Learn how PrivacySavvy. People keep asking is torrenting safe? And the fact is, all their concerns are for good reasons. Downloading torrents can be a risky affair. Not only can it get you in trouble because of copyright restrictions, but it can lead to severe trouble, such as stumbling across applications, films, or even TV shows that may expose your device to malware, virus, or hackers.
Luckily, covering your tracks while using torrents is not that complicated as you may think. But, as always, free services may be slow and may not provide you with the robust protection that you need for your torrent activities.
However, most of the content on most torrent sites is usually copyrighted material, meaning you might not be allowed to download it, and doing so can be equivalent to breaking the law depending on the country you live in. While the websites store their files in a central server, BitTorrent uses the computers of all the individuals in the file-sharing network to store the files , and hence peer-to-peer computing. The swarm then breaks the files down into small units, making it easy for an individual looking to download a given file to put them back together.
Now, with torrents, the workload gets distributed across the swarm and not a single server. Therefore, your privacy could be at the discretion, making you a soft target for malicious hacking as well as DDoS distributed denial-of-service attacks. However, torrents comes with some backlashes that you should be aware of, read along, and discover dangerous cyber threats associated with torrent downloads. In fact, the biggest risk when it comes to torrenting is associated with copyrighted content.
Since the security agencies and Internet Service Providers ISPs know many folks download copyrighted material, they monitor all the online activities, especially torrent-related ones. Therefore, the torrent users are under constant surveillance from the ISPs who monitor all their activities, as to websites users visit and even what they do on those sites.
Once they discover any copyrighted torrent file or illegal file downloads, your guess is as good as mine; the user faces legal consequences. Once a torrent file has been downloaded and stored, depending on where you store it on your computer, it can lead to giving spammers access to your critical information.
Besides, it opens the door for hackers to access your company data. Once you download, upload, or even share the torrent file, you open the doors for the hackers to collect personal information online.
Besides, you can opt to alter the settings of your system and make all folders password-protected. Another common risk that most torrent users face is malware. What makes it even worse is the fact that you could be downloading a torrent file containing the virus without knowing. Sometimes, they could cause your device to take ages to load files, shut down unexpectedly, too much heating, and even corrupt your other files.
Also, various torrent trackers filter and remove the files that have been reported to contain malicious content. There are several ways that you can use to mitigate the potential torrenting risks , and they include;. Disclaimer : All the tips are provided only to educate general internet users on how they can download torrents without compromising their security.
As a rule of thumb, you should not torrent without a VPN. Think about a VPN first when torrenting, always. A quality VPN will encrypt all the incoming as well as the outgoing internet traffic on your device.
Moreover, torrenting while connected to a VPN that supports P2P traffic prevents the services and websites you visit to track your IP address. Most agencies monitor the popular torrent websites to get to users when they download the torrent; a VPN will block anybody who attempts to unzip those tracks to obtain your real IP address by only providing them with the IP address of the VPN server.
Besides, a VPN will help keep all the hackers at bay so that they cannot obtain your actual IP address for hacking into your system. A good antivirus will help protect against malicious torrents. Windows comes with Windows Defender, which is perfectly sufficient for catching most viruses. You can enable Windows Defender from the Control Panel as long as you don't have any other antivirus program installed.
If you'd prefer, you can install a third-party antivirus instead, such as BitDefender or Kaspersky. Regardless of what you choose, you should only have one antivirus program installed at a time. See How to Install an Antivirus for instructions on picking and installing an antivirus program. Look for torrents with lots of seeders. Lots of seeders generally means that the torrent is free from viruses. This is because others have checked and found no viruses, and then start sharing it.
While this certainly is not a guarantee, it can help you whittle down the list. A lot of seeders will also result in a faster transfer. Check the comments before downloading. This isn't a bullet-proof solution, but the comments section of the torrent can help you determine if it contains any viruses.
If there are a lot of comments but nothing about a potential virus, then chances are better that it doesn't have one. If lots of comments talk about viruses, you probably want to avoid that torrent.
Avoid file types that are prone to viruses. Try not to download torrents for programs, as executable files EXE, BAT are the most common way of transmitting viruses. Cracked programs are the most dangerous files you can download through torrents. Join a private torrent community. If you can get an invite to a private torrent community, you're much less likely to get a torrent with a virus. This is because the torrents are all created and shared by members of that community, so they should be much more trustworthy.
It can be difficult to get into a private community, as you usually need to know someone who can give you an invite. The best way to do this is to be active in various online communities and befriend someone that has access to a torrent community. Part 2. Understand how torrents connect. When you download a torrent file, your IP address is public to anyone else sharing that torrent. This is essential in order for the torrent client to connect to other users, but makes you vulnerable to organizations that track torrent traffic.
These include your internet service provider ISP and copyright enforcement agencies. There are several steps you can take to minimize your risk or prevent your ISP from throttling your speed. Install PeerBlock. PeerBlock is a program that blocks the IP addresses of known torrent trackers.
It prevents your computer from being able to connect to these IP addresses, essentially blocking them from taking part in your torrent traffic. This isn't a surefire way to avoid getting caught, and your ISP will still be able to tell that you're transferring torrents.
