Using a VPN for torrenting is sort of like using a fire hose to water your lawn. Sure, it works, But if you’re not really careful, it could cause more problems than it solves. With so much pressure you could over water or even damage the turf. With a VPN you can use torrents privately and safely, but a VPN can cause other problems too. Search engines get confused by your location, websites like banking often won’t work, because your browsing traffic is unnecessarily going through the VPN too. For most people, a VPN is overkill for torrenting, but it’s they only way the know how to protect their privacy. But there is another option.
A SOCKS5 proxy, like a VPN, allows you to torrent anonomyously. But unlike a VPN, a SOCKS5 proxy is configured inside your torrenting application, and only protects your torrenting traffic. All your other internet usage, like browsing, email, etc. is unaffected. SOCKS5 is also faster, and a bit safer too. It’s safer because if a SOCKS5 connection fails while torrenting the torrenting stops. With a VPN, if it fails the torrent can continue unprotected without special “kill switch” features.
Why don’t more people use SOCKS5? It’s complicated. While SOCKS5 is a better solution for many people, there are some scenarios where it’s not. SOCKS5 provides anonymity, it does not provide encryption. That means that your internet provide could see your traffic. Depending on where you live, and what you’re torrenting, that may or may not matter. For example, if you’re in the USA downloading a new movie you probably don’t care. In other countries, torrenting is throttled, or blocked entirely. Another disadvantage of SOCKS5 is that it’s not as good uploading, so if that’s important to you you’d want to stick with a VPN.
In summary, if all you want to do is torrent anonymously and not get sued, then a SOCKS5 proxy may be the way to go.
Except SOCKS5 proxy has worse performance than a VPN when you factor the lack of port-forwarding and it’s not safer than a VPN with binded interface to the torrent client. In short, SOCKS5 presents no benefits compared to a VPN for torrenting performance and security.
Besides that, a VPN has a ton of other benefits like concealing your traffic and requests from your ISP and other agents along the network, bypassing geolocked content, adding an extra security layer for MITM attacks on unencrypted traffic, DNS with anti-malware/tracking filters, the list goes on.
Plus I have used VPNs for like 10 years and never faced issues with banking or “search engines getting confused”. But if this is something you’re worried about, just split tunnel and have a browser specific for non-VPN traffic, problem solved.
I only torrent on occasion, but I keep my entire home network connected to a high speed vpn server, to keep my ISP from logging every damn thing I do, then SELLING the info to governments, corporations, advertisers, without my permission, because Congress (here in the US) authorized them to do so.
Some can argue that the vpn provider can do the same thing, and even though that might be happening in some situations, it’s practically guaranteed that your ISP is doing it.
For paranoid people looking to hide, there’s always double hop vpn, or tor over vpn, or yes, even proxies have their place.
I just don’t like “the man” spying on me without my permission, and I’m not going to make it any easier for 'em.
Oh, and I might torrent on occasion too. It’s a free perk.
The few problems that VPNs cause are minimal compared to the privacy benefits in this era of data collection. I have no problem not using any Google products any more.
I don’t trust the dns servers of cloudflare Or Opendns Or Cloud9 etc.
I do trust my VPNs own dns server which also has pi-hole like malware and ad blocking features built in.
Socks5 not being encrypted traffic is a deal breaker. Plus, these days modern cpu’s easily crunch openvpn or wireguard protocols with no noticable performance hit whatsoever.
It also is just safer to a lot of paid vpn customers that want all of their traffic protected.
This is a stupid post. lol. “you shouldn’t need a VPN because it provides more features then you need and people are too lazy to set it up properly” sums it up pretty much.
“Another disadvantage of SOCKS5 is that it’s not as good uploading, so if that’s important to you you’d want to stick with a VPN”
Considering that this part is pretty critical to how torrenting thrives. I would say it’s pretty damn important.
Post should be changed to “If you are lazy and don’t want to contribute back to the community that helped you get a paid product for free, Socks is an option”
It’s absolutely true that if you know what you’re doing a VPN with split tunneling and a kill switch can be configured to essentially be the same as SOCKS5 by default. But these features require client software where SOCKS5 just works and is still faster and more efficient, though not significantly.
Unless you have a dedicated IP, which very few have, many sites will give you a CAPTCHA. I’d be interested in knowing what bank you use that doesn’t think a VPN address is an indicator of a hacking attempt?