Thought it would be great to share a short guide on torrenting using a VPN for those who have just started or are thinking of using a VPN for that purpose. It will cover some basics as well as include some additional tips found online and within this community.
If you have found this guide, you probably already understand the reason why it’s important to have some protection while downloading or sharing files through torrent (but if there are still some questions, here’s a great article to check out).
VPN vs Proxy
Both are great privacy tools for torrenting, as both will mask your IP, however, there are some main differences - Proxy offers a set-and-forget setup (it might be more complicated to setup for beginners, but it’s a one-time thing), while VPN offers strong built-in encryption (some proxies don’t offer any). VPN protects the traffic of the whole device, while Proxy covers the app/client only. As for speed - proxies tend to be a little faster, though the speed difference compared to VPN isn’t that significant in most cases. It’s up to you which one to use, but overall VPN is a recommended option due to the stronger encryption (if you still want to try Proxy (Socks5), here are the guides for uTorrent, Deluge, qBitTorrent), thus, this guide will be focused on using a VPN.
Torrent Clients
There are lots of options, however, it’s best to stick with the open-source ones, such as qBittorrent, Deluge, Transmission. Be aware, that uTorrent is considered untrustworthy, but is still used by many.
Setup guide:
- Run NordVPN or other VPN client. Tutorials on how to set up NordVPN client on different OS’s can be found here.
- Connect to a P2P (Peer-to-peer) server from the Specialty servers list (although most NordVPN servers support P2P, it’s better to be safe than sorry). Location of the server doesn’t matter security-wise, but for a faster connection choosing the one closest to your location is better (clicking on P2P will choose the best/closest P2P server automatically).
- Enable the Kill-switch - it is a feature that stops your IP from being exposed if your VPN connection drops by either closing the apps you select (App Kill-switch) or by disabling the internet access until the VPN connection is reestablished (Internet Kill-switch). Windows has both options and they can be enabled through NordVPN app settings menu > Kill-Switch. macOS (IKE version from App Store) has a system-wide Internet Kill-switch enabled by default and does not have to be enabled, while the OpenVPN version (from the website) has an App Kill-switch option in the settings menu.
- Optional, but recommended - check if you’re connected properly. This can be done by simply visiting such websites, as ipleak.net . If you see the VPN IP address - you’re connected properly. Otherwise, check if there are any interfering active apps or extensions on your browser, if not, you can contact support for assistance. Additionally, once you launch the torrent, you can also use the Torrent Address Detection there - once clicked Activate - it will start a dummy torrent file download which then shows the detectable IP address on the website (more useful for Proxy setups).
- Additionally, you can bind your Torrent client to the VPN interface, which will act as a client-only kill-switch preventing it from downloading (and uploading) torrents unless the VPN connection is active. Not all clients support this, but in qBittorrent, navigate to Tools → Preferences → Advanced. Next to Network Interface select the name of your VPN adapter (depends on the VPN protocol you’re using - NordLynx is set by default). Nordlynx will usually be labeled as NordLynx and if you’re using OpenVPN, the VPN adapter could be labeled TAP or TUN, or Ethernet 2 (can be checked under VPN adapter options).
- Now make sure you’re launching the VPN before the Torrent client to avoid any inconveniences (you can also setup Auto-connect in the VPN client’s settings menu, so it launches and connects automatically) and you’re good to go!
Some tips for faster and secure torrenting:
u/50nathan has shared some awesome tips on the overall setup and provided a great explanation on why you should use each listed setting in comments of one of the posts here. Definitely worth checking out (don’t forget to upvote the comment for some well-deserved karma)!
In addition to that, here are some other tips:
- Experiment with VPN protocols and servers - these can make a huge impact on your overall VPN connection speed (make sure to change the Network Interface in the Torrent client (Step 5) if you decide to switch the VPN protocols).
- qBittorent comes with in-built encryption, however, it’s pretty weak when compared to VPN’s encryption and significantly lowers the number of available connected peers. If you’re already using the setup above, it is recommend to disable the qBittorrent Encryption mode. To do so, go to Tools > Options > BitTorrent > Encryption Mode and select Allow Encryption (if you wouldn’t be using a VPN, the recommended setting would be to Forced/Require Encryption).
- You can also enable DHT and Peer Exchange (PeX) to allow the client to discover more peers globally. Go to Tools > Options > BitTorrent and check “Enable DHT” and “Enable Peer Exchange”. If the speeds are still slow, you can apply rate limits on both peers on LAN peers and µTP protocols (Tools > Options>Speed > Rate Limit Settings and ticking both peers on LAN and µTP protocols.). qBittorent will then drop off the leeches without stopping sharing.
If you have any other recommendations or questions, drop a comment - would be really useful for everyone in the community!