The media often associates BitTorrent with illegal file sharing, but there are legal uses for it as well. Unfortunately, some Internet service providers (ISP) have placed bandwidth throttling restrictions on torrent downloads or even blocks on torrent trackers, preventing legal downloads right along with the illegal ones. But there are ways to still get quality torrent downloads, protect your online identity, and make sure your downloads are secure.
1. Encryption
Most torrent clients support encryption, which makes it difficult for prying eyes to see exactly what you are downloading. Not all peers may have the ability to connect with your encrypted stream, but most will. The headers and the stream will be encrypted, preventing your ISP or others from knowing that the data you are transferring is coming from torrent downloads or uploads.
As a result of this encryption, you will be able to work around any bandwidth shaping or throttling that your ISP may have in place. It is important to note, however, that this will not make you anonymous to torrent trackers or peers. Therefore, illegal downloads can still be monitored.
2. Port Forwarding
The BitTorrent protocol has certain common ports that most clients use. In an effort to slow down illegal movie and music downloads, some ISPs may block these ports. In order to still get your legal torrents through, you can tell your router to use a different port and forward it to your computer. You can even randomize the port in your client, such as uTorrent or Transmission so that your client will use a different port each time it starts. Then, enable UPnP (Universal Plug-N-Play) on your router to make sure it detects your BitTorrent client and gives it access to the Internet.
3. Block Spying Peers
Some people and organizations monitor torrent trackers and set themselves up as fake peers. They connect to you when you start downloading and then have your IP address. Again, if you are doing nothing illegal, you may have no reason to care, but if you are particularly paranoid, you can use a tool like PeerBlock or a filter list from organizations that keep track of bad peers. This can also increase security, as it prevents peers who might send harmful files from connecting to your computer.
4. Automated Limits
Something that has become increasingly important in BitTorrent optimization are download limits, especially now that ISPs like Comcast and AT&T are instituting bandwidth caps. While. you want to be a good file sharer and seed torrents for as long as you can, you cannot afford to have people connecting to your computer 24/7 at the highest speeds. Most BitTorrent clients have settings to limit download speed, the number of simultaneously connected peers, the number of files you want to seed, and even the time of day you want files to be available.
5. VPN or Proxy
If you are extremely concerned about keeping your torrent downloads under the radar, a VPN or proxy is the ultimate solution. With either solution, your torrent downloads will be hidden completely, including your IP address. Most good VPN and Proxy services charge subscription fees, but some of the best are fast and secure, making them worth the investment. If you live in a country that is particularly anti-torrent, even against legal torrent downloads, a VPN or proxy will protect your digital rights and keep you safe. Some Internet users also find it very important to stay anonymous, no matter what they do, and may use VPNs or proxies for web browsing, emails, and all other general Internet usage.
Why It Is Important
Beyond illegal file sharing, many free and open source software projects, such as Linux distributions, use BitTorrent to distribute their programs, effectively lowering bandwidth costs. Some organizations even share legal movies, such as “Sintel”, the Durian Open Movie Project and “Big Buck Bunny”. Moreover, many indie game developers also use BitTorrent to distribute their games.
When ISPs indiscriminately hinder torrents without regard for their legal uses, net neutrality is in jeopardy. That is a situation that would be bad for all parties involved and one that we should collectively strive to prevent.