If you aren’t already aware, Bit Torrent is a popular online file-sharing protocol that is used for both legal and illegal means.
Whether you are torrenting legally or illegally, it is a good idea to figure out how you can torrent without your ISP knowing.
If you want to torrent safely without your ISP seeing your activity, the best strategy is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Keep reading to find out how to use a VPN to download torrents today!
In a Hurry? Here’s How to Download Torrents without Your ISP Knowing
Why Hide Your Torrent Traffic from Your ISP at All?
Here are a few reasons:
If your ISP sees that you are using a large amount of data to download torrents, it may throttle your bandwidth.
If you are living in a region where it is illegal or frowned up to torrent, you could wind up in trouble if caught.
Copyright trolls can watch Bit Torrent sites to get hold of your IP address from a torrent client and report it.
When you download torrents, seeders and leechers will be able to see your true IP address, which reveals your actual location and ISP. This can be used to initiate phishing attacks.
If it is against your ISP’s terms of service for you to download torrents, you could find that your service is terminated if you are caught.
Fake torrents are used to catch those who are trying to download free music or videos, thus violating copyright laws.
Hiding your torrent traffic will help you gain access to blocked torrent trackers.
How Does Torrenting Work?
When you download anything from the Internet, data is received from a remote server. Since this data you request is received from a central server, there is no need for sending anything from your own server. Think, for instance, of watching videos online or loading web pages.
If too many IP addresses download data from the same server at once, this server can become overcrowded, affecting your download speed.
Torrenting is different from this typical download process, following a unique peer–to–peer protocol.
In a torrenting swarm, there are a bunch of IP addresses simultaneously downloading and uploading a file. When you are downloading a file from a server while torrenting, you are also uploading parts of a file to other users, constantly in the process of this exchange. Due to this constant exchanging, torrenting is faster compared to typical internet downloads.
Although torrenting has a reputation for being associated with piracy and other malicious use, there are also legitimate uses for torrenting. Since you can split your files into small parts, pause your downloads, and resume them later, bit torrent is a good option anytime you are downloading large files, like updates, games, or software.
Since torrenting is not 100% legitimate, though, it is a good idea to make sure people are blocked from seeing what you are downloading or streaming, even if you are above board.
Can Your Internet Service Provider See When & What You’re Torrenting?
It may be correct that your Internet Service Providers are able to see most of what you are doing online, but they have a harder time seeing your BitTorrent traffic if you are using a Bit Torrent client with reputable encryption.
But, even if your Bit Torrent client is up-to-date and using encryption, your ISP still has ways to detect if you are downloading torrents. They may, for instance, see that you are using a lot of bandwidth, or they may detect multiple simultaneous uploads.
Your ISP is even able to tell if you are browsing torrent sites with HTTPS encryption since the DNS requests are often not encrypted. (They won’t be able to see the actual content you are accessing, though.)
How to Hide IP Addresses and Torrenting from Your ISP (Use a VPN Server)
To download torrents without your ISP detecting, you should use a VPN connection.
A reputable VPN provider, like ExpressVPN, will hide your IP address and Internet traffic so that your ISP is unable to detect your torrenting activity.
When you use a VPN service for torrenting, your traffic is routed through an intermediary server, which will replace your IP address with an IP address corresponding to this VPN server, so your ISP, or anyone else, will be blocked from seeing your actual IP and location.
Using a VPN client, your traffic is sent through a secure encrypted tunnel so that your activity is indecipherable to your Internet Service Provider or prying eyes.
While your ISP will be able to detect that you are using a VPN client, they will have no idea what you are doing online; and since VPNs are legal in almost all countries, there are no red flags when you are using this VPN provider for protection.
How to use a VPN for torrenting?
Here is how you can use your VPN service for torrenting:
- Choose a VPN provider for torrenting, like ExpressVPN.
- Download and install your VPN to your device.
- Create an account.
- Enable your VPN Kill Switch feature in settings.
- Connect to your VPN server, and begin torrenting!
Should I Use a VPN Every Time I’m Torrenting?
Yes. While some torrenting is legal, you could wind up caught up in unreliable IP harvesting systems, and there are always other risks with torrenting, so it is always a good idea to use one of the reputable VPN providers each time you are downloading torrenting online.
A good VPN for torrenting will offer DNS leak protection, a Kill Switch, and an encrypted Internet connection so that your traffic is sent through a secure VPN tunnel whenever you are downloading games, uploading files, or visiting any torrenting websites.
Using a VPN will keep your IP address hidden and will give you access to torrent trackers that are typically blocked.
Can I Use a Free VPN to Hide My Torrenting?
While we all like to take advantage of anything “free,” using free VPN services for torrenting can be both ineffective and downright dangerous.
Free VPNs are not reliable when it comes to encryption and privacy features, so you may find that your torrenting traffic is completely exposed and that you are vulnerable to even more threats than when you had chosen to use this VPN in the first place.
Are There Any Other Ways to Hide My Torrent Traffic?
Yes. There are some other ways to hide your torrenting web traffic, but they will not be as effective as using a VPN client.
You can use proxy servers, Seedbox, or Anomos. Anonmos uses only .atorrent torrents format, or you can choose to convert other torrent formats to this .atorrent format.
We recommend using a VPN because it will offer virtual private servers and protections that the other options simply don’t offer.
Why It’s Important to Encrypt Your Traffic with a VPN
While you may discover that certain torrent clients come with encryption that you can simply enable, this torrent client encryption is still not the same as using VPN encryption.
Bit Torrent encryption isn’t as effective or strong as VPN encryption, and it can actually put you at risk. Bit Torrent typically uses encryption keys that are 60-80 bits, while the top VPN providers use 256–bits.
It is also important to check to see what your BitTorrent client encrypts, as some will only encrypt headers, and not entire data packets, making it simpler for ISPs to identify torrents.
For the utmost safety when you torrent, download a reliable VPN alongside your encryption provided by your torrenting client.
3 Best VPNs for Torrenting
Here are the very best VPNs for torrenting that have been vetted for privacy and security:
| No | Provider | Review | Price/Month | Visit Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | ExpressVPN Review | $6.67 | Visit Site |
| 2 |  | NordVPN Review | $3.71 | Visit Site |
| 3 |  | Surfshark Review | $2.49 | Visit Site |
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FAQs
Conclusion
The best way to torrent without your ISP knowing is to use a VPN. A VPN encrypts your initial request, as well as all of your traffic, routing torrents through an encrypted server.
Since it is always the best strategy to connect to the fastest VPN server for downloading files quickly, it is important to use a VPN that offers the closest server options, as well as servers in a wide range of countries. ExpressVPN is our go-to option whenever you want to download files, participate in online gaming, or do other online activities that require good download speed and great security and privacy features.
