A lot of my files were shitty 480p versions of movies from the Napster days. Now they’re all 1080p, with a few 720p exceptions (mainly tv series episodes). All in all 500 something files in total. Now just watching uTorrent slowly download them all. Hopefully my VPN keeps the eyes off of me…

  • drunkensailor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    671·
    1 year ago

    Now just watching uTorrent slowly download them all. Hopefully my VPN keeps the eyes off of me…

    1. qbittorrent is better in many many ways compared to utorrent and hasa very similar interface. qbit is open-source, utorrent isn’t. qbit doesn’t have ads or malware, utorrent has or has had both many times. qbit allows you to bind to a specific network interface (e.g. you VPN connection instead of regular ethernet one) which offer better protection if your vpn drops. feel free to do your own research here or elsewhere on the web if you doubt any of my points.
    2. if your VPN is a free one, that wont protect you at all. those guys will squeal and turn over server logs with ip address at the drop of a hat. Even a lot of paid-for VPNs are shitty lying bastards. So picking a good vpn can be challenging there are probably posts here covering recommendations but generally you want ones that have either been taken to court and were unable to provide logs OR ones that have been audited by a respected 3rd party firm that can confirm they are truly a “no log VPN”. I can recommend PIA, NordVPN, and Mullvad as some ones that are highly unlikely to turn over any logs (bc they don’t have them) but there are others and doing your own research isn’t a bad thing. The site torrentfreak.com does an article once a year or so that covers a few of the more popular VPNs and different aspects of thier privacy but they don’t declare a “best vpn”, just rate them on varius privacy and security aspects.
    3. Even if you have a good VPN, check that you aren’t leaking your real IP via dns lookups: ipleak.net or dnsleaktest.com
    4. Check that you torrent client set up not to leak: search for ‘torrent ip leak test’ and do one of the torrent ip leak tests. ipleak.net hasone of these if you scroll down on the page; look for “Torrent Address detection” and click “Activate” button and it will give a magnet link to start test with
    5. additionally, you can set up a “vpn killswitch” to prevent traffic from going over regular internet if you vpn drops. If you using qbit, this probably isn’t strictly required but many people here like to have this as an additional safety. i can’t really provide details on this bc the process varies widely. A lot of VPN client apps have this feature built in. But even if they don’t, you can set something like this up in most firewalls but exact steps will vary depending on OS (Windows/Linux/Mac) and which firewall you are using (or I guess whether or not you even have one installed).
    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Any setup required? I tried it out and my speeds were in the tens of megabits max. Pretty sure nothing was capped in settings.

      • drunkensailor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        Maybe? Been awhile since I’ve messed with my setup and while I don’t like slow, I prioritize security over speed so my settings might not be what you want anyway. so I’d recommend just looking up a guide; it is an extremely popular torrent client and there should be tons of guides out there. Or if you not sure which guide to use, just create a new post here - lot of people use it and probably have set it up from scratch more recently than me. I know some people say to open ports on the router but i’ve never liked the idea (I view it as less secure) but some people swear by it.

        I can recommend that you test the following:

        • make sure you are using a VPN server that isn’t too far away. If you were in say San Franciso and selecting a VPN in New York or Europe, your speeds will be less than if you selected one in Seattle or Los Angeles
        • do a speed test off your vpn vs on it (e.g. speedtest.net). ALL VPNs will be slower than regular non-VPN due to the encryption and having less hops. But you can see how much difference it makes when you switch servers and if you have more than one VPN service, then you can find servers in the same city for both and compare which service is faster.
        • If your VPN has a modified WireGuard service (PIA and Nord both do IIRC), then that should be faster. I say modified bc the unaltered Wireguard spec has a privacy red flags so if you have a VPN service that offers it, make sure you read up or at least skim some reviews and whatnot to make sure they handled those issues that in a way that doesn’t leave your identity exposed. PIA and Nord both did that (I think Nord’s was called something else not actually WG but idr).
        • make sure you do your testing on popular torrents - but if it is anything you could get in trouble for, then you should do all the leak tests I mentioned above FIRST. Only mentioning, bc I had a friend that was testing his shit on some obscure thing he was looking for and saying it was slow but when i helped him configure his settings, we tested with something popular (i think whatever the current hottest show was) and he was actually getting a lot better speeds than he thought.

