Why Torrenting with VPN is a Must
They are popular among torrent users because they typically offer high data rates – sometimes up to 10 Gbps– that allow users to download files at blazing speeds.
Top 9 Ways To Download Torrents Anonymously
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Table of Contents
- How To Torrent Anonymously
- 1. VPN
- 2. Seedbox
- 3. Cloud Torrent Downloaders
- 4. i2P
- 5. Usenet
- 6. Anomos
- 7. BTGuard
- 8. Torrent Proxy
Torrenting may not be illegal– unless you download copyrighted content– but it can be unsafe.
You can unwittingly download malware and infect your computer or have your connection throttled by your ISP.
The good news is there are ways to download torrents anonymously.
How To Torrent Anonymously
Torrenting can be risky.
The Internet is overflowing with copyrighted content that’s a click away from ending up on your computer. Depending on your location, this could get you into serious trouble .
Even if you manage to avoid content that’s illegal to download, you can inadvertently download malware-laden files.
And since torrenting has a reputation for being used to pirate movies, music, and other copyrighted content, ISP providers don’t take to torrenting lightly. Repeated offenders might find their bandwidth reduced or have their accounts suspended.
Here’s how to download torrents anonymously.
1. VPN
The best way to torrent anonymously is with a VPN.
VPNs route your traffic through a server within their network, which helps hide your IP address, and encrypts your Internet connection to prevent snoopers from seeing your online activity.
More importantly, good VPNs hide your online traffic from your ISP too. Your ISP will be able to see that your actual online traffic is hidden from them, but they won’t know what websites you’re visiting or the files you upload to or download from unencrypted websites.
In addition to allowing you to download any torrent anonymously , they can also unblock geo-restricted content and allow you to access sites that are not available in your country or region.
Finding a good VPN can be tricky. If you’re not sure which one is a good fit for you, check out our top picks for the best VPNs for torrenting .
2. Seedbox
Torrenting anonymously is also possible via a seedbox.
Seedboxes, which are built for the single purpose of torrenting, are remote servers that store torrents.
They are popular among torrent users because they typically offer high data rates – sometimes up to 10 Gbps– that allow users to download files at blazing speeds.
What makes them a good option for anonymous torrenting is that with seedboxes, you essentially upload and download files outside of your local network. To access a seedbox, you’ll typically need to use a secure file-transferring protocol, which hides your IP address.
Anyone trying to track your IP address, including your ISP provider, will only see the IP address of the seedbox.
However, seedboxes don’t encrypt your traffic .
If you want the best of both worlds, you can use a seedbox and a VPN, though, this will slow down your downloads.
3. Cloud Torrent Downloaders
Third-party cloud torrent downloaders let you upload and download torrents remotely , on a cloud service, rather than your computer.
They operate on dedicated servers, with uplinks that are much faster than a regular, home connection. Since you’re not downloading the files directly to your computer, your files won’t take up any space on your device and it will be harder for your ISP to throttle your download speed.
The best part about cloud torrent downloaders is that you can access the files from any device . Some even let you stream content directly from the server.
Although these services allow you to torrent anonymously , they all require users to create an account and you might need to subscribe to a paid plan (which would include providing some personal information) for more cloud storage space.
If you’re looking for a good cloud torrenting provider, some of the best on the market are Filestream, Premiumize, Cloudload, and Bitport.
4. i2P
An Invisible Internet Project (i2P) is a highly-secure P2P network that allows users to download any torrent anonymously and for free .
It uses end-to-end encryption and so-called garlic routing which splits your message into smaller messages, which travel separately until their destination.
Unlike VPNs or seedboxes, i2P uses uni-directional tunnels that separate outgoing and incoming traffic, which eliminates the need for senders and recipients to reveal their IPs.
Its biggest advantage is that the network is completely decentralized and spreads across thousands of different devices, rather than relying on a single entity. If one device gets compromised, it wouldn’t affect the whole system.
However, torrent users don’t typically flock to i2P because it can be complicated to set up and is slow. The maximum speed this network has is 100kb/s.
