anonymous bittorrenting which one and is it safe?

I've gotten a notice from my cable company regarding downloading. I would like to know what proxy or VPN I can use that will safely make me anonymous when downloading torents and that does not keep logs of your activity. Also, I use one machine for downloading and I have another machine that I use for buying things so it might have credit card information and bank stuff on it. so i wouldnt want that machine to go to a vpn or proxy. Is it safe to use one of these anonymous BitTorent services if I still do bank transactions on a separate machine. I just don't want my bank information geting hijacked. I use peerblock but that doesn't seem to work. i've also used demonoid. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance.
also how can i pay for the service without my ifo going on record.

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Originally Posted by super626

I have another machine that I use for buying things so it might have credit card information and bank stuff on it. so i wouldnt want that machine to go to a vpn or proxy.

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Then don't use it on that computer?

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i've also used demonoid.

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There's your problem. Demonoid is undoubtedly an excellent tracker, but it's open to everyone. That includes copyright agencies. IP filters are a good idea, but not 100% effective.

Do a little research on private trackers or Usenet (probably the better option if you're willing to spend money) to know how they would help.

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Originally Posted by super626

I've gotten a notice from my cable company regarding downloading.

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Did the notice was about excessive download or downloading pirated material? VPN would only help in latter case

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I would like to know what proxy or VPN I can use that will safely make me anonymous when downloading torents and that does not keep logs of your activity.

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You can refer to this article by torrentfreak. In it they have compared VPN provider based on there log keeping policy. Alternatively you can get a kimsufi server or VPS and set up VPN your self but wont recommend that unless you can devote time for trobleshooting

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Also, I use one machine for downloading and I have another machine that I use for buying things so it might have credit card information and bank stuff on it. so i wouldnt want that machine to go to a vpn or proxy. Is it safe to use one of these anonymous BitTorent services if I still do bank transactions on a separate machine. I just don't want my bank information geting hijacked.

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VPN is not put up on you connection. Its basically instructing your computer to send traffic first to VPN ip which than further transfer it. You will most likely be using OpenVPN utility on any computer you want to direct traffic throw vpn.

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also how can i pay for the service without my ifo going on record.

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only method for that is using bitcoins. Again the article i mention list two provider who accept bitcoins

thanks for the response. i will check out that article. i am willing to pay for a service like usenet. i wasnt sure about the vpn whether it directed all your traffic from your computers on your network or just the one you want to download from. thanks.

i think i will look more into ipredator. sounds the safest. anyone have any thoughts? the only thing is it sounds like it changes the ip address of all your computers? is this right? or is it as you guys said it changes just the one computers ip by using openvpn?

just to reiterate theres not any more risk by using these services as long as i dont do banking and such on the same computer as the one you download and have the vpn on. im sorry if im being a pain im just worried about that.

its not like i am doing mass quantities of downloading. a few programs, tv shows, and i would like to download a few movies when its safe. not cam versions but bluray or dvd versions. not sure if that matters...

anyway thanks again in advance. this will be a great help!

Have you tried encrypiting your data ? You might not have to go to such extreme measures as paying for a service. I use peerblock in conjunction with encrypting data ( which as easy as enabling transport encryption under advanced settings in Vuze, and I know that most of the other major torrent programs have that ability ) and I have never recieved any notice and have been using torrents for a few years now ( extremely heavy user 300Gigs + per month ) however I have known friends that have recieved notices even using peerblock but when they enable transport encryption there is never another problem. Don't forget to " Force transport encryption " or " require encryption " otherwise the program will only encrypt when it is convenient or lots of seeds.

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Originally Posted by super626

i think i will look more into ipredator. sounds the safest. anyone have any thoughts? the only thing is it sounds like it changes the ip address of all your computers? is this right? or is it as you guys said it changes just the one computers ip by using openvpn?

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With VPNs it's always just the computer(s) on which you connect to them, unless you go out of your way to change that (for example, using a NAT router that's connected to the VPN itself, and automatically tunnels every outgoing connection through it).

@anon: gratz on turning blue ;)

peerblock does work, but if you want to be anonymous try TOR or a VPN, tor is free and the project is awesome, although well its slow, on the other hand VPN's are also great but you would have to pay, and paying well you can always go for newsgroups like suggested, i think in the end it all depends on how much you download... does it justify an usenet account? ipdreator is good...

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Originally Posted by GrimmJow69

peerblock does work, but if you want to be anonymous try TOR or a VPN, tor is free and the project is awesome, although well its slow

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Tor isn't for P2P or heavy downloads. You cripple the network if you use it for such purposes, so please don't even consider it a possibility.

