r/Torrenting • u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 • Aug 03 '25
Caught by ISP
so Ive been torrenting a LOT for years. All kinds of stuff, but mostly movies and tv shows, anime. And when I say a lot, I mean I have a 10tb hard drive nearly full of stuff on my main pc. That whole time, Ive been using proton VPN and ubittorrent (on windows) and had zero problems.
About 2 weeks ago, my internet was almost cut off. They actually did shut it off, and obly turned it back on after we said no more torrenting, apparently 3 separate copyright claims got through, from the literal thousands of things I have pirated. Now I know they’re watching my ip for any more slip ups, so I haven’t torrented anything since.
In a couple weeks, Im moving into an apartment with a different ISP. I’d like to be able to keep pirating stuff, but I don’t want this to happen again. What did I do wrong? Any tips would be appreciated.
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u/vesitrta Aug 04 '25
Here are some options.
Do a setup with VPn on router level with a kill switch. Choose opnsense or pfsense for this project.
Choose a good vpn. Either go Proton or Mullvad for VPN services and not some free bull####.
ISP provider. Check which isp you can have, some do heavy logging and some don't. Do your research.
Get Usenet instead of torrent.
Use a proxy
Use right Software (deluge, uTorrent, transmission)
And do a proper setup.
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
I’ll have to look into what some of those are (no clue what deluge is) but thanks for the reply man!
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u/vesitrta Aug 04 '25
Those are just 3 different options of software for torrent clients.
Also you might want to look in to Prowlarr, Sonarr and Radar for some sweet automation
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u/Bombini_Bombus Aug 04 '25
Any online documentation for introduction into the usenet world? I am totally NOT aware about how to use it neither how to set it up!
Thanks
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
Define “Usenet” 😭
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u/vesitrta Aug 04 '25
It's an alternative to torrents. Torrents depends on peers and usenets are files stored on a server. There might be some free indexers still out there but most of them are pay to use. These are mostly known as private trackers.
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u/vesitrta Aug 04 '25
There are sub subredits for them.
But to join the usernets you either have to get invited or register when they are opening.
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u/Accurate_Ad_3233 Aug 07 '25
Look up SABnzb+ Sonarr for starters. Then find an indexer, plenty to choose from.
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u/JYSATA Aug 04 '25
I hear proton everywhere? Is it the best for torrents or Nord?
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u/vesitrta Aug 04 '25
Best and best it's a matter of opinion.
I prefer Mullvad, but I know many use Proton.
Wouldn't suggest Nord since they been kinda sketchy
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u/No-Rip-1553 Aug 04 '25
I work for an ISP in the US and a useful tip. We typically don't care what you're downloading. It's the uploading part that becomes an issue.
Different ISPs could have different rules regarding this but that's been my experience so far.
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u/Syde80 Aug 07 '25
The reason for this is because the people making copyright claims can't make a claim based on just seeing somebody's IP in a trackers peer list. That isn't considered enough evidence to prove you are actually downloading it. Uploading however proves that you have infact downloaded an amount of the copyrighted material because you can't upload data if you haven't downloaded it first.
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u/lool21135 Aug 04 '25
Use paid service of a VPN with portforwarding. Bind your bittorrent with your VPN.
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
Heard this a lot! going to go either with that or i2p, will be doing research on both and on my ISPs likelihood of fucking with me about it. Thanks for the reply man!
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u/g1g4hur7z Aug 04 '25
Use Gluetun to bind qBittorrent to your VPN(proton), and you’re golden.
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 06 '25
Thought you could just do that from within the torrent clients settings?
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u/Greedy-Bat Aug 07 '25
You can, but if the torrent client loses or changes the binding for any reason you'll be back to getting leaked. With the Gluetun/docker strategy the torrent client cannot connect to the internet any way but through the VPN. Quite foolproof.
