VPN advice and recommendations

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Excidium

Trakanon Raider
831
1,275
I just moved to a new isp with 150mbit connection. In one day I got a copyright strike even though I didn't download a damn thing on this isp. Just happened my PC had seeding on and nailed and old file from the system that wasn't moved to the storage drive.
Do pay VPNs work well and prevent "spying" by isps? Do they actually secure my connection? And which VPNs are you guys using? I really like downloading at 25Mb/sec and want to fill the rest of my drives up.
 

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
17,324
4,839
proxpn.com is good, no logging. Might want to consider a seedbox though.
 

Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
<Gold Donor>
14,140
11,463
Two of the popular pay VPNs do not obscure copyrighted torrents. Both HideMyAss and ummm... one that I had before that both sent me nasty emails saying they saw me d/l'ing some movie.
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
29,948
29,762
I will say this. I have been downloading "stuff" from the internet since '99 and we are talking at least a petabyte by now. Not once have I gotten a letter. Not once have I needed a VPN.

A VPN is a good idea but a better idea is trackers that are private and no history of takedowns.
 

Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
<Gold Donor>
14,140
11,463
Oh it isn't surprising, I've never been the least bit careful with the torrents I grab. Never had a private tracker account until maybe 2 months ago?
 

Gnomedolf

<Silver Donator>
15,796
99,179
Tunnelbear has always worked well for me. If you don't want to pay cash for their service, you can send them jars of honey instead. For real.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
9,374
10,987
PrivateInternetAccess is awesome. No logging either. I don't use it anymore due to seedbox, but used it for years with zero problems, and it was incredibly easy to use.
 
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Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,065
131,355
just don't seed? duh? download a proper client like qbittorent change share ratio limiting to 0.00 then remove.
 

Jysin

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
6,259
3,970
Just FYI, some private trackers (like BTN) will ban you for using VPN to access their website. You can use VPN while torrenting though.

I also use PIA (Private Internet Access). It's pretty baller and you can select different geographical regions around the world. I can stream BBC, etc with ease.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
9,374
10,987
just don't seed? duh? download a proper client like qbittorent change share ratio limiting to 0.00 then remove.
Some people don't strictly use public trackers and need to maintain a proper ratio.

Also, you still show up as a "connected IP" while downloading, so if someone were collecting IPs they could still easily get yours. And if the torrent is big enough, and you aren't seeding back, peers will eventually start realizing that and drop you, causing your download speed to drop to shit and/or never finish in some rare cases.

I'm sure you can subsist as a "never seeder" if you only use public trackers and don't care how long it takes, but not everyone wants to limit themselves like that. But your IP address is still out there while you're downloading all the same.
 

Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,065
131,355
Some people don't strictly use public trackers and need to maintain a proper ratio.

Also, you still show up as a "connected IP" while downloading, so if someone were collecting IPs they could still easily get yours. And if the torrent is big enough, and you aren't seeding back, peers will eventually start realizing that and drop you, causing your download speed to drop to shit and/or never finish in some rare cases.

I'm sure you can subsist as a "never seeder" if you only use public trackers and don't care how long it takes, but not everyone wants to limit themselves like that. But your IP address is still out there while you're downloading all the same.
you only really get "the letter" from public torrents anyway, so the ratio point is moot, if you're doing public, don't seed.

You also only get caught if you're connected to a honeypot, just connect to trusted groups, it's not hard to figure out, "oh wow this ettv uploader and ettv titled tv episode is the tits!!!"

Also you literally download a tv episode in less than 5minutes if you're even using some poor person's internet.
 

Flight

Molten Core Raider
1,228
268
I was just coming here to start a similar thread. The UK passed a law last week that means every department of Government can look at anyones browsing history etc. IP providers have to harvest this information and supply it to the Government.

Do folks think just using a VPN will block their ability to do this ? Is there any benefit in using something like ToR browser as well as a VPN ?
 

alavaz

Trakanon Raider
2,001
713
Your ISP can only see the traffic between you and the VPN. The "interesting" traffic would all happen within the VPN, which is a separate network from your ISP and thus they do not have access. What the government can do though is make ISPs ban VPN providers that don't log / surrender logs when required. Which they'll never be able to completely stay ahead of, but it will make it a bit more of a pain in the ass for you / non-compliant VPNs.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
9,374
10,987
you only really get "the letter" from public torrents anyway, so the ratio point is moot, if you're doing public, don't seed.

You also only get caught if you're connected to a honeypot, just connect to trusted groups, it's not hard to figure out, "oh wow this ettv uploader and ettv titled tv episode is the tits!!!"

Also you literally download a tv episode in less than 5minutes if you're even using some poor person's internet.

You're correct for the most part, but there were a few fairly high profile cases of things like GoT leaks on private trackers, but in general what you say is correct. Still, as I mentioned, you're still showing your IP while you download, so if that is the main concern, it doesn't matter if you seed or not. And yes, I know that in general they only nail seeders, so you're still mostly correct. Just sayin' there's still a vulnerability if people are that concerned about it.

I was just coming here to start a similar thread. The UK passed a law last week that means every department of Government can look at anyones browsing history etc. IP providers have to harvest this information and supply it to the Government.

Do folks think just using a VPN will block their ability to do this ? Is there any benefit in using something like ToR browser as well as a VPN ?
WTF is this? This sounds straight out of some South Park TrollTrace bullshit. I didn't imagine it was already fucking happening.
 

mopoke

Bronze Knight of the Realm
209
14
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Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,065
131,355
Why don't ppl just buy a ulimited bandwith gigabit proxy?
It's 10bucks a month for 5 proxies
Shopping Cart - BuyProxies.org

These are probably the best proxies in the world, they don't sell "one" proxy a month, i'm sure there are other companies that offer it tho

here's a proxy switcher, enter info, click the button
BP Proxy Switcher

literally type this into google "whats my ip"
 

Porkchop

Mr. Poopybutthole
<Bronze Donator>
1,212
1,006
I use OpenVPN on my offshore dedicated server. But not for torrents. I've never found a vpn that was as fast as my local connection. I prefer a nice seedbox, but i'm cheap and don't like paying for it, so I usually just use my own with private trackers.