#I'm not an InfoSec expert by any means but this is what i have learned over the years

[farcillesbian]

Hey Peach I won't ask anything super incriminating or anything but do you need a VPN to torrent stuff? Or really good antivirus?

I know I should look into how to do that stuff but before I attempt anything of the sort, I wanna know if I should beef up my security before I start sniffing around.

Im really out of my element here 😭

hi hi, so there are a couple of things I do to keep my computer/data safe when torrenting - first of all, yes, a VPN is a great idea!! the one time I forgot to turn on my VPN before torrenting something at my parents house my dad got a letter from our internet provider about it 😵‍💫 (it basically was something about "your IP address was used to download copyright infringing material, don't do it again").

it's generally best practice to have some type of VPN set up before torrenting! try to stay away from free VPNs, from what I understand they're not the most reputable and oftentimes they're profiting off selling your data (the ol' "if they're not making money off the product then *you're* the product"). I hear good things about Mullvad and ProtonVPN - I believe at least Proton does have a free tier that just has a limit to how fast you can download things with it!

as far as antivirus goes, it's got its pros and cons. I actually don't always have it turned on, and I'm not a big fan of the built in Windows Defender (it tends to have a lot of false flags) - I like MalwareBytes and I'll do an occasional scan of my computer after downloading stuff & before actually running things. I personally find that antivirus programs tend to quarantine video game installation files when I try to run an installer for a game I torrented, which causes the installation to fail and then I have to go manually check the antivirus to un-quarantine the files 🙄 which is why I end up not having mine running all the time. but if it makes you more comfortable def keep it on, and just remember to check for quarantined files if you're having weird errors trying to install anything!

however I do also make sure that I'm visiting sites I generally trust so that lowers my chances of downloading anything sketchy (though not 0 - be mindful of what you download and open on your computer, especially executables (.exe files)!!) I find all sites I use either via direct recommendations from trusted friends who are very knowledgeable about information security and stuff, or from the r/piracy subreddit's megathread (they have a lot of recommendations for all different kind of media, and also a lot of helpful info about cautious pirating in general)

also, make sure that the torrent client you use is good! I've always used qBittorrent - it's pretty easy to use and set up, it's straightforward, open source, ad-free, and also has a lot of handy features (one of them being a feature in the advanced settings where you can have it only do things with your torrents while your computer is connected to your VPN, which is good for keeping your real IP address secure. if you want help figuring out that setting just reach out again and I'm happy to help!) whatever you do, please don't use μTorrent lol, that one sucks. also, you don't have to update it every time it comes out with an update, but it's generally a good idea to check the qBittorrent subreddit when an update does come out just to see if it deals with anything important security-wise - just recently, a pretty major backdoor vulnerability was identified and fixed, so it was actually pretty critical that everyone update to the latest version (to anyone reading this, make sure you're on 5.0.1 and nothing older than that!)

and also, a good Adblock like ublock origin will help keep you from accidentally clicking on nefarious links when trying to download things on the internet, so make sure you have that set up too!

also also, some regular websites (especially streaming services) HATE VPNs so if you have one running and you're trying to watch something on like, Netflix or your cable provider's streaming site and it's not working, pause the VPN till you're done! and that's where having your torrent client set up to automatically pause all torrents while your VPN is off comes in handy.

also also also, a note on torrenting etiquette - when you are torrenting something from other people (aka peer to peer/P2P file sharing) you are considered a "peer" and the people who have the full files and are sharing them with you via torrent are called "seeds". peers need to be connected to seeds to be able to receive the file. you will also have a ratio for each torrent - this is the amount of data you have sent vs how much you have received. a ratio of over 1.0 means you've sent more than you've received and is considered to be "good form". I usually stop seeding a torrent once it reaches above 1.0, and I do also often go stop seeding a lot of stuff below the 1.0 ratio if it looks like it has a lot of seeds, but I like to keep seeding when it seems like I'm the only one or just one of a few people seeding, especially for media that I already had a hard time finding, to make it a bit easier for someone else trying to torrent it. there are some things that I've waited months to finish torrenting just because nobody was seeding at all for a while 😭 so I do what I can to keep torrents alive myself.

sorry this ended up longer than I thought it would be, and probably longer than you expected, but I hope this is helpful! happy sailing the digital seas, anon :D