Is Bittorrent Safe?

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

Just be aware that the 'powers that be' are now very aware of bittorrent. The crackdown will inevitably be coming soon. So, be careful what you download (and thereby upload) with bittorrent. Eventually, its all going to go on freenet.

[hitme 0]

Most bittorrent sites I've know are know gone, which sucks. I use Limewire for my music program, but I don't download a lot. I maybe safe for now, but later in the future, I have no clue...

[Silvercoke 0]

Your knowledge and opinions on Bittorrent please.  I've used it till recently when my father discovered of its use and shut it down.  He is extremely paranoid of any P2P program (had to play system admin one too many times) and won't allow any on the network.  He thinks that anyone can get into his personal files and data by me using Bittorrent.  Is his assumption true?  I know some of the torrents include spyware etc but then again, can't any download?  Is Bittorrent itself safe to use - provided that the download is clean?

 

Thanks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well i have used torrents alot and havent had any problems. Programs like Kazaa, Morpheus, and limewire were easier for hackers and created a virus on one of my old computers.

[Hercco 0]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but recently there has been lot of malware in torrents. It is usually quete easy to avoid by just reading the other users comments on the torrent. So read the comments, scan your downloaded files and post info if you noticed malware in the torrent. And one more tip, be extra careful with zipper/rarred files. If a release is put into a archive although there would be no need for one (like encoded audio album) at least my suspicions rise. It is much nicer to see before hand what you are getting. Well at least the file names right...

[jipman 0]

Last thing I can think of. Use a proxy program like ToR

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

It kind of works like a proxy and I think bit torrent might just work fine on it. And the nice thing is you don't need to open any ports on your router for it.

Not sure about this part, but with that you can use bittorrent without having to forward ports yourself. I think

[IWroteCode 0]

Last thing I can think of. Use a proxy program like ToR

 

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

It kind of works like a proxy and I think bit torrent might just work fine on it. And the nice thing is you don't need to open any ports on your router for it.

 

Not sure about this part, but with that you can use bittorrent without having to forward ports yourself. I think

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The link doesn't work...are you sure it's correct?

[jipman 0]

hmm whoops it was https://tor.eff.org/

[IWroteCode 0]

hmm whoops it was https://tor.eff.org/

1064322526[/snapback]

Whoah...I have no clue with what to do with that.

 

I'm familiar with what a proxy is, I've used Proxify and Ultrareach many times.

 

How do I use this for BitTorrent?

[Slasher 0]

In all my time of sharing files through bittorrent and other peer to peer programs , I've never had to deal with someone hacking my computers or virus messing with my stuff.stay away from .exe files and you'll be ok.

[jipman 0]

run tor. Set your bit torrent client to use SOCKS 4 proxy and enter 127.0.0.1 as the IP and 9050 as the PORT. That's all

[Grafitti 0]

Just be aware that the 'powers that be' are now very aware of bittorrent.  The crackdown will inevitably be coming soon.  So, be careful what you download (and thereby upload) with bittorrent. 

 

Eventually, its all going to go on freenet.

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that's true. bittorrent sites are going down like crazy. but........there still will be those sites in countries with proper laws, that don't forbid it. and once bittorrent goes down, there will come up something new and better. Bittorrent is already a great improvement over Kazaa, so i anticipate something even better.

 

i've never had problems from viruses and trojans using bittorrent. just scan all your files on download completion.

[IWroteCode 0]

run tor. Set your bit torrent client to use SOCKS 4 proxy and enter 127.0.0.1 as the IP and 9050 as the PORT. That's all

1064322723[/snapback]

Ahhhhhh ok. Thanks. That makes sense.

I'll have to try it out - for the moment though I'm just having a friend dl the progs. Works just as good - even better since it doesn't tie up my bandwidth.

[Shadow X 0]

Oh yes, BitTorent is definetly safe that's for sure, but the problem is it takes so long for a torrent to donwload. I tried doing it once with a file and it was taking so long I got bored so I quit it! But it is safe and reliable.

[Hercco 0]

the problem is it takes so long for a torrent to donwload. I tried doing it once with a file and it was taking so long I got bored so I quit it!

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Well bit torrent is extremely fast. Probably fastest p2p protocol. If you get a slow download it is usually because of the lack of seeders, in which case it'd be wise to look for a tracker with more seeders for the same file. Usually same releases get posted to several trackers.

 

So don't blame the protocol, blame the lack of seeders.

[jipman 0]

Well bit torrent is extremely fast. Probably fastest p2p protocol. If you get a slow download it is usually because of the lack of seeders, in which case it'd be wise to look for a tracker with more seeders for the same file. Usually same releases get posted to several trackers.
So don't blame the protocol, blame the lack of seeders.

Which brings us to the point of the more new bit torrent programs like bit comet which supports the use of multiple trackers(using more than 1 tracker), and a DHT network, which works in a way similar to kazaa, using nodes to contact other nodes.