protection while torrenting?

[icepik1234]

hello
new to the forum
now that thats over
I torrent. whats the best way for me to protect myself from getting caught?
i use utorrent and im concerned about having my ip tracked.
is there any way to totally hide myself when torrenting and also in my browser

[Ezekiel]

hello
new to the forum
now that thats over
I torrent. whats the best way for me to protect myself from getting caught?
i use utorrent and im concerned about having my ip tracked.
is there any way to totally hide myself when torrenting and also in my browser

Windows has an application that blocks all 'bad' IP addresses called PeerGuardian that a lot of people use with utorrent; other Bittorrent clients (such as Azureus) may have plugins or built-in functionality to do the same. By 'bad', I mean ranges of IP addresses used by organizations that want to catch you downloading (or generally disrupt your downloads), such as RIAA and MPAA in the USA.

Install PeerGuardian or an alternative.

Other than that, utorrent may have the option to encrypt communications; if possible, enable this. I know Azureus allows 'encrypted transport'.

Do not route all your traffic through a proxy (or the TOR network); this is bad etiquette and extremely annoying for legitimate users who desire anonymity. Why is is bad etiquette? Because you slow the service down to a crawl for others. Proxies are not the answer for peer-to-peer download anonymity.

Another thing to consider is using private trackers for Bittorrent, although organizations have been known to infiltrate these.

[iDavies]

What should I do if they show up at my door for downloading warez? My plan is to put my HDD in a microwave with a very strong magnet on top. But what could I do to BS my way out of it?

[icepik1234]

thanks alot
i actually downloaded peer guardian before i registered here
but i went to whatismyipaddress.com before and after and it never changed
but im assuming that is because its not a "bad" ip address?

also is Azureus better than utorrent?
what torrenting software do you recommend?

[Ezekiel]

What should I do if they show up at my door for downloading warez? My plan is to put my HDD in a microwave

A microwave would be useless for erasing your hard drive, apart from simply hiding the hard drive inside .

with a very strong magnet on top.

I'm not sure about this, but you'd need a seriously strong magnet to remotely affect it. Maybe an industrial electromagnet.

Of course there's good old thermite for turning metal into a molten wreck.

If you have enough time, you could run a quick Darik's Boot and Nuke on it.

Or, you could drill a few holes in it. Nobody is going to incur the cost of data recovery experts just for copyright infringement.

But what could I do to BS my way out of it?

Maybe leave your wireless connection open and say neighbors/random people outside did it? They're becoming wise to this though.

thanks alot
i actually downloaded peer guardian before i registered here
but i went to whatismyipaddress.com before and after and it never changed
but im assuming that is because its not a "bad" ip address?

Peerguardian doesn't change your address, it blocks you from connecting to these unwanted addresses. Any time your computer tries to connect to an address on peerguardian's blocklist, it blocks the connection. Thus, you avoid sending and receiving data with addresses that are dangerous to you (e.g., government).

also is Azureus better than utorrent?
what torrenting software do you recommend?

Azureus is bloated, utorrent is only for Windows. It's a hard choice for me.

I'd say stick with utorrent and have safepeer.