I live in Germany, and I’m ( reasonably) paranoid af. I subscribed to VPN (Mullvad), installed qBittorrent and in advanced settings of the client set network interface to Mullvad. I also activated all additional killswitches in the VPN app (no access to internet at all, untill I connect to VPN). Do I need any other safety measures, or this is 99% enough? Do I understand correctly that with network intefrace set to VPN it’s physically impossible to get my IP leaked while torrenting? I know it’s very basic questions, but I want to make sure I’ve done all safety measures before I’ll start torrenting.
You did all you could and you’re as safe as it gets. I have the same setup and I routinely check iknowwhatyoudownload.com and for years it has been empty. I also used to check the binding was still there after qBittorrent and VPN client updates, but tbh I already forget sometimes since it always checked out.
The only other thing you could consider would be having a qBittorrent docker, but I feel it would be overkill just for the safety concern. Downloading only from reputable private trackers might help too.
Try to torrent an official copy of Ubuntu, you can find the torrent file on their site. And turn off VPN in between to check if it stops. Also check for leaks on https://ipleak.net/
Do I understand correctly that with network intefrace set to VPN it’s physically impossible to get my IP leaked while torrenting?
If your VPN is connected it is preventing your qBittorrent IP from leaking.
If your VPN is disconnected qBittorrent is not communicating through the Internet so, essentially doesn’t have an IP and no way to leak it if it did.
just make sure qBittorent is on VPN. you can check for leak using https://ipleak.net/
i subscribed to Mullvad as well 'cause i downloaded a handy cam quality Top Gun 2 from the pirate bay then my shit IPS Comcast slap me with a DMCA email.
i’ve been using qBittorent w/Mullvad ever since and i stay away from any Hollywood movies and shits. i only torrent for anime. Japanese studio doesn’t seem to care or maybe. i haven’t got any email from Comcast since.
Holy shit never knew about iknowwhatyoudownload.com
A bit unsettling
is that site still active/working? I can’t remember if I saw that one or a similar site. the site I saw a while ago looked like the person who made it left the front end on but took down the backend. with a message saying that it would be back “soon” but it never did and I gave up checking.
Hold up. If it’s empty, then that means thats probably a static ip that’s specifically assigned to you. (Unless the vps/vpn users don’t torrent which would be, weird…)Meaning only YOU are using that IP, right?
I don’t think that’s a good thing.
They don’t need to see what’s in the vpn tunnel in that case to figure out that the metadata is yours.
You actually WANT a shared ip address where your IP is being also assigned to 200 other users at the SAME TIME.
That, is safer in terms of being able to pin torrent traffic onto you out of these 200 other possible connections to the server.
So are you using a VPS? In that case, unlike VPNs, most large VPS providers absolutely log everything.
If you haven’t got any copyright notices forwarded, that’s lucky, right? Just asking for clarity. I know you’re more knowledgeable about these things than me so would like to hear your thoughts.
I don’t understand something: I was connected to a server in Malmö (Sweden), I think the connection was lost, it reconnected to the Stockholm (Sweden) server, but on the torrent pages it says that I have been in seed for 2 days, as if it had not been lost.
I just got hit with a DMCA email fro Verizon for downloading a TV show from the early 1960s.
How were they able to see that you’re torrenting if you used Mullvad VPN?
It’s a Russian site. They get some things correct, however they also report that I’m downloading files that I am not downloading nor have ever downloaded. it also continues to report “last seen” dates long after I’ve stopped seeding.
I check my home IP not VPN, so being empty is the expected/desired outcome. If it wasn’t empty it would mean I had leaks.
Problem with a shared ip is you cant portforward. Since the vpn doesnt know who to send incoming connections.
Which means seeding will suffer. Which may or may not be an issue.
i got hit with DMCA before i use VPN.
That’s because of VPN shared IP addresses. If you try on your home IP address you shouldn’t see anything (or you do in case of leaks and torrenting without VPN).
This isn’t true, you can port-forward with shared IP addresses