P2P (Bittorrent etc) configuration & use discussion...ongoing (Only place to post!)

Zascar

So €45 a year and you are 100% safe?

Pretty much, you create a new connection for the VPN so all your internet applications(Browsers, bitorrent, Im, p2p) will go through the encrpyted VPN connection. Some routers like lynksis le tyou set up the vpn on the router and it will tae care of eveything.

Anyone harvesting ips from a torrent swarm will see your vPN providers ip.

Other benifits are getting around trafic shapping.

Give the trial a go, its a propper trial you dont have to give any payment details.

I wouldn't trust VPNywhere since they're based in the US. Look at their Prohibited Activities section, it explicitly mentions that P2P and torrents aren't allowed on their network. I wouldn't use any US VPN to torrent or fileshare, as I imagine it'd be a lot easier for the MPAA or RIAA to access logs from a US VPN than it would be to access logs from a European VPN.

From what I've researched, Swedish based VPNs are superior to most others due to Swedish law (they don't have to keep logs of IPs or users' activities since they're technicially a pre-paid ISP). I've used Relakks before, for several years, without any problems. I'm using IPREDator now, which is basically the same service as Relakks.

Anyway, main tip: never use a US VPN for illegal filesharing. And, before you sign up to any VPN, carefully read their Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, FAQs, any other information they have about themselves on their site, and reviews of their service on other websites.

Zascar

Thanks Jammy that's very helpful

https://www.ipredator.se/
https://www.relakks.com/?cid=gb&lang=en

They are both €15 for 3 months but Relakks gives discount for paying for a year up front. Which one is better, is there a difference between them?

Can these be used on more than one computer, in more than one location?

Zascar

Zascar wrote: »

Thanks Jammy that's very helpful

https://www.ipredator.se/
https://www.relakks.com/?cid=gb&lang=en

They are both €15 for 3 months but Relakks gives discount for paying for a year up front. Which one is better, is there a difference between them?

Can these be used on more than one computer, in more than one location?

No problem. They're both pretty much identical, I can't tell any difference between the two and I've used both. IPREDator is associated with a certain bittorrent sharing site, though. If Relakks are offering a discount, go with them. You might be as well to buy their service for 3 months first, and if you're happy with it then buy a year long subscription.

You can use a VPN wherever you like, although you can only connect one computer at a time (i.e. it doesn't allow for simultaneous connections). It's only a matter of setting up a new VPN connection, which is done through your network and sharing centre (if you're using Windows), and that only takes a matter of seconds. You can use a VPN on any computer you wish, including ones in internet cafes, making your browsing a lot safer.

Edit: One other thing, if you use a Swedish VPN, the default page for many websites will be in Swedish (i.e. you'll automatically be connected to google.se instead of google.ie). This can be a bit annoying, but it's a small inconvenience to pay.

Zascar

Cool! They seem pretty easy to set up etc, is either any better in terms of support or features etc?

If you are allowed set up multiple connections then could I give it to a friend for him to use also - and share the cost? Or is this against their terms of service, would it even matter?

Apart from that, do you think that in this day and age you really should have a secure connection? Laws and ISP's rules etc are bound to change so better safe than sorry!

Zascar

Zascar wrote: »

Cool! They seem pretty easy to set up etc, is either any better in terms of support or features etc?

As far as I can tell both are identical. Even take a look at their sites, they pretty much have identical content, down to the same FAQ, word for word. Both are somehow connected to the Swedish Pirate Party, I think, and I think both are essentially the one and the same (I could be wrong on that, though) service, offering the same or similar support and features. I only moved from Relakks to Ipredator to see was there any difference between the two, but I couldn't find one.

If you are allowed set up multiple connections then could I give it to a friend for him to use also - and share the cost? Or is this against their terms of service, would it even matter?

They'll only let you connect one computer to their service at a time (you've to supply a username and password), so you and your friend couldn't connect at the same time, but if you weren't using it you could let him, and vice versa. They can't know if you're sharing it with somebody, and if they did I doubt they'd care.