5. Usenet
Usenet is one of the oldest working networks where you can upload files (called binaries) on newsgroups for other users to download and vice versa.
The biggest advantage that Usenet has over torrent clients is that not anyone can access it, which means there’s less spying and tracking going on, compared to other torrenting platforms.
As an extra layer of security, the network uses 256-keys SSL encryption , which prevents your ISP or any other parties from seeing what you’re downloading.
Finally, Usenet doesn’t use P2P like torrent clients. This means that you’re not dependent on whether other users are seeding to download or access the content you are looking at and your download speed won’t be affected by anything other than your own Internet connection.
To access Usenet, you will need a paid subscription with a Usenet service provider , which might require doing some research. There are some ISPs that offer it as a separate add-on, but most of them do not allow access to the groups where you can download files.
6. Anomos
Anomos is a multi-platform that allows for downloading torrents anonymously and for free via BitTorrent.
The program uses onion routing and end-to-end encryption throughout the downloading process to ensure security and anonymity. This means that your IP address remains hidden and safe from snoopers.
The interface is simple and the program is easy to use, making it a great option for less tech-savvy users.
One major drawback is that torrent files are proprietary and the download speeds can be slow.
Also, if you want to use it for torrenting, you will have to jump through some hoops. Anomos doesn’t work well with .torrent files and you will have to convert them into .atorrent files.
7. BTGuard
BitTorrentGuard is a proxy and a VPN that’s specifically designed for P2P fans and downloading torrents anonymously .
The tool offers the standard symmetric encryption – 256-bit AES and combines it with asymmetric RSA-1028 encryption, for better speeds and security. It’s available on most devices, including Mac, Linux, and Windows and uses OpenVPN and PPTP.
The VPN also boasts unlimited bandwidth and reasonable speeds, but it does have some drawbacks.
Despite boasting more than 1,000 servers, they are all based in only three countries, Canada, Singapore, and the Netherlands. Also, BTGuard doesn’t offer a kill switch and might leak your IP address if your VPN disconnects.
8. Torrent Proxy
A torrent proxy , just like any other type of proxy server , allows for torrent anonymity .
A torrent proxy operates in a similar way as VPNs. It hides your IP address by routing the traffic of your torrent client via an anonymous server, which generates an arbitrary IP address before reaching your destination, giving your torrent traffic a different identity.
One of the best proxies for torrenting is SOCKS5. This proxy uses proxy servers to form TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) or UDP (User Datagram Protocol) (UDP) connections through random IP addresses.
This prevents other users in the swarm from seeing your IP address and lets you download an anonymous torrent , but a proxy doesn’t encrypt your traffic, which means anyone can snoop of what you’re doing.
If you need more options, here are our top pics for the best proxy server services for 2022 .
Bottom Line
Torrenting is an excellent way to get access to different types of content for free, but it can be risky, especially if you don’t take the right measures to protect yourself from unwanted snooping.
The best way to do that is with a VPN, but there are other ways to torrent and download anonymously , including via a proxy, i2P, a seedbox, and a cloud torrent downloader.
Why Torrenting with VPN is a Must
A VPN connects your system to another computer and lets you download torrents using the other computer’s internet connection. VPN hides your IP and location from other torrent peers and browsing history from your internet provider. The idea is to remain anonymous while downloading torrents. For example, downloading copyrighted material could be illegal and could be legally prosecuted and VPN can protect you from copyright lawsuits.
Risks of Torrenting
Torrenting without a VPN might expose you to a risk of legal prosecution or hefty fines for downloading copyrighted content.
Copyright Trolls. If you are downloading a file that has a copyright, then you might face copyright infringement issues. A copyright troll has permissions by the copyright holder to take legal action against people downloading the media illegally. An IP address is the first thing that gets exposed when you use the BitTorrent. The IP addresses can be traced back to the ISP. Copyright trolls send a list of IP addresses and settlement letters to the ISPs. ISPs in turn, send those settlements to their customers. Copyright trolls have been very active in the US since the late 2000s. In 2018, more than 3,300 lawsuits were directed at BitTorrent users.
