Edit: I always download torrents, and would like to return the favor. I don’t have any content I want to upload as of yet; I just want to make the things I’ve downloaded more available.
Edit 2 / Personal Upd8t:
Fingerprints, port forwarding… this is a world currently beyond me. Though [part of] my initial question’s been answered: DON’T USE NORD (someone gave it a favorable mention, but there were many more against it). I’ve cancelled a 3yr subscription and reclaimed $125. Now… for someone who wants to P2P the right way (me), where do I start?
Regards:
I really appreciate the responses, folks. This post went up only hours ago. I’m not sure where I’m headed but I’m more confident about the way there.
Has it ever been unsafe to seed with Nord?
Note that Nord is a really bad VPN choice if you wanna use P2P networks since it offers no port forwarding.
Anybody ever use torguard?
These are all very interesting points and certainly food for thought. My question to all this is, has there been an occasion when someone has used Nord or any VPN when downloading a torrent, and this action has been identified by their internet provider?
You can look through this list and look into their features and prices. You don’t need port forwarding like others mention in this list. You just simply need a VPN that allows peer to peer, them hopefully having a kill switch in their client, which kills the connection in case of a disconnect.
Disable IPv6 (which can usually be done through the VPN client), change your DNS server settings (which can also usually be done through the VPN client) and also what you can do to stay safe is bind the network adapter for the VPN through your torrent client (not all of them allow you to do this, but the most popular that does is qBittorrent. It should be under the options and under Advanced and you look for Network Interface Here you select the VPN adapter. To find out which one it is you go into the Control Panel on Windows, hit Network and Internet, hit Network and Sharing Center, then on the left hit Change adapter settings. You should see one for a VPN here, it won’t be the Ethernet or Wifi one. Once you find it out, go back to Qbittorrent and under Network Interface select the VPN adapter.)
Hijacking to ask a question about nord: it says I can use up to 6 devices… if I only have two does that mean I can let my buddy use my account?
As for your 2nd question, use Mullvad or Windscribe.
I read there was an hack in October 2019, and now I’m unsure if this is safe. I need it mostly for popcorntime and connect safely to public/shared WiFi. The price seems good (3.50$) per month, but I’m not technical enough to know if it’s the right choice for me
My confidence in it is nearly crushed after the preceding thread. Still, I’d like to know more about your experience with it if you’re willing to elaborate: how often you torrent, what you download / upload (movies, games,etc), how long you’ve used it.
I’m interested mostly in books.
I’m new to all this, but I just started using NordVPN. What exactly are the steps I should follow before opening my torrent client. Do I just connect NordVPN and I’m good to go? Or should be changing some setting or something? Thanks!
Port forwarding will make you more identifiable.
I have. What do you want to know?
I was just wondering anyone’s opinion on it. I actually have it and only use it for downloading torrents. There have been a few times where it disconnected though and I couldn’t figure out how or why. Even customer support couldn’t tell me why. They had me do some tests and said everything seems fine.
If you forward a port from the VPN provider, then you will be the only user on their server with that port. This makes you uniquely identifiable.
That’s not to say someone will know who you are or what you’re doing, but the benefit of an anonymizing VPN is to put you into a pool of many other users. In a pool of many other users all connected to the same VPN server, nobody knows who is doing what, as long as the provider does not log it. Anything that happens could have been done by any of the users, with no way of telling who.
If you connect to a VPN server with many others, and you request exclusive access to a port on that server, you are no longer part of the anonymous pool, as you’re now using your own port.
EDIT: This has nothing to do with NORD VPN, it’s just networking. I’m sure PIA used to state a similar risk in their docs but I can’t find it now.
I’m now more confused then I once was, but please continue
This is meaningless tho. The only entity that can identify you is the VPN provider and they would have better methods to identify you then your forwarded port. You should not fear having a forwarded port IMHO.
That would require that a 3rd party gain access to whereever it says that “User XXXX forwarded port XXXX” and in cases with VPNs like Mullvad all it would lead them to (Assuming they gain access) would be an account number.
I’ve got Nord too, so I am equally confused and intrigued.
The only entity that can directly identify you is your VPN provider, yes (assuming you aren’t exposed through browser fingerprint, dns leaks e.t.c.), but there are indirect ways that a profile could be built, and your forwarded port is another part of your digital fingerprint. The fact that you even bother to forward ports is part of your fingerprint. That port alone won’t identify you, but it will add to other things.
It is certainly less anonymous than not doing it. It’s up to you to decide on whether the risk is acceptable.
I just watched a video, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/VPNTorrents/comments/dxxi87/stop_using_vpns/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share, that said popular VPNs weren’t good. It mentioned Nord specifically… how it got hacked in 2018 and that users activity was being monitored.