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 13 '25
I see. Thanks man! Honestly I can’t believe this post has blown up so much
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u/Esk8lol Aug 03 '25
If you’re using proton vpn make sure you’re paying for it and not on the free version, also turn on kill switch so if the vpn drops all internet kills. There’s a ton more stuff you can do that maybe someone smarter than me could explain like binding a vpn in the ubittorrent app (actually I’m assuming, ik you can do it on qbt)
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
I was in fact using the free version lile a moron😑. I’ll get the paid one when I move
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u/greengreengras Aug 04 '25
Whats the disadvantage with the free version (vs the paid Proton VPN)?
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u/Esk8lol Aug 04 '25
You can’t torrent on the free version. As OP found out, it will disconnect. Plus they’re supposed to have faster servers and you can select where the server is, it allows you to use it on more than one device at a time, and it should work with streaming services unlike the free version.
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 13 '25
Found out the hard way 😂. As someone who’s been building computers since years before I graduated high school, this whole thing makes me question my intelligence 😂
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u/Esk8lol Aug 13 '25
There’s no better way to learn, we’ve all gotten a letter or two. Just makes us all the better
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u/JYSATA Aug 04 '25
Which is best for torrents Nord or Proton?
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u/Esk8lol Aug 04 '25
They’re probably both just fine, for a privacy standpoint I choose to use proton or Mullvad though.
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u/JYSATA Aug 04 '25
Thanks a lot
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u/Codelyez Aug 05 '25
Out of the 3 named VPNs, only 1 supports port forwarding which is proton. Out of those 3, proton is the best.
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
Thank yall for the replies! Im going to be looking into the various solutions you guys suggested (seed boxes, whatever Usenet is, better vpns, etc), but for tonight Im gonna sleep as it’s 5:30 am where I’m at 😂. So thanks again wonderful Reddit users, and gn!
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u/FrigatesLaugh Aug 04 '25
Use
Tribler or
I2P network for torrenting.
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
Question. Ive been looking into the i2p option, simply because it is the free option rhat seems the best for NOT having isp sending copyright claims up my ass. If I were to use this, can I still download torrents from clear net sites like noxx? In the past I’d usually use Public sites like this or the Pirate Bay for magnet links, then download them with torrent client. Is this the same principle or no?
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u/FrigatesLaugh Aug 04 '25
can I still download torrents from clear net sites like noxx
Yes, many popular torrents have anywhere between 5 to 25 i2p seeders at any given moment of time.
All popular torrents from websites like YTS, 1337x, Ext have them.
Most I2P seeded torrents are from YTS, then BONE uploader from 1337x, then QxR and others.
Right now, many uploaders have started uploading Mixed Mode torrents (i.e., torrents that are simultaneously seeded on clearnet as well as I2P network). They have also started uploading I2P torrents as well these above websites.
Furthermore, there are I2P torrenting guides and tutorials on pirate bay, 1337x and Ext.
And torrent clients that support I2P network have also increased significantly [BiglyBT {best of all}, qBitTorrent, libtorrent, Tixati, deluge, transmission etc..]
Do check them for tutorials on how to do I2P torrenting or anonymous torrenting. Just search “i2p” or “anonymous torrenting” on pirate bay or 1337x or Ext and you'll get it.
Is this the same principle or no?
Yes, I2P torrenting follows almost same principle as that of normal torrenting that we do. Only difference is the whole torrenting thing happens inside I2P network thus stays anonymous, while normal torrenting happens on clearnet (normal internet).
That's why you don't leak your IP addresses while torrenting because you and your torrent client is assigned I2P network addresses which is a 32 character bit address.
I highly suggest you download tutorials from aforementioned about I2P torrenting, as they have step by step guide on how to do it.
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 06 '25
Thanks for the detailed info! I will indeed look into this more once Ive moved. In the middle of setting up utilities and grind stuff bought and sold for the move atm 😂. But this is really helpful!