Apart from that, do you think that in this day and age you really should have a secure connection? Laws and ISP's rules etc are bound to change so better safe than sorry!

Yah, I definitely think so. I haven't used P2P or torrents without a VPN in years, and I doubt I ever will again. I suppose in doing that you're placing a lot of trust in your VPN provider, you've to trust that they don't store logs of your IP or your activity, which is what they say, you've to trust them not to sell you out to anti-piracy organisations, etc. But I think that's less of a risk than letting your ISP log all of your traffic. I suppose you just have to weigh up both options, and decide which offers less risk.

You can also add one extra layer of privacy: don't use an actual credit card to purchase your subscription. Use a disposable, essentially untraceable 3V card. Pick one up in a local shop and credit it with €45. It just provides an extra layer of security incase the sites that process the credit card details for Relakks/Ipredator hold on to your credit card details.

Zascar

I just found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y53FdAIUb00

Being sent to Google Sweeden will annoy me. I wonder can you change this? Or can you simply disconnect the VPM for normal surfing and enable it when you need a secure connection?

Zascar

Zascar wrote: »

Being sent to Google Sweeden will annoy me. I wonder can you change this? Or can you simply disconnect the VPM for normal surfing and enable it when you need a secure connection?

If you set Google.ie as your homepage you'll be directed there, and not Google.se, whenever you click home. Apart from that it's a matter of finding an English language option on most sites, there's no way of changing it, since any sites that geo-locate you will think you're from Sweden based on your IP. It's annoying at first, but you'll soon get used to it.

The simplest thing to do though, as you've said, is to just not use the VPN when you're only browsing and not downloading.

hello932

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

You can also add one extra layer of privacy: don't use an actual credit card to purchase your subscription. Use a disposable, essentially untraceable 3V card. Pick one up in a local shop and credit it with €45. It just provides an extra layer of security incase the sites that process the credit card details for Relakks/Ipredator hold on to your credit card details.

But to get a 3v card you have to give them your name and address online to get the card in the post. I dont think that you can buy the card directly in a shop, its only the vouchers that you can buy in the shop.

hello932

hello932 wrote: »

But to get a 3v card you have to give them your name and address online to get the card in the post. I dont think that you can buy the card directly in a shop, its only the vouchers that you can buy in the shop.

I'm not sure about what you can do now, but I got the card itself in a shop three or so years ago. It doesn't have a name or anything on it, and isn't associated with my address or any personal details. I had to register the card online to enable it, though. It's up to you to be honest with your personal details when you register it.

Maybe they don't offer cards in that way any more, I don't know.

_Whimsical_

Jammy Dodger thanks for the really interesting and helpful posts.

Does using a VPN like this affect your download speeds and if so to what extent?

chilly

chilly wrote: »

Jammy Dodger thanks for the really interesting and helpful posts.

Does using a VPN like this affect your download speeds and if so to what extent?

No problem. Yeah, it does affect your download speed. I found that, at worst, my download speed with the VPN would be 90% of what it would be without the VPN. My download speed without the VPN would be at most 800 kB/s, and typically with the VPN I'd hit around 750 kB/s.

TheDoc

My rapidshare account ran out last week so went back to piratebay and utrorrent after years of rapidshare loyalty.

Was under the impression that torrents were poo with UPC, but I'm getting the same if not faster speeds with torrents which is pure bizzare.

Only downside is that I had the eprfect rapidshare site with everything i needed, trawling through the fake crap and low quality on TPB is a pain in the hole.

However having uTorrent set up with a schedule on my server is fantastic something i truely missed about torrents

_Whimsical_

TheDoc wrote: »

Was under the impression that torrents were poo with UPC, but I'm getting the same if not faster speeds with torrents which is pure bizzare.

I had got that impression too which is why I haven't moved to them yet.

There used to be alot of talk here about people have speeds that were so abysmal that they believed NTL/UPC were traffic shaping etc.

Is this all a thing of the past now?

