While using my VPN (Astrill), I got served with a warning notice from Spectrum. Although it was my first notice, there was a hyperlink in the notice for https://notices.charter.com After clicking to that page I was prompted to sign in using my (Spectrum) account number and the reference number listed at the top of the notice. Then I was taken to a page where there were links to 6 alleged downloads going back to August when I switched from Verizon to Spectrum (Time Warner). Each of these 6 hyperlinks linked to a specific complaint letter/notice sent to Charter Communications from the copyright holders (or corporate owners) of the material. In each case, it was an alleged movie download. (I was totally unaware of the 6 complaints – or even a single complaint – until today.)
I’m baffled how this happened as I have a VPN … and even if the downloads had different IPs how they managed to track this back to me? I thought VPNs like Astrill scrambled things up making it impossible to track?
So who or what betrayed me?
Astrill (my VPN)?
BitTorrents?
Spectrum? Note: Astill never let me down until I switched from Verizon to Spectrum. (The reason I switched was that Spectrum seemed to offer a better deal – and Verizon doubled my bill.)
On a theoretical note, I’m also unclear how downloading a file (be it a movie or whatever) amounts to “copyright infringement,” considering I’m not re-selling or using any piece of it or calling it mine. I mean, if I were to hand out 200 free books to promote a book, and someone received that free book – I could not accuse that person or the person they passed it along to of “copyright infringement.” That person just got a free book – that’s all. I think that called promotion, not Copyright Infringement. I could later write a review on it and tell others about it. Apparently, there’s a corporate planet, where they seem to make up their own laws (and claim ownership to everything), and then there’s a normal broke-ass planet where the rest of us live (where we own absolutely nothing).
Sounds like you are leaking somewhere and Spectrum cares about it more than Verizon, or Verizon gets it’s copyright infringement from a different source that wasn’t detecting you. Maybe try going to ipleak.net and dnsleaktest.com/ to check and verify you aren’t leaking anything. I’m sure there are other tests out there. Not sure if you have a killswitch or not but that could also be failing if your VPN disconnects for some reason.
Also you giving a book away for free that you purchased 200 times is completely different than making a copy of the book you purchased once and giving away 200 copies of it.
I can’t tell you the exact reason why this happened, but somehow I think it might be that your vpn’s killswitch didn’t do the job well. Anyways, if you decide to switch vpns, I can assure you that Nordvpn is a good choice, since I used it while being in Germany for about a month and nothing have happened.
I haven’t used Astrill for many years, but as I remember from the last time I did, the default protocol in the app was something called “Openweb”. Openweb is actually a web proxy, not a VPN. It will only tunnel web browser traffic and certain apps that use the system proxy setting. It won’t tunnel torrent traffic.
Check this setting and change it to Openvpn if it’s set on Openweb.
By the way, Astrill is mostly just used by people in China for bypassing internet censorship. It’s not a good privacy VPN or torrenting VPN.
I would check what IPs are being sent when using the VPN by using the magnet link on ipleak.net. I remember I used to have issues with the PIA program on Windows a few years ago, where the program would say I was connected, but I really wasn’t. I would fail the IP address checks, and even with the magnet link. Running the program as admin would fix it. I don’t know why I had to run the program as admin, as it should already be set to go, but I would check to see if your torrent client is actually sending the VPN IP instead of your own.
I had my service temporarily suspended by Charter today because of copyright infringement. I always use a VPN, currently using NordVPN. I had Comcast for more than five years and never received a notice, been with charter 7 months and they already suspended it. I have a feeling if you’re downloading over a certain amount in a month they track what you’re doing and have a way around the VPN. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish I still had the ability to get Comcast.
Downloading isn’t the issue. It’s you seeding the file you’re torrenting.
Your actual IP address might have gotten leaked because:
Your PC got disconnected from your VPN and even it was only for a second, it was enough time for the Time Warner to find out someone using your IP was downloading their content illegally.
Something is wrong with your VPN connection. It could have leaked your DNS address or it isn’t masking your IP address when torrenting.
Go to ipleak.net and make sure that none of your actual IP addresses are showing. Also, do the torrent download test to check if your torrent client is downloading through your VPN or your ISP.
EDIT: Also, using VPNs doesn’t make you impossible to track. It just makes it harder.
There are companies, organizations, and individuals whose jobs it is to break VPN encryptions to test the security of the VPN and find possible vulnerabilities so they can patch them.
There are also government agencies who decrpyt VPN encryptions so they can track criminals online that are doing illegal stuff such as selling illegal stuff, uploading child porn, etc…
Make sure you switch VPN servers often your VPN and if you’re looking to switch VPNs from Artrill, google “court proven no log VPNs”
It was set to “OpenVPN” … because of connection problems with StealthVPN mode. Maybe it should always be “StealthVPN mode” … I sent an email to Astrill to ask. There may be other boxes to check that I’m not aware of. So maybe they’ll let me know. Needless to say, I’m a bit leery about using Astrill now – or any VPN.
ISPs actually do not care what you do. It is copyright owners that track what you are doing, then report you to your ISP. My best guess is, the copyright owners in question, hire hackers to identify people who try to hide behind a VPN.
My advice, find forums that upload content to filehosts. Uploaders on these sites usually use premium filehosts. Unlike torrents, DDLs (Direct-Download-Links), whether free or premium, are not tracked by copyright owners. Well, to be exact, copyright owners will never pinpoint you as one of the downloaders, if you have downloaded such links. At most, copyright owners contact these filehosts, notify them that copyrighted content is being shared on the site, and warn the site to remove the content before the copyright owner takes legal action. So, if your goal is to prevent getting temporarily suspended from using the internet, your money is better spent on premium filehosts, instead of unreliable VPNs.
Thanks so much for this and your other comments. My actual IP address was never mentioned in the notices … yet they still tracked it back to me somehow. I do have a “cable connection” and I don’t know if that makes a difference. I’m not wireless, in other words.
My real IP address doesn’t show up using ipleak.net
I wish there was alarm bell – like a fire alarm – that goes off when your VPN drops you but I’m sure that wouldn’t suit the government.
A kill switch works by detecting traffic outside the VPN tunnel… which means a leak actually occurs. Do it right, set firewall rules to lock all traffic to the adapter… this way when the tunnel goes down the client just stops working. (you can google this, it will take just a little effort.)
Stealthvpn is a special protocol for bypassing the Great Firewall of China. It won’t make any difference for you except your speed might be slower due to the extra layer of encryption.
You have a leak somewhere. Could be the VPN momentarily disconnecting and exposing your IP. Does the Astrill app have a kill switch? Is it enabled? You could also set your torrent client to only use the VPN network adapter, that would be more reliable.
Hey man. I contacted Astrill and discussed about your issue. Heres what they said:
si 8:25:18 PM
do u have a killswitch?
Harold 8:26:59 PM
We have an option off kill switch in our Application.
si 8:29:00 PM
Ok… theres a guy on reddit who says that he received a copyright infringement notice from his isp from dling torrents. Was wondering how that may have happened with your vpn
Check to see if your VPN has stronger encryption settings even if you confirm the IP is not leaked. I had multiple confirmations of no IP/DNS leak and I still received a notice from spectrum, so I bumped my encryption from 2048 to 4096 and never received another notice.