You can download PeerBlock for free from peerblock. Follow the prompts to install PeerBlock and launch it. It will automatically work in the background and prevent connections to known bad IP addresses. Use the "P2P" list from Bluetack for basic torrent protection when prompted during initial setup. Consider a VPN service. This will set you back a few dollars a month, but will hide your traffic from any prying eyes. Your ISP will not be able to tell that you're transferring torrent data, and will not throttle your connection.
Organizations that track IP addresses will not be able to see your real IP, and will not be able to send you cease and desist letters. So if you are travelling there and want to torrent freely, this is the right choice for you.
Although these features come with a higher price tag than other VPNs, they are worth it for unlimited and uninterrupted torrenting.
You can try ExpressVPN for yourself before committing to a contract with its day money-back guarantee. Stay safe online with ExpressVPN. With a vast network of servers optimized just for torrenting, CyberGhost is a great choice for safe and easy P2P file sharing.
Optimized servers ensure the fastest download speeds and seamless file sharing. During my tests , I could successfully download a 40GB file in just under 3 hours — an average of an hour less than when I was connected to other VPNs. Since servers closer to me had higher load more people utilizing it , connecting to them slowed down my speeds.
CyberGhost allows you to download files while staying protected for free for 45 days! PrivateVPN has no bandwidth restrictions, so you can download torrents at unlimited speeds. For my tests, I downloaded multiple files simultaneously and while doing so could still browse the internet without a problem.
When testing these servers , I was pleasantly surprised to see consistently good results, even when I was connected to servers on different continents. Unfortunately, with few servers to choose from, I encountered some connection issues at certain times of day. The fastest local servers got overcrowded quickly, forcing me to choose one of the slower options — this doubled my file download time. Although I was able to torrent safely, I was annoyed that even small files took over an hour to download.
PrivateVPN offers a day money-back guarantee , so you can test its servers for yourself before you purchase a plan. Subscribe to PrivateVPN today. As each of its servers come with multiple IP addresses available, each connected device is given a unique IP address.
This keeps your identity safe and ensures that regardless of how many devices are connected, connection speeds remain the same. While testing the service , my kill switch worked seamlessly every time I disconnected or changed a server connection. As the kill switch is automatically disabled, enable it before you start torrenting to protect your personal information if the connection drops.
This was really frustrating for me as random pop-ups appeared on most torrenting sites I used. You can use IPVanish for free with its day money-back guarantee. Download files with IPVanish today. Luckily, there are many torrenting sites that allow users to share only legal files like open-source software or old movies.
Keep in mind that in some countries, like China and Australia, torrenting is completely illegal. However, less severe measures like sending out warning letters and emails or slowing down your internet connection are usually taken.
If legal action is taken against you, you might have to pay a fine to both your ISP and the owner of the copyrighted material. As torrenting sites always store IP addresses of everyone who downloads and uploads certain files, the authorities simply check who accessed the illegal material. Copyright trolls are individuals or companies whose sole purpose is to locate torrent pirates. Once they locate a person sharing unlawful files, they send a settlement letter with a large fine.
Peer-to-Peer P2P file-sharing creates a virtual network that allows connected computers to exchange files between each other. When you request a file using the P2P system, all the computers communicate in order to upload it to your device. This means that parts of that file are taken from each computer and put into your torrent client.
This constant exchange of data is quicker and easier than downloading files from a single server. Various torrenting sites, like uTorrent , allow you to bind your device to a specific IP address.
This practice is called IP binding. You can use this tactic to bind your device to your favorite VPN server. This way, your data will still be safe if you forget to connect your device. There are hundreds of free VPNs to choose from, but only a few free providers will let you download torrents. If you use cheap, unreliable VPNs then this is questionable. If you want to download torrents on a regular basis then you need a paid VPN that is actually good, no doubt about it.
The safest way to download torrents is to use a reputable VPN. Torrenting without vpn is just asking for trouble. The question is are you willing to gamble when it comes to torrenting?
I am not and I want to make sure I remain private when doing anything online, so a great VPN is a must have for me. The monthly price tag is just the price I am willing to pay to feel safe. I feel the same way. I just put everything in balance — do I want to take the risk on torrenting without vpn? Even if prices for a vpn would have been higher I would still have chosen this option to stay safe and not sorry.
But, as it stands, there are plenty of vpns that are very affordable. That money is well spent on a good, reputable vpn provider because it will keep you safe. Torrenting without vpn is a no-no and should never be done.
Thank you team for posting such a great article. I have always been concerned that is torrenting safe? I tried and could not get a solid answer despite of reading a lot of blog posts. But you have nailed it and explained it with nice details. Thanks again for your efforts. Without one you are at risk every time you download anything. This is how to be safe when using torrents: get a good VPN that protects you. I am glad that you shared this info and I can check it out.
Gotta save money any way you can right!! This is really going to help me out. Yes, it will really help everyone to download torrents safely. I agree to have this fast and effective way to see the content on different devices by downloading torrents. The scammers and hackers are very active and always keep your safety at the top while downloading anything on the Internet. A very well written post and well done! Simply click the button below — the coupon will be activated immediately!
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