Answering Your Question
I can answer your question, but if you would like details, I would have to know who your ISP (Internet service provider) is.
Tor Browser, simply put, is a repackaging of Mozilla Firefox configured for the Tor SOCKS5 proxy and maximum anonymity. When you click a magnet link, Tor Browser should warn you that an external application would open.
The external application is your BitTorrent client (Vuze, uTorrent, Transmission, etc.), which is probably not configured to use Tor. Your ISP can still see that you are downloading torrents.
More Grave Concerns?
When you wrote,
I have recently received a message on my computer
and
I have spoken to those who claim to be the admins
something seemed amiss to me. Did you mean that you received an email? If ISPs are to notify you that you are violating their terms of service, they ought to notify you reliably.
If you received a popup on your computer, then more than likely, a virus is tricking you into thinking that your ISP is going to terminate your Internet service.
You should know who your Internet service provider is, so you should also know how they send you notifications about their service. If you received an email, check the sender for authenticity. A fake email can be identified by lots of misspellings, a suspicious "From:" field, low quality JPEG images, mysterious links, etc.
Furthermore, I've never heard of people who work for ISPs call themselves "admins". Every time I call AT&T or Time Warner Cable, they connect me to "representatives". That's another suspicious hint.
Sifting through hundreds of old forum posts is not fun. So: here is what I did, for future reference.
- Update cable modem firmware. Call your ISP and ask them to push a firmware update to your cable modem. If you already have max download speed on a wired connection, you may not need to do this. But it should set you up for the best possible speed.
- Update your router firmware. The process varies by model.
- For my Netgear 6200 you can do Advanced -> Router Update -> Check
- Disable 2.4 GHz if you don't need it. This depends on the space you need to broadcast to, and what devices you use. But if you have a small space and newer devices, you may not need it.
- Disable "20 Hz/40 Hz compatibility mode"
- For Netgear 6200 this is: Advanced -> Advanced Setup -> Wireless Settings -> "Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence"
- Enable WMM (Wi-Fi multimedia) settings
- For Netgear 6200: Advanced -> Setup -> QoS Setup -> "Enable WMM (Wi-Fi multimedia)"
- Select the right WiFi channel. I used my phone and a wireless scanner app to see which channels were the best nearby. I kept changing channels and running a speed test until I found one that worked the best. For me it ended up being the highest channel, but your case may vary.
Strangely: when I did tests before updating the router firmware, turning WMM off actually made the wireless speed improve, but only from 16 Mbps to 18 Mbps. Once I updated the firmware, turning WMM on was much better, jumping from 26 Mbps to 64 Mbps.
Hope this helps someone else!
Best Answer
Many home routers are not that granular to allow blocking of download ports, and I checked your manual, but I was surprised to find yours could.
You have a number of options on pages 39-42 below, but the one I would go for is:
If he does change the port he uses to one of the lower ports, simply block every IP address except yours from even getting on the Internet, and tell him it will stay that way until he stops downloading, at least when you are home.
http://www.tp-link.com/english/soft/200943083466.pdf (pages 39-42)