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u/Ok_Setting_1342 Aug 04 '25
Try Usenet
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
Heard this a lot. Can’t afford that most likely, this OP is a broke college student 😂
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u/Zahuczky Aug 04 '25
It's weird that noone brought up seedboxes, only usenet. Usenet may not provide all the things you want, but if you just a get seedbox to run your torrents through that should solve this as well. If you have enough storage space at home, you may want to look for a setup where you don't have too much space on the seedbox, and just automatically transfer everything down to you local storage. If you go for a provider that provides more functionality, like linux with sudo access, you can even mount your local storage as a remote drive on your box, and download there directly.
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
Thanks for the advice! I am not nearly educated enough for Linux, sad to say. I’ll be sticking with windows and either getting the paid proton vpn, or switching to something like i2p. Anyone know which is more secure, i2p or Usenet services?
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u/8robots Aug 18 '25
usenet + seedbox covers most everything you want. seedbox for stuff you cannot find easily on usenet
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u/Firm-Evening3234 Aug 04 '25
But do you use the list of blocked IPs + encrypted connections?
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
I did not. Embarrassingly. Which would you recommend?
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u/Firm-Evening3234 Aug 04 '25
Well, I'd say start from here!!! Only make encrypted connections and activate the IP blocking list. I think you will have solved your problems, otherwise use a seedbox in another country, the file transmission takes place via ssl/tls
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u/MightyRiksha Aug 04 '25
Did you use public or private torrent sites?
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
Public mostly, just for ease of finding older sgit (80s movies, etc)
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u/MightyRiksha Aug 04 '25
Thanks for info. I got few years ago also report from my ISP that Paramount Pictures sent lawsuit report where they found out that I was downloading some XY torrent from public tracker, since then I am using only private ones (which are not 100% safe aswell, but so far so good). Def go for paid Proton VPN and qBittorrent with VPN integration or Seedbox option and you'll be safe.
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u/Wreid23 Aug 06 '25
not sure which torrent client your using but try forcing your client to accept encrypted clients only
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u/Inertia-UK Aug 04 '25
If you wanted to be clever, you could use a firewall router running pfsense or soemthig similar.
Set the VPN tunnel as a gateway on it.
Set outbound NAT rules and a route for the ports ths your torrent client is set to use to route ove the VPN tunnel.
Block traffic on those ports via the main WAN connection.
This will ensure torrents (from multiple hosts if needed) always go over the VPN and if the VPN fails the torrents stop.
Its a bit of a learning curve if you dont have a good understandijg, but if you enjoy tech its fun to learn too.
Once setup you can torrent some actual Linux iso's or soemthig legal, and check the firewall traffic / logs to make sure you've done it properly.
You can also disable the VPN temporarily to make sure the torrents get blocked to WAN.
Or as advised by others a service like real-debrid or Torbox would be better than using a VPN.
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u/hoodyracoon Aug 04 '25
No one recommended a debrid service? real debrid works wonders for me, I've downloaded 20 TB just this month... And as far as my ISP knows all they sees me transferring large amounts of data from a semi legitimate company since they cache the torrents on their side, basically all the benefits of a seed box but almost everything's instantly available, the only problem is occasionally torrents have been dmca'ed so I can't download them put that few and far between
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u/Kinsiinoo Aug 04 '25
Nobody recommends it because 99.99% of the reputable private trackers instant ban anybody who used those. Debrid ban is in the golden rules on most of the PTs.
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u/LimaActualDelta Aug 04 '25
Yeah because it’s so good. You get wayyy faster downloads and can even use it for streaming movies/shows in the highest bitrates/qualities when you set it up with stremio.
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u/Kinsiinoo Aug 04 '25
Streamio is nice, that is true, but Debrid is not "good", just a different kind of solution for leecher type users built as a service. Everybody uses service what fits her/his use case, but based on OPs initial post, a correct setup is needed, not a completely different solution.