        edit: just searched on dbzer0 and wasn’t seeing much on this. I did find a reddit post and a makeuseof guide that both mention stuff about improving speed. For the reddit one, I think the patched exe they are talking about is likely a dev build and since that was from a few years ago, whatever fix is probably already merged in and no longer needed. will compare the other settings vs mine and post back

        edit2: are are the differences i have from the guide:

        • makeuseof has (Tools > Options > Speed) “Upload and download rate limits are set to infinity by default, and it’s recommended not to tinker with these limits. Most often, users limit the upload rate to save bandwidth and get faster download rates, but the torrent client’s choking mechanism compromises download rates when upload rates are limited, making the download process much slower.” - on mine, i had infinite down and was restricting upload. But I kind of think MUO’s advice is better and increased my upload amount. Mine was 100 KiB/s, now 1000 KiB/s. Only reason I don’t put it on infinite is I am on a capped internet and tend to leave my downloaded stuff around for sharing so I want to avoid uploads consuming too much of my monthly bandwidth and I don’t leave my client running 24/7 so not sure how reliable bandwidth settings are.
        • makeuseof has (Tools > Options > BitTorrent) "In the dropdown menu next to Encryption mode, select Allow Encryption. " but on mine I have it as “required Encryption” - probably this would make mine slower than the suggestion tho
        • Tools > Options > Connection settings I have “TCP and uTP” (same as MUO) but that old reddit thread was recommending only TCP.
        • MUO has (Tools > Options > Connections) : "Ensure the box beside Use UPnP / NAT-PMP port forwarding from my router is checked. " - as I mentioned, I don’t do port forwarding so I leave mine unchecked but there is probably a speed hit for this.
        • There was also something about "Don’t download multiple torrent files at the same time. This will then allocate all available bandwidth to downloading a single file, resulting in a faster download. " - I generally ignore this but there IS some truth to it. I have had hundreds of things queued before and gotten awful speeds. I recommend just not going overboard with how many you are running at once.
        • Tools > Options > Advanced: Find the network interface and select the one that corresponds with your VPN. If you aren’t sure, for most Windows users you can connect to VPN then find from command line using ipconfig /all and look for something that is NOT disconnected and probably has TAP-Windows Adapter Vx if using OpenVPN-Protocol (most VPNs) but might be different for wireguard. For Linux users, to show network interfaces run ip -4 -o -br addr - usually in linux ethernet interfaces start with an E and wifi interfaces start with a W, lo is localhost, and 99% of the time the vpn interface will be named tun0 if you are using a VPN with OpenVPN-protocol (most of them) but might be something different for wireguard or if you have customized things.
    • Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      1 year ago

      You didn’t even mention QBittorrent’s best feature: it has a search engine that searches across lots of different torrent sites, so you don’t need to check each one!

      • drunkensailor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I agree that that is a very nice feature. So are the rss feeds.

        But to me “best” is anything that makes it easier to avoid getting caught so the network interface binding is still my favorite 😉

        • Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          IIRC you have to enable it separately, but it’s not very difficult to do. Just google it if you run into trouble

  • roofuskit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    291·
    1 year ago

    Radar and sonarr would just automatically upgrade those for you. No need to mass delete and redownload.

      • FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.worldEnglish
        17·
        1 year ago

        Umm from my understanding they handed over their users data some years ago. I think the authorities might’ve asked, you may have to google that.

