[GUIDE] Bind VPN network interface to torrent client to avoid exposing your IP

Site Feedback
1

This guide assumes you already have a VPN. If you don’t then:

List of recommended VPNs for torrenting (2022)

VPN killswitches aren’t reliable, the best way to avoid exposing your IP address is by binding the VPN network interface to the torrent client. This means that you’ll only be able to download/upload while the VPN tunnel is active, reducing the probability of having a leak to virtually zero.

Requirements: A torrent client that supports binding, eg. qBittorrent (Windows, macOS and Linux) or BiglyBT (Android). The instructions below are for qBittorrent.

Method 1

  • Open qBittorrent. Go to Preferences, and then Advanced tab.
  • Check for the differences on the “Network Interface” list when you connect/disconnect VPN (you may have to restart qBittorrent for the list to refresh).
  • Select (bind) the one that shows up/disappears from the previous test.
  • Restart qBittorrent.

Method 2

Windows

  • Start the VPN and connect to a location.
  • Open qBittorrent. Go to Preferences, and then Advanced tab.
  • Change Network interface to the VPN (usually its name, like “Mullvad”).
  • Restart qBittorrent.

macOS

  • Start the VPN and connect to a location.
  • Open the Terminal app (it’s in Applications/Utilities).
  • Run the command “ifconfig | grep -A 2 utun” (without “”)
  • Take note of the utun interface with the internal IP “inet 10.x.x.x” (eg. “utun3”).
  • Open qBittorrent. Go to Preferences, and then Advanced tab.
  • Change Network interface to the utun interface you found above.
  • Restart qBittorrent.

Note: The utun interface may change if you reboot or reconnect.

Linux

  • Start the VPN and connect to a location.
  • Open qBittorrent. Go to Preferences, and then Advanced tab.
  • Change Network interface to one of the following depending on the app and protocol you are using (Mullvad VPN as example)
    • Mullvad app using OpenVPN: tun0
    • Mullvad app using WireGuard kernel: wg-mullvad
    • Mullvad app using WireGuard userspace: tun0
    • WireGuard standalone: mlvd-xx
    • OpenVPN standalone: tun0
  • Restart qBittorrent.

How to test?

You can download the official Ubuntu 21.10 torrent and open it on qBittorrent. If the binding is properly set, the download will only start if the VPN is connected. If you disconnect, the download will stop.

Further resources

2

u/hughk please pin it

3

Thank you! Kill switches are crap. Ive received multiple notices from my isp, once a leak occured.

4

Best VPN for this is Nord VPN. Nothing better. The kill switch is safe.

and if you want to buy it, this discount offer is going to make it the most cost effective VPN plan you ever bought. Thank me later

5

or just connect your entire home network to a vpn server using a router, no leaks, it just works

I built a home router using vyos. My ISP sees nothing except traffic to the vpn server. When the tunnel goes down, all traffic stops, leaks are impossible, because I never enabled NAT onto the WAN, just the vpn tunnel. Really makes things easy.

6

I feel fucking brain dead cause everytime I try to download the test torrent it just says stalled the whole time

7

Why would the utun interface change? Isn’t it created by the vpn?

8

where do i see preferences on qbitorrent

9

Great guide.

Now if I can find a guide for which VPN works best for Ubuntu with qBittorrent. Does anyone have a link?
Thank you.

10

Ok under Network Interface I get:

Any interface

Ethernet

Local Area Network

Wi-Fi

Local Area Connection *1

Local Area Connection *15

Ethernet 2

Loop Pseudo Interface 1

No idea how any of this relates to your instructions?

11

It’s three years later but just wanted to say thanks for this! I had no idea I should bind my torrent client to my VPN. Just followed method two with Mullvad VPN and qBitorrent and it’s worked like a charm.

12

I’m a newb but can I use Kali Linux instead of ubuntu?

thanks?

13

I haven’t gotten any letters, I’ve been using NordVPN and qbit torrent NOT bound to that.

I will change that soon.

Should I worry yet?

14

Nice, good job bro. Appreciate the help.

15

How to Bind PIA VPN to uTorrent?

16

Check for the differences on the “Network Interface” list when you connect/disconnect VPN (you may have to restart qBittorrent for the list to refresh).

Just got myself Mullvad and the list never changes.

Mullvad: connected
Start Qbittorrent
List has 4 names in it.
Exit Qbittorrent
Disconnect Mullvad
Start Qbittorrent
List has 4 names in it still

Is just selecting Mullvad in the list fine and just as safe? I noticed when downloading the Ubuntu Torrent, when I kill the connection the download doesn’t stop immediately. It doesn’t go down from 20mb/s to 0mb/s in one moment, it slowly trickles down to 0 mb/s. Is that normal? Just a visual thing?

17

Uh where is preferences in qbit I can’t find it

18

Does this mean that only qbittorrent will use my vpn and the rest of my programs will use the regular Internet?

I ask because I play games and chill in discord most of the time and lag when I have my VPN on.

19

hello, new (dont know anything really) and trying to learn about torrenting, this is very helpful and easy to understand. thank you

20

For my scenario on Win 11 and qbitt, I needed to have my PIA vpn set to wireguard