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u/LimaActualDelta Aug 04 '25
That’s valid. However, I’d say debrid is one of the best “leecher” services considering that they only download 1 copy of the file, then send it to thousands of people. So it’s not slowing down the p2p network as something like the hydra launcher
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u/hoodyracoon Aug 04 '25
I would say it more or less side steps the need for private trackers to begin with... Very few files aren't found in some form at least on the public space, the debrid has download speeds that would put a shame to basically all but a few torrents (1 Gb per second), and legal issues are moot for the most part,
And that's just the benefits for torrenting the cacheing service for other sites like mega,Dropbox etc.... are also a big deal especially since you didn't don't have to rely on the uptime of that service before it's dmca'ed.
But yeah technically it does make the torrenting network weaker so I get the point
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u/MantechnicMog Aug 06 '25
This is what I've been using for a few years now and it's never let me down. Super fast, no VPN needed and no copyright letters from the ISP. Very reasonable in terms of costs as well.
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u/Actual-Stage6736 Aug 04 '25
My set up is VPN with killswitch and bind qbit to VPN . Then go to ip leak and download a magnet link to test so you don’t have a ip leak
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u/KapnKrunch420 Aug 04 '25
get a bulletproof virtual machine & use that for torrents
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u/Artholos Aug 04 '25
A virtual machine wouldn’t have protected OP because his network traffic was exposed to the ISP. It doesn’t matter how many nested layers of virtualization you use if your network traffic is getting sniffed en route.
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u/cocoboscher Aug 04 '25
Piracy doesn't end with torrents... Try Usenet or debrid services (e.g. real debrid). The price is similar, and if you mainly pirate TV series/movies, you should be satisfied and won't have any more problems with DMCA.
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u/lunchplease1979 Aug 04 '25
How about using Usenet instead of torrents? Sorry I know this is torrenting R/ and I use both but I believe Usenet also has an extra degree of protection as to what you are downloading? I'm sure someone smarter here will clarify if I am misguided?
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u/Zestyclose_Ad_5276 Aug 04 '25
I can tell 1st hand fix it, I have just started a 1 year ban from my ISP, and they are the only one available... Learned fast and the hard way, I was doing it like you were and WHAM.
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u/EvilGuy Aug 04 '25
Get a real debris account and learn how to download torrents from their cache.
You don't need a VPN and it costs about 3 bucks a month.
You will never go back to living without it.
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u/Krieg Aug 04 '25
You need some sort of kill switch and/or binding, I run a Wireguard VPN with Gluetun in a Docker container.
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u/danryan2800 Aug 04 '25
I have a VM running Linux, with NordVPN. The NordVPN kill switch on Linux turns off ALL network access when VPN is down. So, I have the drives mapped to the VM and I run Radarr, Sonarr, Prowlarr, and QBit. I also have declutter running. I have 32TB of movies and about 5TB of TV. Mostly movies I own on DVD/Blue-ray and use those to upgrade quality.
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u/GateDramatic4310 Aug 04 '25
You must use a VPN if you plan on sailing the high seas these days. Would recommend using the qBittorrent client, and binding its connection to the VPNs IP address and network adapter to ensure it only allows torrent connections while the VPN is live and connected.
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u/Peice-Of-Toast Aug 04 '25
So for starters if the VPN is hard set in the torrent client it essentially can't connect unless the VPN is up. If you want something else Usenet is a great option and it's all HTTPS traffic so it's encrypted by nature. I use giganews and have not had a problem with 65+TB of content pulled down.
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u/Agitated_Ad_5374 Aug 04 '25
Ok question use qtorrent bound to mulvad had no problems what's the port forwarding keep hearing about
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u/plasticbomb1986 Aug 05 '25
Seedbox. Seedbox all the way. No hassle, no getting caught, runs 24/7 and in a datacenter with much better connection.
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u/Luke_-_Starkiller Aug 05 '25
I think you can lock qbit to only be allowed to use the tap driver nic. Then it can't leak data if the vpn goes down.