Oh and, thank you n00bz0r :)

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Originally Posted by n00bz0r

@anon: gratz on turning blue ;)

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Originally Posted by anon

Oh and, thank you n00bz0r :)

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power hungry :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by anon

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Originally Posted by GrimmJow69

peerblock does work, but if you want to be anonymous try TOR or a VPN, tor is free and the project is awesome, although well its slow

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Tor isn't for P2P or heavy downloads. You cripple the network if you use it for such purposes, so please don't even consider it a possibility.

Oh and, thank you n00bz0r :)

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Damn Right, wasn't even thinking, well he talked about being anonymous and well TOR came to mind,

The most anonymous, and gives you the most control is to rent a small VPS (Virtual Private Server) with a Linux distro on it then install OpenVPN and configure it. Then you have complete anonymous control of your own VPN with your own logs etc. The downside being you need to be able to configure the system yourself (it's not rocket science and there are all help files people ready to help if you have specific questions all over the place).

I was actually thinking about experimenting with Tor for torrent downloading. The only thing that was holding me back was the strange fact that I like internet explorer, and from what iv'e read you need to use firefox. I have done some research on the subject, and heard from lots of people not to use it for that, and that it's wrong, but I haven't heard much facts. Does anyone actually have some experience or proof on the matter, or is it akin to a fairy tale to frighten children, or telling your son he will get hairy palms?
Why can Vuze be set up for Tor in the darn settings ? I realize it's probably not nice to use Tor in this way, but I am simply curious, and only intellectually speaking at this point. It would be interesting for me to see some real results particularly on speeds vs vpns both upload and download results. I have an old computer ( theoretically speaking ) which I sometimes sacrifice it's integrity for certain experiments.....

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Originally Posted by mlindsay

I have done some research on the subject, and heard from lots of people not to use it for that, and that it's wrong, but I haven't heard much facts.

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Alright, here are some.

• It's slow.
• The network wasn't designed or meant for it.
• You clog the connections of the nodes your data go through, making things slower for others as well. Most of said nodes are the home computers of people like you and me.
• You could get your exit node in legal trouble, by downloading and uploading files while he's not even aware it's happening.

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Why can Vuze be set up for Tor in the darn settings ?

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http://wiki.vuze.com/w/Tor

Check the bolded sentences. :)

Thanks anon, that is very good info. I didn't know about the legal implications of my exit node, and that certainly doesn't sound like ground I want to tread on. :) However, it does lead into what I believe to be a good question : If my exit node is at risk of being exposed how anonymous is Tor really ?

Think of Tor as like this: a torrent wave for browsing the internet. Instead of sharing the data amongst each other, you're anonymously pooling and sharing your IP addresses. You can be someone else's exit node as easily as someone being yours. You're basically anonymous because you're all playing telephone in a crowd.

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Originally Posted by mlindsay

However, it does lead into what I believe to be a good question : If my exit node is at risk of being exposed how anonymous is Tor really ?

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Originally Posted by mjmacky

Think of Tor as like this: a torrent wave for browsing the internet. Instead of sharing the data amongst each other, you're anonymously pooling and sharing your IP addresses. You can be someone else's exit node as easily as someone being yours. You're basically anonymous because you're all playing telephone in a crowd.

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This. It's the same idea behind JonDo and GoogleSharing. If everyone had the same IP and client setup, tracking down a particular user would be virtually impossible - so, by sharing IPs and (in JonDo's case) having as many people as possible use the same browser settings, it makes it much harder.

If you want to do a little reading on the concept of anonymization through blending, click here.

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Originally Posted by mlindsay

I was actually thinking about experimenting with Tor for torrent downloading.

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Use it for connecting to The Deep Web instead. You'll find a lot more interesting things there than you would on some torrent tracker.

^ No kidding, really.
That's the only thing Tor is useful for.

Tor is super-slow and not suitable for downloading anything, in my opinion. I would only use it if I was so serious about obfuscating my IP that I wouldn't mind waiting a whole week for a HD episode of The Vampire Diaries. Browsing (slowly) is about all I've ever done with it as I've quickly given up on any downloads that I started.

This was a few years ago, great strides may have been made in the Tor software but I sincerely doubt it. I've not read anything to make me want to give it another try. I have, however, read many things that have made me want to stay the fuck away from it since many of its users don't use it correctly and do silly things like leave Javascript enabled. This means that your node could be contaminated by a stupid paedophile since that is the one hobby Tor is actually well suited to facilitating.

Avoid.

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Originally Posted by manker

Tor is super-slow and not suitable for downloading anything, in my opinion. I would only use it if I was so serious about obfuscating my IP that I wouldn't mind waiting a whole week for a HD episode of The Vampire Diaries.