        I’ve been using Mullvad, it’s like $5/mo and their servers are fast. They have servers all over the world. Mullvad did away with port forwarding. This article favors Nordvpn but it depends what your needs are

        https://www.safetydetectives.com/blog/nordvpn-vs-mullvad-vpn-comparison/

        Edit 1, they do comply with law enforcement https://www.pcmag.com/news/nordvpn-actually-we-do-comply-with-law-enforcement-data-requests

        • d00phy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          1 year ago

          Whether or not they comply with law enforcement is not the issue. Any company will comply with their local law enforcement if they want to keep their doors open. What’s important is what data they keep on their users. Unless I’m mistaken, Nord, like many others, only keeps billing info and limited connection info for load balancing purposes (deleted after something like 15-minutes). So, the Panamanian government (where they’re headquartered); who IIRC has no data retention laws and isn’t part of 5-eyes; asks for logs, they will get something, but not much to tie a specific customer to anything.

          Also, Nord has been independently audited multiple times in the past. Something quite a few other providers can’t say.

          It’s popular to bash on Nord b/c they advertise a lot, but I haven’t seen a legit reason not to use them. If it exists, I’d love to see it.

        • Patches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          5·
          1 year ago

          Isn’t the real problem if they comply with mega conglomerate corporations?

          I’m not worried that FBI has my data. They guaranteed already have all of it.

          I just don’t want the house of mouse taking my home because I stole checks notes Shrek 4: The Shrekening

          • FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            Yea I was using Boleh VPN at one point and somehow got caught with Avatar the way of the water.

            My VPN might’ve turned off and I didn’t know. Switched to Mullvad and haven’t had no issues.

            I just played it off that something might be wrong with my modem or router and will replace it soon. But I make sure I’m connected the whole time.

      • thirteene@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        They check the boxes for log and data retention but they are a trashy organization. Skim their terms of service which states that security and uptime are not guaranteed. Support is a 36 hour turn around and they will hamstring you out of the 30 day return policy. Their client is absolute garbage with built in features to cause you to leak. I leaked twice in the first 2 months. Highly discourage them, but they are a soulless organization checking minimum requirements.

      • Patches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        If it is for piracy - I have used Nord VPN for 6+ years now because it’s like 2 years for $100 and I am just fine. I have never received a letter, or an email about piracy.

        As always check for a DNS leak and if possible setup a VPN kill switch (built-in Nord), or use Qbitorrent (my choice) which has its own kill switch.

        If you want a VPN for more nefarious purposes I can’t, and wouldn’t help with that.

  • Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.worldEnglish
    213·
    1 year ago

    I raw dog my torrents with no VPN

    Can someone tell me the actual risks involved? I always thought it was so you didn’t get your ISP up your ass and shut you off, my power company is my ISP and they don’t give a shit

    What really am I risking here?

    Edit: US

    • Koordinator O@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      1 year ago

      Me, Germany, 20 years of no VPN = nothing ever happend Friend of me, also germany, downloads Minecraft once without VPN = 800€ cease and desist letter So yeah. Pretty much a gamble.

    • SeatBeeSate@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      17·
      1 year ago

      One of three things, one your ISP doesn’t give a shit and nothing happens. Two, you get nasty-grams telling you to cease or have your service cut, three your information gets forwarded to the copyright owners company and you possibly are fined or worse brought in by a lawsuit.

      • Alec@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        Yep, yep and yep. The nasty-grams are typically referred to as “love letters”.

  • burliman@lemm.eeEnglish
    51·
    1 year ago

    Don’t radarr and sonarr download better versions automatically? Seems these measures were drastic.

      • gim@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        No. Private tracker means you have to be part of a special club to get the torrent link, not just find it on nyaa or whatever

          • gim@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Idfk + frankly it’s probably not worth it cause they typically have expectations of being hardcore and not just casually downloading and seeding. What are you looking for? Have you looked on soulseek?

              • gim@lemm.eeEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                It’s advertised as a music platform but it has whatever users decide to make available. In addition to the majority of my music library, I’ve gotten movies and hentai manga from it lol. I’ve seen applications and games on it too. Joining it and sharing your media/other stuff is a great way to give back