‘%AppData%\uTorrent’ folder and will create a shortcut on the desktop. Clicking the shortcut will launch the µpdater batch file. When the update/download is successful, (re)start µTorrent and you will see a new entry under the ‘Logger’ tab saying: ‘Loaded ipfilter.dat’. If the ipfilter is disabled, go to Preferences -> Advanced -> scroll to ‘ipfilter.enable’ -> double click -> apply. From now on, all you have to do to update your filter is clicking the desktop shortcut.

Halite

The µpdater package for Halite will, by default, extract itself to the variable ‘%ProgramFiles%\Halite’ folder and will create a shortcut on the desktop. Clicking the shortcut will launch the µpdater batch file. When the download/update is successful, (re)start Halite and go to Settings -> Security tab -> click ‘Import ipfilter.dat’ -> Browse to the Halite installation folder and select ‘ipfilter.dat’. You will have to do this manually every time there’s an update, because Halite uses it’s own system for storing an ipfilter.

BitSpirit

The µpdater package for BitSpirit will, by default, extract itself to the variable ‘%ProgramFiles%\BitSpirit\config’ folder and will create a shortcut on the desktop. Clicking the shortcut will launch the µpdater batch file. When the update/download is successful, (re)start BitSpirit and you will see a new ‘IPFilter.dat’ entry in the General tab. From now on, all you have to do to update your filter is clicking the desktop shortcut.

Vuze

The µpdater package for Vuze will, by default, extract itself to the variable folder ‘%ProgramFiles%\Vuze’ and will create a shortcut on the desktop. Clicking the shortcut will launch the µpdater batch file. When the download/update is successful, (re)start Vuze and seek the ‘IP Filters’ tab in Preferences. Now select the ipfilter.dat from the Vuze installation folder to autoload (e.g., ‘C\Program Files\Vuze\ipfilter.dat’). From now on, all you have to do to update your filter is clicking the desktop shortcut.

BitTorrent

The µpdater package for the official BitTorrent client will, by default, extract itself to the variable ‘%AppData%\BitTorrent’ folder. Clicking the shortcut will launch the µpdater batch file. When the update/download is successful, restart BitTorrent and you will see a new entry under the ‘Logger’ tab saying: ‘Loaded ipfilter.dat’. If the ipfilter is disabled, go to Preferences -> Advanced -> scroll to ‘ipfilter.enable’ -> double click -> apply. From now on, all you have to do to update your filter is clicking the desktop shortcut.

Other Clients

In theory the µpdater could work for any applications that supports an ipfilter in .dat format. But, it isn’t always necessary. If you like to use the eDonkey network, for example, we recommend the eMule 0.49c MorphXT mod, which has excellent ipfilter updating support embedded.

Our Tests: Vista 32-bit

When installing for Vuze and uTorrent, desktop shortcuts were not created under Vista (in our tests). For uTorrent, the updater does indeed work as planned, but we needed to manually find and run the updater (called µpdater.bat) which is located in the uTorrent appdata directory: (C:\Users\<your name>\Appdata\Roaming\uTorrent).

Our Tests: WinXP

Works flawlessly for XP under all clients. NOTE: If running more than one BT client on the PC, the desktop shortcut will only update the last client that you downloaded it for (not all BT clients that are installed). A way around this is to rename each shortcut, and give each a different name such as µpdater-utorrent and µpdater-vuze after each download. Then you can run each specific updater for a chosen client.