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Go to an Internet cafe, download it to a USB stick, pay cash, use gloves. :ninja:

i got another notice for downloading suits tv show. (suits.s01e05) ITS JUST A TV RIP! COME ON COMCAST!

i think i enabled encryption. it was on enabled but i now set it to forced. i am using utorrent.
i also use peerblock but it doesn't seem to do anything.
i will check out usenet more.
i'll keep you posted with the forced encryption setting.

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Originally Posted by super626

i got another notice for downloading suits tv show. (suits.s01e05) ITS JUST A TV RIP! COME ON COMCAST!

i think i enabled encryption. it was on enabled but i now set it to forced. i am using utorrent.
i also use peerblock but it doesn't seem to do anything.
i will check out usenet more.
i'll keep you posted with the forced encryption setting.

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Encryption wont help you at all. Any ISP with even basic Deep packet inspection can intercept the data. I suggest switching to VPN or private site

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Originally Posted by super626

i got another notice for downloading suits tv show. (suits.s01e05) ITS JUST A TV RIP!

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It's still copyright infringement. :idunno:

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i think i enabled encryption. it was on enabled but i now set it to forced. i am using utorrent.
i also use peerblock but it doesn't seem to do anything.
i will check out usenet more.
i'll keep you posted with the forced encryption setting.

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Protocol encryption started as a simple measure to prevent traffic shaping. Even though it may provide security from passive sniffing under certain setups, it's not a full-fledged security measure.

If you're that touchy about security (which is okay), Usenet's probably the best - high speeds, no uploading required and you have encryption (SSL) there as well.

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Originally Posted by manker

^ No kidding, really.
That's the only thing Tor is useful for.

Tor is super-slow and not suitable for downloading anything, in my opinion. I would only use it if I was so serious about obfuscating my IP that I wouldn't mind waiting a whole week for a HD episode of The Vampire Diaries. Browsing (slowly) is about all I've ever done with it as I've quickly given up on any downloads that I started.


Avoid.

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Thanks Anon, Sounds like Tor is a waste of time for me, and you seem honest :) The whole point of my concidering experimenting with Tor and other methods is to get something better than my free VPN that is only capbable of a 100-200kbs. For that reason I don't generally use it, I find Peerblock and encryption to be enough, but I'm always thinking....I guess I'll give up on the Tor idea, but there are a couple of other methods other than VPNs I am curious about, such as Spotflux, getcocoon and other cloud security type programs. Lately most of my Torrent/download research is based on this area. I think I am about to pull the trigger soon on such programs ( on my old expendable computer ) and when I do I will post my results.

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Originally Posted by mlindsay

only capbable of a 100-200kbs.

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My experience is that speeds don't get any better than that for a free service.

Spotflux might work (didn't get around testing it yet) but you'll generally have to give up connectability, which makes seeding harder, and prevents you from "seeing" other peers who are in the same situation.

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Originally Posted by anon

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Originally Posted by manker

Tor is super-slow and not suitable for downloading anything, in my opinion. I would only use it if I was so serious about obfuscating my IP that I wouldn't mind waiting a whole week for a HD episode of The Vampire Diaries.

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Go to an Internet cafe, download it to a USB stick, pay cash, use gloves. :ninja:

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:lol:
Thanks. I did hope that someone would discern my veiled cry for help.

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Originally Posted by Artemis

The most anonymous, and gives you the most control is to rent a small VPS (Virtual Private Server) with a Linux distro on it then install OpenVPN and configure it. Then you have complete anonymous control of your own VPN with your own logs etc. The downside being you need to be able to configure the system yourself (it's not rocket science and there are all help files people ready to help if you have specific questions all over the place).

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And we are back to my original post, or using a VPN service like StrongVPN or iPredator (which cost more than my original suggestion but have the advantage of being already configured, rather than you having to set up the VPN yourself).
The simple argument though is that using a VPN completely anonymises your home IP address (even country range) and good luck to the authorities in sending out the C&D letters. The advantage of doing it through your own VPS is you have complete control, and if you are intelligent enough with your payment arrangements completely anonymous to your host as well.

I did check: suits.s01e05 is available via usenet; in fact it has been uploaded multiple times--including once with German sub-titles.

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Originally Posted by PastTense

I did check: suits.s01e05 is available via usenet; in fact it has been uploaded multiple times--including once with German sub-titles.

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and?

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Originally Posted by johhny

and?

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And that's the torrent super626 got his last letter for downloading. If he had grabbed it off Usenet, things would have been different.