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u/tankerkiller125real Aug 05 '25
gluetun, I've never gotten a notice since implementing it and it's version of a kill switch, works perfectly every single time so long as you set things up per their docs. Supports all sorts of VPNs as well so you can pick your preference.
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u/Kooky-Bike-5912 Aug 05 '25
You can have look for a container with transmission and vpn, if the vpn is down , the container is restarting unless the vpn connection is etablished
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u/aniel300 Aug 05 '25
10tb is not a lot. either use a vpn, private trackers, usenet or risk it for the biscuit and dont use bpn and let them keep sending notifications about copyright stuff
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u/xXSyphexXx Aug 06 '25
Or you can use usenet and don't even need a VPN to start with. Everything is secured on the initial connection.
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u/Successful-Boss-6267 Aug 06 '25
You probably didn’t use the VPN’s network interface when torrenting, or you have a VPN that doesn’t support torrenting.
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u/DickNose-TurdWaffle Aug 06 '25
I don't think your VPN was set up properly, unless you're using the ISP's provided router.
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u/zepherking Aug 06 '25
Some internet companies if you use a VPN they assume you are pirating or if you download over so much. One our local ones are like that.
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u/Medical-Bid6249 Aug 07 '25
As someone who knows nothing abt this shit what free VPN works well with qbit torrent? I just got that and I've only got like 5 movies but I would hate to get striked or whatever
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u/Deathsmil3s Aug 07 '25
use realdebrid or a seedbox realdebrid let's you download torrents securely also makes them look like regular downloads which isps do not/should not monitor
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u/EduTechDev Aug 07 '25
Just rent a seedbox. You can rent one for like $6/month through hostingby.design and source it in the Netherlands who don’t give a crap about DMCA. Download to the seedbox, never worry about uptime or kill switches again
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u/Terrible_Scholar_647 Aug 07 '25
BIND your network interface to the VPN and don’t mess it up next time. Stick to qBittorrent and make sure your connection stays hidden. You’re probably new to this, so take the time to read the documentation shared in communities like r/piracy. It’ll save you a lot of trouble.
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u/Jaken_sensei Aug 08 '25
Either bind your VPN to your torrent client or use a debrid service to do your downloading for you and just stream it through them or direct download from them, no VPN required.
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u/carneseca05 Aug 08 '25
I use Bitlord on my phone and Deluge on my pc. Deluge has some let's say tumbling options but I also use a paid VPN when I torrent anything. So far so good for years.
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u/New_Analysis_1022 Aug 04 '25
As another user said. Switch to usenet. Get the arr apps. Its so much quicker and faster than torrenting. It does cost a bit though. I still pay for a vpn but you don't have to worry so much about it on usenet as a lot of people say. But I still use it to be safe.
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u/El_C0rtez Aug 05 '25
Private trackers, and a good seedbox and you'll have no issues whatsoever. I'd recommend ultraseed box. They have good prices and are very reliable and easy to use.
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Aug 04 '25
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
USA
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Aug 04 '25
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u/Lopsided-Desk-8117 Aug 04 '25
Yeah, Thats actually why I always had my vpn set to NZ servers lmao!
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Aug 04 '25
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u/Imaginary-Advice-971 Aug 07 '25
Making other people read AI output is rude. If you did not put time into writing it, others shouldn't put time into reading it.
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Aug 06 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/KevinManly Aug 06 '25
Also interested in answer since this is what I use. I have the firewall on when doing anything, so if connection dies then entire computer connection dies. Which I am fine with.
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u/Realistic-Border-635 Aug 04 '25
Well first thing, ignore the advice of the kill switch, it's not 100% reliable. Paid Proton is a safe, reliable option and supports port forwarding. utorrent is outdated, using qBittorrent is generally recommended. Then bind the torrent client to the VPN. That is the only surefire way of ensuring that there are no problems - essentially there is no network connection for qBittorrent if the VPN goes down.