[The Computer Kid] How to Torrent Safely

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Conrad Sykes

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May 26, 2013, 10:53:47 AM5/26/13

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With ISP’s now issuing punishments for customers who torrent, and media companies increasing the number of lawsuits filed against downloaders; it’s more important than ever to make sure you implement some sort of protection when torrenting. Even if you aren’t torrenting pirated material it’s still wise to protect yourself from any prying eyes. Thus in this article I am going to cover a few different ways you can help protect yourself.

VPN’s

VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network”. You can use a VPN to tunnel all of your internet activity through a third party system. Thus, instead of your home’s IP being visible to the world it will be the IP of the VPN. Additionally, most VPN’s encrypt the web traffic between you and their network, which means that your ISP won’t be able to snoop on your data. The VPN I recommend the most is “ProXPN” www.proxpn.com. There is a free and paid version but I suggest paying the $7 a month for the pro version which includes torrenting protection, unlimited bandwidth, and the ability to choose which country your IP will appear to be coming from. Additionally, btguard from www.btguard.com is another good choice.

Once you connect to a VPN it’s still important to double check to make sure that your IP is truly being hidden while torrenting. To verify this go to www.checkmytorrentip.com. Once there, you can click on "Generate Tracking Torrent" and then you will download a small torrent file from their site. Wait a minute or two, refresh, the page and then you will see the ip address that anyone monitoring your torrenting activity will see.

Peer Blockers

If you can’t afford to pay for a VPN and you want some free protection then a “Peer Blocker” is great choice. A peer blocker works by preventing your computer from connecting to any IP(s) on it’s banned list. You can block the IP addresses of media companies, government watch dogs, and any other unsavory characters. Peer Blocker isn't gaurenteed to protect you 100% but its better than nothing and you can't beat the price. To download Peer Block visit www.peerblock.com

Other Ways
If you know of other free or paid ways to torrent safely/anonymously please leave a comment down below and I'll update this post with reader suggestions.