Any downside to using VPN?

Hi folks. I'm just about ready to take the VPN plunge with PIA but thought I'd run this by you guys first.

I've been using mostly Usenet and Torrents, mostly through Demonoid till they were shut down (haven't re-set a password yet) then Kickass. I may have received a notice or two over the years (possibly recently) from my local ISP which prompted me to start thinking about VPN. I have a Linux PC running Sabnzbd, Sick Beard, Couch Potato and Headphones pulling from Usenet and running my media server backend. It also has Transmission for manual torrent download, mostly for things I can not find on Usenet. I'm not a member of private trackers so it's mostly from Kickass. I have a separate Windows PC for gaming. I was thinking of running the Linux PC only through the VPN to minimize the impact on gaming.

I'm aware there will be some sort of speed hit going through the VPN but think that will be limited to the Linux PC's downloads only. Are there any other drawbacks to this sort of setup that I should consider? Any reason not to use PIA? Any other options I should be looking at instead? Thanks for you thoughts.

You should get a provider which would provide atmost privacy and try to use private torrents just to lower your risk appetite , the speed is only marginal around 3-4% depending upon the provider i use Feral VPN and i dont see any speed drops.

Thanks, I looked into Feral it seems to be a seedbox provider that also includes VPN with a seebox account. I was thinking of getting just a VPN account for my home computer. Are you recommending against this and getting a seedbox instead?

You can try this program, which is light weight and Portable - Ultrasurf, and you can find the Youtube about hiding or masking your IP with public Trackers. Works for me,is FREE. PIA is cool too,but NOT all Private Trackets let u ,use a VPN from my experience,check with your Private Tracker first.

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Originally Posted by jjmaden

Thanks, I looked into Feral it seems to be a seedbox provider that also includes VPN with a seebox account. I was thinking of getting just a VPN account for my home computer. Are you recommending against this and getting a seedbox instead?

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Either ways is great you get seedbox as well , PM me I can tell you more on Feral VPN it could save some money for you for atleast 1 year

absent_today, PM sent

Enlightened, thanks for the info. I don't use torrent that often any more so I'm not a member of any private trackers. Was on IPT but that was around 2010 and it looks like my account has long since been purged. I'm also running Linux on the PC that handles downloads and from a quick read it looks like Ultrasurf is windows only.

Ultrasurf can't connect to peers (since it refuses CONNECT requests on ports other than 443) nor tunnel UDP tracker traffic anyway, so the degree of protection it offers is minimal. If you need to be safe, pay for a good service that supports OpenVPN.

okay, I wanted to hide my Public IP with Public Trackers

Unless I misunderstood post #4, you said you use Ultrasurf to hide your IP in public torrents, but this is not possible, and nothing in that image proves otherwise. The only thing you can use Ultrasurf for in torrents is tunneling HTTP tracker announces, and with most public trackers using UDP these days, that doesn't accomplish a lot.

By the way, your real address is visible on that screenshot (bottom right corner), so I suggest removing it.