Before I say anything further, yes I know how much the recommended VPNs cost. I can read. Please do not interrogate me about it.
I’ve been wanting to get into torrenting for a while, particularly contributing to private trackers related to music (and to a lesser extent retro games, though I don’t have much original stuff to put there as it’s harder to find rare games than rare music). FMHY recommends RiseUp if I must get a free VPN while I’m working on my financial situation, though I’m not sure whether it’s been tested in court. What are my options, if any?
Paiphon and Windscribe are good. The former gives you unlimited data, while the latter only provides 10 GB per month but has a court tested no logs policy.
i2p.
Use someone else’s wifi.
I used to park my car in a Home Depot parking lot when I went to work with a laptop torrenting until the battery died.
I lived above a Starbucks for a while, that was the best VPN I ever had!
Others have mentioned private trackers, it’s not a perfect defence by any means, but dm me and I can send you an invite to one (torrentleech)
Uhmm, I know that it might come off as begging, but may I also have an invite? I’ve been using RuTracker for 5 years at this point, but some stuff is just isn’t there.
Thanks in advance!
I need an email, dm me and I’ll send one your way. IME torrent leech doesn’t have way more content, but what they have will be faster and more reliable.
RiseUp is slow and intended for activists and the politically vulnerable. It’s not for poor people who cannot afford a $5 a month VPN. You will be fucking over people with much more legitimate use cases than yours if you start using it for torrenting.
I see… Not sure what I’m supposed to do then.
Windscribe and Proton are also free but they’re much faster. I recommend trying them first.
Doesn’t Proton have a free VPN tier? I think it doesn’t support port forwarding so your connections would be limited, but that might still work?
Otherwise, check the megathread and go with direct downloads. Those happen over https so completely encrypted.
What music DDL sites let you contribute FLACs?
Hmm I’m not sure about contributing. You’ve presented yourself as someone too broke to afford a VPN so I didn’t think you were buying CDs and ripping flacs. Sorry if I misunderstood your goals. I was more focused on the goal of obtaining files.
Edit: ps, not sure if you saw yet, but I pm’d you about another possible solution.
You can get into private trackers and trust them. Not recommended, but some do.
Generally speaking, the copyright trolls only target public trackers and DHT. There have been some instances of them making way into TL and others. Your ISP could also identify torrenting on private trackers if they wanted to, even with mitigations. In my experience and from what I hear, most ISPs do not go to these lengths.
So, there a risk doing the above. Whether or not it’s worth it until you can afford a decent VPN is up to you.
Aside: Please do not use a free VPN for torrenting (or tor, for that matter). They are either like RiseUp and run on donations for people who really, really need them, or Proton which is commercial and specifically try to block or slow down the traffic. Either way, if ruins it for everyone else.
Move down under to New Zealand - although we do have a 3 strikes law, the clament has to pay all fees upfront to thr ISP and get a court order first…
We mostly raw dog it down here
If you use private trackers, a VPN is irrelevant. All you need to do is fully encrypt your traffic in your torrent client so your ISP can’t see what you’re doing. It’s been working just fine for me for 15 years, and I’ve never gotten a letter.
this is like asking how to safely hook up with strangers at the bar if you can’t afford condoms to help protect you from STIs. if you can’t afford a VPN, you can’t afford to get disconnected by your ISP for three strikes, let alone afford a settlement because some copyright troll logged your IP as a downloader. just don’t do it until you can properly put some safeguards in place.
Public WiFi exists and it’s also pretty easy to get free condoms.
Pro tip: Never use public WiFi without wearing a condom.
Why does this anti poor bullshit have so many upvotes? Public WiFi exists and it’s also pretty easy to get free condoms.
hey hows about you go fuck yourself