Phishing on Torrenting Sites. Torrenting sites that enable sharing of copyrighted material commonly known to most of us as piracy, the site is liable to be blocked or shut down within no time. Along with the actions that will be taken on these sites, it puts the users at a risk too. To identify, these suspicious sites will have pop up ads, bad torrents from unknown uploaders, surfacing you to malware and viruses.
Throttling Your Connection. Your ISP provides a particular bandwidth for browsing. Downloading big files at high speed while torrenting takes a lot more bandwidth than allowed by your ISP. If your ISP sees that you are using “too much” data, they simply slow you down, called throttling the connection.
The alarm here is that your ISP is watching your activity. The only to hide from your ISP to use a VPN.
Torrenters who are careless and do not take necessary precautions while torrenting, can get into legal troubles, face ISP penalties and get infected by malware or virus too. There are vulnerabilities associated with using torrent as the torrent is a peer-to-peer network which relies on file sharing amongst users across the globe.
Legal Consequences of Downloading Torrents
A major risk of using torrents is that most of the uploaded torrent files contain material that is copyrighted. Torrent users tend to face legal issues due to copyright policies when it comes to downloading torrents. Torrent users now face a strict observation of the surveillance agencies. Your ISP also monitors a torrent user’s activities online and the first reaction on getting caught is to throttle the internet browsing speed.
Your ISP will record your activity on a database that they are required to keep in case you download a copyright file and are caught. Later, they issue a warning letter to cut off your internet in case you continue doing the same.
Prosecution of torrent users has been sporadic. There are slight chances of going to the court actually to pay the settlement, but the penalties can be high.
What Does Your ISP See When You Are Torrenting?
Have you received such a warning or alert from your browser? These notices mean that you are downloading some copyrighted material from the internet and your internet service provider has been notified about it. ISPs usually have very good tracking software and they can know if you are using a torrent network. That means your ISP is watching you while you are browsing torrent and through your IP address, your details like location, name, etc have been revealed already.
ISP Notices Torrent Traffic & Restrains Your Connection
ISPs want to know how much bandwidth you are consuming, slowing down everyone else’s bandwidth down. So, your ISP will simply slow down your connection if you are using BitTorrent. They will just check what kind of traffic is coming from your IP address. It is okay if most of it is email, web browsing, chat, online gaming, online shopping, etc. If there is BitTorrent traffic too, they slow down the speed.
ISP Gets Information from the Media Companies
Downloading illegal media is not advisable in any circumstances. The company from where you are downloading illegal, copyright media will actually go online and download torrents of their own material. Be it movies, music, TV show or anything else.
Though some torrent clients offer different encryption options, it is not sure that they will protect you. There is a network of monitoring nodes that these media companies run and rely on. These nodes are able to join torrent swarms and collect IP addresses and connection data of the infringement parties. In case your torrent client connects with any of the monitoring nodes and your VPN fails to protect you, your identity is at risk, your data could be leaked easily.
How VPN Protects Your Torrenting
Using a good VPN service to effectively secure your connection while torrenting is a safer option than torrenting without a VPN. There are many advantages to using a good torrent.
A VPN stops your ISP or anyone else on your local ISP network from knowing that you are torrenting. All the files that you download or upload via Torrent are encrypted when passing through your ISP’s servers so that the content remains secure. If trying to inspect encrypted connection provided by your torrent VPN, ISP would take a lot of time and resources to do so.
VPN Lets You Downloading Torrents Anonymously
The most important thing a VPN does is that it hides your file sharing and makes your IP undetectable. Your connection is as the VPN changes your IP address and encrypts your data to let it remain private. VPN provides a special torrenting server that hides your traffic and your P2P sharing. ISP will only be able to see that you are connected to a VPN server.
Also, it masks other people who are uploading or downloading the same files as yours to see your IP address. In a peer to peer or P2P protocol as that of BitTorrent, people involved in downloading or uploading the same files are connected in a “swarm”. All devices in the swarm can see all the other IP addresses. If you are not using a VPN, your IP address can be used to know your location and your Internet service provider.
