I use bittorrent to download lots of things and every time I begin to download ANYTHING my entire internet shuts off for about 5 minutes then it is able to recconnect with a new ip address. I have tried encrypting the traffic routing through proxies and changing the default ports used for downloads but nothing seems to help. I suspect my ISP (AT&T - Dallas, TX) is doing this because of suspected piracy.

Does anyone know if this is true and are there ways to stop them? Thanks!