Download Article Explore this Article parts. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Part 1. Ensure that you have an antivirus installed. A good antivirus will help protect against malicious torrents. Windows comes with Windows Defender, which is perfectly sufficient for catching most viruses. You can enable Windows Defender from the Control Panel as long as you don't have any other antivirus program installed. If you'd prefer, you can install a third-party antivirus instead, such as BitDefender or Kaspersky.
Regardless of what you choose, you should only have one antivirus program installed at a time. See How to Install an Antivirus for instructions on picking and installing an antivirus program. Look for torrents with lots of seeders. Lots of seeders generally means that the torrent is free from viruses. This is because others have checked and found no viruses, and then start sharing it.
While this certainly is not a guarantee, it can help you whittle down the list. A lot of seeders will also result in a faster transfer. Check the comments before downloading. This isn't a bullet-proof solution, but the comments section of the torrent can help you determine if it contains any viruses.
If there are a lot of comments but nothing about a potential virus, then chances are better that it doesn't have one. If lots of comments talk about viruses, you probably want to avoid that torrent.
Avoid file types that are prone to viruses. Try not to download torrents for programs, as executable files EXE, BAT are the most common way of transmitting viruses. Cracked programs are the most dangerous files you can download through torrents. Join a private torrent community. If you can get an invite to a private torrent community, you're much less likely to get a torrent with a virus.
This is because the torrents are all created and shared by members of that community, so they should be much more trustworthy. It can be difficult to get into a private community, as you usually need to know someone who can give you an invite. The best way to do this is to be active in various online communities and befriend someone that has access to a torrent community.
Part 2. Understand how torrents connect. When you download a torrent file, your IP address is public to anyone else sharing that torrent. This is essential in order for the torrent client to connect to other users, but makes you vulnerable to organizations that track torrent traffic.
These include your internet service provider ISP and copyright enforcement agencies. There are several steps you can take to minimize your risk or prevent your ISP from throttling your speed. Install PeerBlock. PeerBlock is a program that blocks the IP addresses of known torrent trackers. It prevents your computer from being able to connect to these IP addresses, essentially blocking them from taking part in your torrent traffic.
This isn't a surefire way to avoid getting caught, and your ISP will still be able to tell that you're transferring torrents. You can download PeerBlock for free from peerblock. Follow the prompts to install PeerBlock and launch it.
It will automatically work in the background and prevent connections to known bad IP addresses. Use the "P2P" list from Bluetack for basic torrent protection when prompted during initial setup. Consider a VPN service. This will set you back a few dollars a month, but will hide your traffic from any prying eyes. Your ISP will not be able to tell that you're transferring torrent data, and will not throttle your connection.
Organizations that track IP addresses will not be able to see your real IP, and will not be able to send you cease and desist letters. Obviously, they aren't free, so you'll need to balance the cost versus the benefits. Your speed will decrease, as traffic will be sent to the VPN server first and then to you. Since you'll likely be connecting to a VPN in another country, you could see significant decreases in speed. Finally, VPN services may still keep records that they can give to enforcement agencies, but you can find services that don't keep logs.
Pick and sign up for a VPN service. There are a variety of different VPN services out there, all with different pricing structures and privacy policies. Make sure to read the fine print of the VPNs that you're interested.
You'll want to look out for VPN services that keep detailed logs. Also, not all VPN services allow torrent traffic. Note that using torrents is perfectly safe if you share only non-copyrighted material. Unless you use VPN your IP-address remains visible and you can easily be tracked by copyright watchdogs. Some countries have draconian laws against torrenting.
For example, in Japan, uploading torrents is punishable with up to 10 years of prison. Seeding means publicly sharing your files within the network. Leeching is way of parasitic behavior and is referred to those users who remove their downloads from public sharing. Some users prefer to use torrents only one-way as a means of getting content. On the flip side, most torrent tracker sites give you privileges for acting in a pro-community way.
Using torrents is banned in most companies, and copyright infringement is not the only reason for that. When you use torrents, your computer is in active back-and-forth with the P2P network. This takes its toll on memory and available disk space. Obviously, your internet speed also goes down. But here is good news: most torrent clients have a pause button so you can stop and resume torrenting at any time.
Interestingly enough, some tech giants rely on BitTorrent to quickly share data within the company. Thus, Facebook uses it for updating portions of code within the company network. What type of pirated content is most likely to be infected with malware? How does it work? The malware is most usually placed inside hidden folders inside the downloaded package.
You click on a shortcut that is disguised as an actual TV-show episode, and you get infected with malware. Are there any known threats that used torrent technology as a vehicle? In , the examples are plenty. Unless they paid ransom, of course. Those shady alliances between software developers are still common practice.
On a positive side, many artists, the caliber of Thom Yorke and Madonna are taking advantage of BitTorrent bundles to promote their material. Many believe that torrent bundles on pay-as-much-as-you-want basis, will save the music industry from doom due to piracy. First, you should look at the number of seeders.
The file with the most number of users seeding it is less likely to be infected. The reason why hiding your IP address is so important when you are torrenting is because you must never allow someone to see who is accessing the file that you are downloading.
When you download a torrent, you are not getting the file in question. Say you want to download some online games that you can play on your computer. You would go to a torrent site, download the relevant torrent file and then open that upon your torrent client.
Then you connect to other people who are sharing that file and you eventually get all the files on your computer. The problem is that when you do download in such a way, which is called peer-to-peer sharing, you are exposing your IP address to those people.
Say one of the accounts that are hosting that file is a media company trying to catch people torrenting. They make a note of your IP address and send it to an internet service provider, saying you were downloading a specific file illegally.
Someone who is caught torrenting does not go to jail. There are a few cases of people who do get jail time in relation to torrents, but those cases involve the actual theft of the media files from the relevant companies or the running of a torrent website.
If you were to download a few games online, you are not getting into serious legal trouble. But you could lose access to the internet, as many internet service providers have a three-strike rule. They send you warnings each time you are caught torrenting. On the third warning, you may lose all access to the internet, which would be devastating for most people in this day and age.
You would be risking a fine if you are caught, while you may even lose access to the internet. Since there are so many parts of the USA with only a single reliable ISP , your mistake could cost you the ability to use the internet at your home. Before you fire up your torrent client with a VPN active, thinking that you can get access to various online games and casino games, think again.
0コメント