Meaning, your data is safe from hackers and the ISP can also not log your p2p downloads, throttle the speed or spy on you.
VPN Protects Your Torrenting from Legal Enforcement
In case you download a file from any torrent site that is copyrighted, a VPN will not let it be traced back to you; saving you from any legal action or heavy fines. We do not intend to promote media piracy here. Just that you should be able to share copyright-free files without any risks.
A VPN is what you need to mask your IP address, to conceal your activity from ISP monitoring and legal enforcement for downloading copyrighted content.
Not using a VPN exposes you to the risk of reaching these sites and falling into the hacking trap. It is just a matter of single click on a suspicious site that might allow the hacker to access your machine and steal and sell your personal data.
Download Torrents Anonymously with a P2P VPN
A VPN replaces your true IP address with the IP address of a secure VPN server in another location. Your IP address is hidden because the same IP address is used by many other users as well; so your activity can not be traced back to you. Sign up for a reliable torrenting VPN provider. Follow the instructions mentioned for the device that you will be using for uTorrent.
Choose a VPN server that is allowed for torrenting.
Launch the torrent program with the VPN turned on.
Always download uTorrent from their official site.
Once the VPN is downloaded and turned on, open the uTorrent application and start torrenting with no risks.
Installing and running a torrenting VPN is easy with these steps. One should be always watchful for any spam links to download the VPN. Using trusted links is most important here.
How to Choose a Torrent Friendly VPN
Torrenting without VPN is like calling for trouble. Figuring out the best VPN for torrenting requires some research and criteria to judge each VPN. The following criteria are based on more torrent’s needs; that are — privacy, no data caps, and fast download speed.
Anonymity. Encryption is required to ensure that any third party cannot snoop on the activity of VPN users. This is important to keep your ISP off your back A VPN kill switch and DNS leak protection is mandatory when selecting a VPN for torrenting so that no identifiable data goes out of your device.
Logging Policy. Select a P2P VPN service that is log-less; i.e, it does not record and save information about your activity. When the provider collects no information, it cannot be hacked or coerced into giving away any sort of information about its customers.
Bandwidth limit. Torrent VPNs that have data caps or limit the bandwidth and throttle downloads after a certain limit should be avoided. These torrents usually require a lot of data.
Speed. The upload and download speeds should be above average.
Shared IPs. Some VPNs use shared IP addresses for torrenting. This means that your IP address is shared with hundreds of other people. Shared IPs add a significant layer of anonymity, which makes it more difficult to trace activity back to you.
Port forwarding. Port forwarding is a feature to preserve public IP addresses. When installed, it can protect servers and clients from unwanted access, “hide” the services and servers available on a network and limit access to and from a network. It adds an extra layer of security to networks.
A VPN that gives you these features is the best choice as it will keep you safe from threats, keep you anonymous and you can torrent without stress.
Using a Torrent with VPN Has Become a Must
Torrenting without a VPN puts you at risk of receiving threatening letters by copyright trolls. Using a VPN for torrenting hides your IP address so that other devices in the swarm see each other’s IP addresses but not yours. The best VPNs for torrenting used shared IP addresses; which means that there are hundreds of users assigned on the same IP address. This makes it impossible for hackers to trace back the activity of a single user.
Sometimes, there are chances of VPN failures and DNS leaks that pose a threat to your anonymity when using a trusted VPN. A DNS leak occurs when your ISP is able to track your internet activity due to software issues. Use a VPN client with built-in leak protection to secure your browsing.
There also might be instances when your VPN connection gets disconnected when you are online. VPN companies incorporate certain safety features that guarantee the safety of your information. A VPN kill switch is a feature that automatically disconnects your system from the internet until the VPN connection is restored. When a VPN kill switch is active, there is no possibility that your IP address gets exposed accidentally.
To be sure that a VPN does not keep a track of your activity, or record your data. A no-log VPN doesn’t track, collect or share your private data.
VPNs have come as a rescue to let us torrent without risking our data and privacy. Download a suitable VPN and enjoy the good aspects of torrenting safely.
