Best Torrent VPN

Anonymous Torrenting: A How-to Guide

Online protection is tricky. If you use Windows, you likely have a “DNS Leak”, a known flaw that can lead to your true IP address (the physical location of your computer) being exposed. “DNS” stands for “Domain Name Server”, a directory that connects website names with actual IP addresses. The theory is that your computer uses the Virtual Private Network’s (VPN’s) DNS servers. However, under certain circumstances, your computer could revert back to your ISP’s DNS leaving you fully exposed – this is a “DNS Leak”.

If you’re already hooked up with a VPN (such as TorGuard or Private Internet Access) that’s got built-in DNS leak protection, no problem. Otherwise, either change VPN or add a third-party DNS service that’s not connected to your ISP. Comodo provides secure DNS servers for free. To test for leaks, connect to your VPN and visit www.dnsleaktest.com . The site will quickly check for DNS leaks and provide tools to fix them.

Online Protection for the Paranoid ones of us:

Many people can stop right here and resume their online lives. Real paranoics, however, will want to run any peer-to-peer traffic through an encrypted proxy service and then route /that/ through a secure VPN, thus creating multiple redundancy rendering internet usage and ID virtually undetectable.

Sounds “Star Trek” complicated but it’s “Pokémon” easy: connect to your VPN; sign up for an anonymous proxy service; then either follow the instructions for proxy setups in your torrent client or download a preconfigured client.

To download torrents anonymously, connect to your VPN and fire up your configured torrent client, which will route traffic first through the proxy and then through the VPN. Anyone tracing the source will have to fight through two levels of protection with no connection logs to link your visible IP address to your actual location.

Canadian “Btguard“, the go-to for torrent proxy services ($6.95USD/mo, $60USD/yr), guarantees zero logging. Setup is dead easy via pre-configured uTorrent client or it can be set up with any proxy-enabled application.

Torguard’s torrent proxy ($5.95USD/mo or $48USD/yr) can be added onto their anonymous VPN (200+ servers, eighteen countries). There’s no pre-configured uTorrent but it’s an easy setup.

If you are really concerned about privacy and anonymity – you should read this article from Torrentfreak.

An “anonymous” VPN service takes your privacy far more seriously than usual. Many VPNs keep at least a minimum set of logs and saves them for purposes of “account service optimization” or legal investigation. This is fine for the average home user but if you’re engaged in high-security/military/banking/research/etc or live in a politically risky country, you /need/ better safety than that! Make sure your VPN is truly anonymous! Always read the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service in full before committing yourself.

Anonymous VPN providers, however, don’t:

• Log URLs, data, or usage
• “Tailor” bandwidth or connection speed

Sometimes, VPNs are legally required to log timestamps and connection information but since you’re sharing the same IP with up to hundreds of others, this isn’t much of a concern.

Some anonVPNs use third-party payment platforms to add an extra layer of privacy. When a payment is made through the third-party provider, a transaction key is generated. When the transaction is confirmed, the key is deleted thus severing any connection between payment and any particular VPN account. One anonVPN uses offshore servers outside any legal jurisdiction.

Cyber-Attacks and Hacking

With BitTorrent, your IP address is visible to everyone you connect to. Any half-decent hacker can use it to blow through home security like nothing to access everything on your computer: usernames/passwords, ID/contact information, school/work info, financial information, all of it!

Using a secure VPN, the IP displayed could mean dozens or hundreds of users. The hacker will diligently work away only to crack into the VPN’s monitored server, which means the next thing the hacker will hear is the “click” of handcuffs.

Malware and Viruses

The biggest risk is actually downloading. If you’re exchanging files among a restricted and known group, not a problem. However, downloading popular software is risky: hackers often add virus or firewall-disabling code. A VPN cannot help you in these cases – they do not monitor your traffic and are not responsible for your online activity. This problem is the same with Filehosting services and usenet services alike.

Make sure you have a really good up-to-date antivirus application. One great feature is a “sandbox”: if things go south, closing the sandbox destroys the program with no harm done. Make sure you check the comments before downloading anything.

