Which VPN To Use?
When it comes to torrenting, keeping your IP address safe is often the most important part. You don’t want just anyone to see it and extract your personal data. In terms of saftey, things like encryption and other types of protection are also important to have. This is where VPNs come in. There are many VPNs available, and choosing the right VPN for your specific needs can be a difficult task. Looking for one that is good for torrenting narrows down the options. From that list, we reviewed some of the top VPNs in order to handpick the best options for torrenting. The top of our list includes Buffered, IPVanish, and ExpressVPN. All of the three VPNs mentioned are torrent-friendly. However, they also have their individual features, which make them stand out as the best VPNs for torrenting all around; whether they are fast, cheap, or simply better at making you anonymous. So let us see what makes each one so good at what they do. Buffered This is a Gibraltar-based premium VPN service with a lot of useful features for those who would use it for torrenting. It does not keep logs, which means that they do not record your activity. They may record some info, like the duration of connections, and the amount of sent data. However, even that will be deleted after 30 days. It is very easy to install and use, and some users say that it reminds them of Android apps, which creates a friendly environment for them. It also offers unlimited speed, bandwidth, as well as server switching. On top of that, it is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users.
IPVanish is another one of our top VPN choices, and it has the best speeds that you will find in a VPN, which makes it the fastest VPN for torrenting. This is because IPVanish owns the network that it uses. It keeps zero traffic logs and allows unlimited, anonymous torrenting. IPVanish has over 850 servers that are located in 60+ countries around the world. In total, it offers over 40,000 IP addresses for you to choose from. You even get five simultaneous connections when you use this provider.
Last but not least, ExpressVPN offers a lot. It promises unlimited bandwidth and speed while using it on 3 different devices at the same time. If you are not sure about whether or not you’re ready to commit, fear not – ExpressVPN also has a 30-day money return guarantee if you happen to change your mind. It also has strong encryptions, as well as multiple protocols which include OpenVPN (TCP, UDP), L2TP-IPsec, SSTP, and PPTP. ExpressVPN is also available for many different devices, including Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone/iPad, Linux, Routers, and more.
Is Torrenting Illegal?
Torrenting itself, as an act of sharing files online, is not illegal. However, many countries still ban it – which is enough to create confusion for many users. The reason is that torrenting is often used for sharing pirated content. Piracy itself is illegal in many countries, and you can get fined for pirating content in many countreis. BitTorrent clients do not support piracy, of course. Still, it is impossible for them to know which content is legal and which is not. That is why “pirates” often use them for transferring such files. Because of this, copyright holders, as well as a number of governments around the world, work around the clock to ban torrenting. So essentially, torrenting itself is not bad, but it can be done illegally, thus sometimes giving torrenting a bad name. Many countries don’t allow torrenting in their regions because of this misuse or the potential for it. The UK, for example, is infamous for banning every torrenting website available. The U.S. has also shut down many torrenting websites, and the same goes for countries like UAE, India, Germany, Canada, and more. Because of these issues, many torrent supporters who are downloading legal content choose to using a VPN for torrenting.
Are There Alternatives To VPNs?
There are several different ways of achieving similar effects that VPN for torrenting can provide you with. However, they are not nearly as good as a VPN. Still, they remain an option if you can’t access your VPN or don’t want to use a VPN for whatever reason. These include seedbox, proxy, and Smart DNS. Seedbox is what we call a remote server that can be used for uploading or downloading files. It has pretty decent speeds and provides you with some level of anonymity. It relies on the BitTorrent protocol and works on many different operating systems. However, VPNs have multiple advantages over seedbox. They include much lower prices, easier setup, and multiple IP addresses for you to choose from. Also, your ISP can’t suppress a VPN. Next, we have proxies. Some even allow you to choose your own server and offer good speeds. However, proxies are not ideal for torrenting because they come as browser add-ons that only protect what goes through the browser itself. That means that your torrenting would be open and vulnerable. It is possible to protect your torrent with a proxy if you set it up manually, but it still can’t encrypt your content. Because of this, a VPN for torrenting is a much safer option for you to use. Smart DNS is the next alternative that you might consider using. It is a special protocol that can re-route traffic that is required for determining your geo-location. Still, it is not as good as a VPN, and it won’t provide any encryption. Smart DNS will not even hide your IP address. All it can do is change your Domain Name System (DNS). It does have an advantage over VPNs for torrenting when it comes to speed, but it’s not able to do anything else better than a VPN.
Port Forwarding
For those who have multiple computers on the same network, port forwarding is a way to tell your router which computer should receive the incoming connections. In order to achieve that, network connection requests include “ports.” This port is basically only a number, but computers use it to determine what the packet is. For example, Port 80 is what computers use for HTTP. But how does this help you with torrenting? Well, your BitTorrent client also has a port of its own. This is a port that needs to be open in order for your client to work effectively. Each install of a BitTorrent client has its own port, and yours is no exception. So, when you engage in port forwarding, you are actually opening up your connection and allowing the computers outside of your network to connect to your device as well. And since torrenting is a process of file-sharing between different computers via the internet, you can see how this is necessary. However, this does not come without issues, and the biggest one is the NAT firewall issue. NAT (Network Address Translation) is another process that is modifying your IP information in IP packet headers. This is done so that the packets can get to their required destinations. Your home router is using it right now. Now, since your router has a built-in firewall, it could easily be set in order to block some of your traffic – P2P traffic, specifically. This poses a problem because then you can’t use your BitTorrent client. You can fix this by selecting a different port, one of your own choice. This other port will forward all of the incoming data to your IP address, and the firewall won’t interfere with it.
Check Your Torrent Traffic
Whenever you are using a VPN for torrenting, you should make sure that your data is really secure. A false sense of security means you’re taking risks. Your ISP might record tons of information about your online activities, and you would never even know. This is why it is important for you to make sure that all of your torrenting goes through a VPN. The easiest way to do this is to check your torrent client’s IP address. Some VPN providers offer torrent IP checker as an extra feature for you to use. If your VPN does not offer their own tool for checking your IP, there are other independent tools for you to use. IPMagnet is one of them, and you can also try out checkmytorrentip.upcoil.com. Both of them offer instructions about how to check if your IP is different, and you should have no problems with testing your protection yourself.
Which VPNs To Avoid?
It is true that many VPNs are not good enough to ensure safe torrenting, and those are the ones that you should avoid. If you use a VPN that does not support P2P traffic, your data can be compromised. Free VPN for torrenting is also not a great option because they are some of the most risky ones. Some don’t provide security for your online activities, and you may only realize this when it is too late. Many of these free VPNs will log your actions and sell your browsing history and other data. This is not so surprising, considering that you are not paying for them, and they need money in order to continue operating. File sharing with these VPNs as your protection is never safe, and you should try to avoid them; the risks outweigh the benefits in this case. VPNs that do not allow torrenting include:
StrongVPN
Kepard
LibertyVPN
UnoTelly
TunnelBear
Astrill Conclusion Unfortunately, many copyright holders and the governments do not like torrenting because of its presumed connection to piracy. However, many people really prefer this method of file sharing, and in order to continue torrenting, they have to protect themselves. This is why using a VPN when torrenting is not only recommended but even necessary – it’s not worth risking your safety and security. Instead, use a VPN for torrenting, and get your legal content while knowing that you are completely anonymous.