Tea_Bag

chilly wrote: »

There used to be alot of talk here about people have speeds that were so abysmal that they believed NTL/UPC were traffic shaping etc.

Is this all a thing of the past now?

I think its just upload speeds that they're still shaping.

my torrent speeds returned to normal, and has been for over a month. i regurlarly get 700kbps-1.1mbps on my 10mb connection, and always the latter on private trackers.



in other news, if you're with Eircom, for the love of god switch to someone else! Eircom is starting to enforce their 3 strike rule

EDIT: more here:http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2055919718

johanz

To disable shaping, enable encryption in your torrent client.

s8n

-Snip-

johanz

I didn't really read, but why do you need credit cards to use bittorrent?

Zascar

Has anyone else found speeds tuble when using a vpn like relakks? I get 12-15mb normally but only 3-4mb when connected via vpn. Funny thing is my torrent speeds go nearly as high but surfing can be slow.

hello932

Zascar wrote: »

Has anyone else found speeds tuble when using a vpn like relakks? I get 12-15mb normally but only 3-4mb when connected via vpn. Funny thing is my torrent speeds go nearly as high but surfing can be slow.

So what your saying is that when using relakks your torrent speeds are faster than browsing speed?

Zascar

Sorry no. When I do a speedtest the speeds are way lower, 3-4mn - hoever torrents can download faster than what the speedtest says it should be, weird. Browsing is a little slower than usual

hello932

Has anyone else noticed some torrents from isohunt being really slow?

Not torrentbox verified torrents which are fast but normal torrents?

are the isohunt trackers under some kind of DOS attack?

johanz

hello932 wrote: »

Has anyone else noticed some torrents from isohunt being really slow?

Not torrentbox verified torrents which are fast but normal torrents?

are the isohunt trackers under some kind of DOS attack?

website status usually does not slow down downloads as you are downloading from other people and not the website itself.

Try enabling encryption. If that doesn't help, it's something on their end.

the_syco

Lo all,
Looking to block all torrents using an Netopia 2247NWG. I don't torrent, but a few people in the house do, and I'm looking to ensure I get no letter though the door from Eircom. Should I block certain ports, or what's the best way to go about it?

Tea_Bag

the_syco wrote: »

Lo all,
Looking to block all torrents using an Netopia 2247NWG. I don't torrent, but a few people in the house do, and I'm looking to ensure I get no letter though the door from Eircom. Should I block certain ports, or what's the best way to go about it?

Change ISP. simples.

before saying the following, i must stress that i wholehartedly disagree with it,
Censoring someone elses internet is disgraceful, but seeing as YOU have a potential lawsuit on your hands, and that you'll likely get the advice anyway...



If they know how to torrent, they could probably undo any router changes (denial of service changes) you make, and even passwording the router isnt fool proof. all you could hope to do is slow down their speeds, but you'll not cut it off.

otherwise, get hold of their PC's and reroute ALL torrent search engines to 127.0.0.1 in their host files (if they use windows) (1: google it, im ashamed im telling you this, and 2: this wont actually stop torrents AT ALL, it'll just make it quite hard to find any torrents. -> though not fool proof either...)


as i said though, getting a new ISP is the ONLY real solution.

Cantona's Collars

Posted this on different thread but relevant for here.http://torrentfreak.com/huge-security-flaw-makes-vpns-useless-for-bittorrent-100617/

zerks

zerks wrote: »

Posted this on different thread but relevant for here.http://torrentfreak.com/huge-security-flaw-makes-vpns-useless-for-bittorrent-100617/

If you actually read it you would see that the flaw affects VPN with ipv6.

Pretty sure no1 residentialy is using ipv6.

Cantona's Collars

I did read it-just thought it might be of interest to people using torrents.Its nice to know whats going on in the world of P2P.A lot of what happens abroad eventually ends up happening here. 3 Strikes Legislation ring a bell?

Jonathan

cisk wrote: »

If you actually read it you would see that the flaw affects VPN with ipv6.

Pretty sure no1 residentialy is using ipv6.

Windows Vista and 7 use it by default.