ISP Throttling and Logging

ISPs monitor and regulate traffic even if you have “unlimited” download. Some even throttle back perfectly legitimate services, such as Netflix – you know, the same service they promoted heavily to get you to sign on with them. Worse, they keep a copy of your data stream for up to two years. This means everything: emails, web browsing, and downloading.

Even with a proxy service, your ISP still sees the file you’re opening up to initiate a torrent. A good VPN fixes this by encrypting your connection from end to end. Your ISP only sees that you’re using a VPN. When sourcing a VPN, look for “military grade” – /minimum/ 256-bit encryption.

VPN for Bittorrent – Facts

• End-to-end connection encryption = or > proxy
• Anonymous IP
• Many server locations/protocols
• Typically uses proprietary software
• Typically costs more than proxy but slower due to increased encryption
• If the connection is lost, your IP could be exposed

Proxy for Bittorrent – Facts:

• Encrypts a single program or protocol (ie, BitTorrent is proxied but Chrome isn’t)
• Anonymous IP
• Limited servers
• Usually no software
• Cheaper but mostly slower than VPN
• if the connection is dropped, you’re not caught with your IP showing

Those wanting to protect their torrent habits will find a proxy service better than a VPN, especially if the connection is dropped. If you lose a VPN connection, your connection reverts to your regular IP address automatically unless measures to disconnect you from the internet have been taken. With proxy, if the connection is dropped, the application won’t work.

But some VPN services also offer a solution to this problem: The VPN Kill Switch! If your connecion is dropped for whatever reason, the VPN software immediately shuts down the connection to the Internet. This way, you are safe.

The upside of VPN is much greater connection security. The downside is you have to close your VPN connection if you wish to access the internet through your true IP. For example, a proxy service can be set so that UK Netflix can run concurrently with US Pandora. With a VPN, if you are on UK Netflix but now you want to listen to Pandora, you have to watch US Netflix.

But – theres also a solution for that. Some VPN software clients offer the service to exclude specified programs from the VPN – or do it vice versa, include certain programs to let them use the internet only through a VPN. For example you could install two differnet browsers like Firefox and Chrome and configure the VPN client in a way that only Firefox uses the VPN – and Chrome still uses the normal Internet-Connection with your normal IP Adress.

Clearly, the safest bet is to use both to create an anonymous encrypted connection inside an anonymous encrypted connection.

There’s nothing illegal about BitTorrent itself – it’s perfectly legitimate software -but the sad reality is that the right to privacy is often abused. This damages not only BitTorrent’s reputation but causes economic hardship for the creators of copyrighted material – they worked hard to produce something that would be enjoyed and they deserve compensation. Please respect copyrights!

Also if you use Popcorn Time – which is essentially sharing its movies by the bittorrent protocol – you should protect yourself with a VPN from legal problems – just becuase you wanted to enjoy a movie with Popcorntime. The legal risk is not worth it – either buy the movie you want to see or use a cheap Popcorntime VPN.

Continuing a longstanding New Year’s custom, now we present an uptodate record of earth’s most- seen with BitTorrent websites. At the beginning The Pirate Bay continues to pull in the visitors, followed Torrentz and by KickassTorrents. Household name isoHunt.com vanishes after settling with all the MPAA, but its replacement isoHunt.to is among this season ‘s rookies.

1. The Pirate Bay
To a lot of folks The Pirate Bay is interchangeable with BitTorrent. The website was founded over a decade ago and is still growing, despite domain name hops various legal troubles and ISP blockades. The Pirate Bay now has well over a billion page views monthly.

2. KickassTorrents
KickassTorrents was set up in 2009 and has rapidly moved up 10, in 2013, settling into 2nd place. Reacting to a looming domain name seizure the website went from its kat.ph domain name to Kickass.to last August. Despite blockades and domain name problems by Internet providers in Italy and the United Kingdom, the website is growing.

3. Torrentz
Torrentz has become the leading BitTorrent meta-search engine for a long time. Unlike the other websites featured in the list Torrentz will not host any torrent files, it just redirects visitors to other areas online. The website uses several domain names with .eu being the hottest.

