You should always have quality antivirus software on your computer to protect yourself from malware, hacks, and cyberattacks. This is even more important if you're going to be downloading torrents, as you'll be opening up your device to other connections - and some of these may have bad intentions.
Legal issues aside, downloading and uploading files through BitTorrent exposes you to a range of cyber threats. Luckily it's easy enough to protect yourself, you just need to use a VPN. A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, encrypts your internet connection and routes it through an intermediary server.
We always recommend using a VPN for torrenting. A VPN encrypts your IP address and prevents your Internet Service Provider from being able to monitor your Internet activity. Torrenting without a VPN means your Internet Service Provider will be able to see your online activity.
ISPs and copyright trolls are constantly monitoring P2P networks like Bittorrent and uTorrent to identify who is downloading and sharing copyrighted files. If you live in the US, UK, Australia, or Europe and you torrent these files without using a private and secure VPN, it's quite possible you will get caught.
Once a user is identified, the ISP will send a warning. There is a 3-tier system of warnings with two warnings per tier. After 6 warnings the user is blocked.
Use a Proxy Server. Proxies help hide your IP address by intercepting your connection requests, and forwarding them to the website you want to connect to. So, your ISP can't see what torrenting websites you're accessing.
Your internet service provider (ISP) and copyright trolls monitoring the BitTorrent network can take action if they catch you illegally torrenting. This can range from a warning letter and throttling (slowing down) of your internet connection speeds to legal action – although the latter is increasingly rare.
Yes, it is possible to download a computer virus from a torrent file. Torrent files are often shared between users over peer-to-peer networks, which can make them vulnerable to malicious software and other types of threats.
The potential penalties for breaching the law include fines of up to $117,000 for individuals and a possible term of imprisonment for up to five years.
Therefore, if that VPN disconnects, it will stop protecting you. In other words, it stops doing its job. You intend to hide your torrent activity, but disconnection is actually going to expose it.
Your ISP will only know that you are torrenting when someone who has monitored your IP address engaged in torrenting and proceeds to tip the ISP off. That said, ISPs can usually guess when you are torrenting by analyzing the amount of bandwidth you are consuming.
Yes, NordVPN is the perfect choice for torrenting: especially when it comes to safety. For example, it uses market-leading AES-256 encryption, which is virtually impossible to break. Also, the tool features the extra-fast and secure NordLynx tunneling protocol, which is a modification (or an improvement) of WireGuard.
uTorrent itself is not a virus, but third-party security software often flag it. This is most likely due to complaints that uTorrent tricks users into installing unwanted software. We ran the uTorrent client through popular antivirus software, and 28 out of 66 flagged uTorrent as malicious.
Whitelist the uTorrent client from your Windows Defender firewall to prevent it from blocking the connection. Disable your antivirus temporarily if you are using one. If you can't do that, you should at least whitelist the uTorrent client through your antivirus settings.
Putting the display to sleep is like turning the display off while leaving the rest of the computer running. Yes, your torrent will continue to download as well as everything else on your computer if you set the display to sleep.
Is uTorrent or BitTorrent bad for your computer? No, both apps are considered to be safe. However, you should pay attention when installing – uTorrent offers some third-party app which is in a grey area. And finally, make sure that your downloaded torrent doesn't contain malware.
uTorrent is not 100% safe especially for versions downloaded from third-party websites. If you can't uninstall uTorrent or its bundled software in Windows Settings, try to do it in Control Panel. Or, just rely on a professional software uninstall program to remove the applications you don't want from your machine.
Piracy is a federal crime. This means that you can go to prison for more than a year, if convicted.
Your torrent client may then make a connection over IPv6 to a peer, and your true IPv6 address is leaked. If your torrent client is set to proxy via another machine on your local network – one not running a VPN – your real IP address may leak (either IPv4 or IPv6).
Yes. In order to connect you to the internet and allow you to visit websites, your data must pass through your ISP's gateway servers. This can allow your ISP to track the websites you visit and any downloads you make.
In 2019, BitTorrent was a dominant file sharing protocol and generated a substantial amount of Internet traffic, with 2.46% of downstream, and 27.58% of upstream traffic. As of 2013, BitTorrent had 15–27 million concurrent users at any time.
Torrenting is a common occurrence due to its convenience. Most entertainment industries already focus on subscription services like Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Go. Users would rather depend on torrenting than pay for multiple services. In 2021, pirate websites got 182 billion visits worldwide.
Service location
Most VPN services will specify which servers allow torrents, but a popular and easy choice is Sweden. The speeds are usually good, and most services include Swedish servers in their networks along with many other countries that are torrent-friendly.
Overall, we consider ExpressVPN to be the best torrenting VPN on the market. Every one of its 3,000+ servers is P2P optimized, and it's fully audited so you can trust its privacy. Plus, you'll get three months free through Tom's Guide, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.