4. ExtraTorrent
ExtraTorrent continues to find out more traffic , and it has moved up again in the top, now set as the 4th most-seen torrent website. This success did not go undetected by rightsholders groups like the MPAA who lately called ExtraTorrent among the best pirate websites out. The website was made to trade in its .com domain name for .cc this year, after it had been frozen by its domain name registrar.

5. YIFY-Torrents
Now the movie release group is among the very identifiable film piracy types online although about 3 years ago nobody had heard of YIFY. This standing resulted in a court-ordered ISP blockade a year ago.

6. 1337x
1337x focuses more to the community facet than some rivals. The website’s owners say they found 1337x to “fill an evident emptiness where it appeared there was a dearth of quality conscience advertising free torrent sites with public trackers.” In common with most other websites in the top, 1337x.org is now blocked by the bigger UK Internet providers.

7. isoHunt.to
Isohunt.to was established last October, less than two weeks after isoHunt.com shut down. The website isn’t affiliated with all the isoHunt team that was old but reproduced the design of the website. This hasn’t been without success, as the website has millions.

8. BitSnoop
BitSnoop is among the biggest BitTorrent indexes, promising to index a huge 21,437,061 torrent files of writing at time. The torrents list of the website is growing as do the amount of DMCA notices that it receives.

9. RARBG
RARBG, which started out as a Bulgarian tracker many years past, is the third rookie in the top 10. Jointly with isoHunt.to it’s the sole site in the list that hasn’t been blocked in the UK, which may in part explain its popularity.

10. All other blocked Torrent Sites Here is a list of them:

beemp3s.org, warez-bb.org, torrentexpress.net, watch32.com, torrentreactor.net, bittorrent.am, torrentfunk.com, torrenting.com, www.filestube.com, torrentroom.com, tubeplus.me, www.thepiratebay.se, dl4all.com, thepiratebay.se, www.torrenthound.com, torrentbutler.eu, beemp3s.org, iwatchonline.to, ukmontblancoutlet.co.uk, filestube.com, kat.ph, abmp3.com, mp3raid.com, primewire.ag, watchtvseries.to, tv-series.me, torrentcrazy.com, torrenthound.com, yify-torrents.com”, firstrow1.eu, demonoid.ph, movie25.cm, viooz.co, newalbumreleases.net, yourbittorrent.com, scenesource.me, 1337x.org, zmovie.co, torrentzap.com, torrentz.cd, iwannawatch.to, emp3world.cc, watchseries.to, filecrop.com, mp3lemon.org, seventorrents.re, mp3skull.com, www.filecrop.com, mp3raid.com, rapidlibrary.com, mp3juices.com, picktorrent.com, fenopy.eu, mp3lemon.org, torrentz.eu”thepiratebay.org, extratorrent.cc, torrentus.eu, seedpeer.me, nowtorrents.com, h33t.com, torrentproject.com, iptorrents.com, free-tv-video-online.me,vrporn.com, bitsoup.me, tormovies.org, icefilms.info, vitorrent.org”, eztv.it, mp3skull.com, torrentdb.li, extratorrent.cc, bomb-mp3.com, watchfreemovies.ch, bts.to, www.thepiratebay.org, torrentz.pro, torrentbit.net, sumotorrent.sx, replicawatchesiwc.com, bitsnoop.com, monova.org, torrentbytes.net, limetorrents.com, torrentday.com, torrentcrazy.com, cucirca.eu, heroturko.me, iwcwatchtop.com, megashare.info, vodly.to, losmovies.tv, , hotcartierwatch.com, bomb-mp3.com, , torlock.com, torrentdownload.ws, torrentreactor.net, rarbg.com, rapidlibrary.com, cartierloveonline.com, watchseries.lt, movie2k.to, torrents.fm, newalbumreleases.net, vertor.eu, 1iwc.com, btdigg.org, btloft.com, abmp3.com, montblancpensonlineuk.com, bitsnoop.com, rapidmoviez.com, www.monova.org, mp3juices.com, www.torrentsdownload.org, emp3world.cc, isohunt.to, torrentz.eu, torrent.cd, torrents.net, solarmovie.so