Torrenting

All about P2P and torrents - these are my collected notes on my findings with downloading from file sharing sites. This post is a work in progress, please follow the links below to other posts relating to my research on P2P and and the avoidance of being detected when torrenting.

• BTGuard and TorrentPrivacy review
• Peerblock (Peer Guardian II)
• VPN use and torrenting - the importance of an independent service.
• The relative risks of Torrenting - is downloading a movie or music more of a risk than TV "catch-up"?
• IPTorrents.com  - is this any safer?
• APOs - Anti-P2POrganizations 
• Copyright Protection discussed on The Technology Muse
• Running Torrenting and IP obfuscation software, such as in a Virtual Machine 

The list above is not an exhaustive list of all the work that I have done in this field. Please visit some of the posts and then find links from those posts. This is only a starting page for my work in the observation of techniques to keep you safe when downloading from P2P sources.

The TorrentFreak forum and website

This is a forum that is dedicated to all things that are related to downloading from P2P sources.

Relakks

What Relakks say:

Protect yourself and your family against surveillance. Simply preserve your integrity online with a hidden IP-number via proxy and VPN-encryption.

• iPredator website
• Relakks Website
• The torrentfreak.com article    - 17/06/2010 - about the deficiencies in iPredator
• iPredator on The Technology Muse

btguard update virtual machine stack overflow

I (formerly ****) discuss(ed) this issue on www.tempusfugit.ca on my page on Immutable Virtual Machines

I have seen various queries regarding this:

East Providence - btguard updates virtual machine stack overflow
Houston - btguards update virtual machine stack overflow
Basingstoke - btguard virtual machine stack overflow
San Jose - virtual machine stack overflow btguard

I am not sure if this is systemic.

**** Update May 18th 2012

Thank you to the visitor from Ottawa I am now migrating the information that was hosted on my website to this blog.

I will make a post for Immutable Virtual Machines here and expand on my theories regarding the use such VMs and the possible causes of this error being reported.

Immutable Virtual Machine

Running Torrenting and IP obfuscation software in a Virtual Machine. 

The theory here is that you create a Virtual Machine (computer) that is a new computer every time it is created and if it is corrupted no damage is done to the host computer when the VM is running. If the VM becomes corrupted, due to the files that are downloaded on it, on closing the corruption and/or malware goes away. Re-starting the Immutable VM will return you to where you were before the infection.

The trick is to remember to copy the (clean) downloads to another storage medium before closing the VM. There is no reason that the Immutable VM is not run indefinitely until a corruption happens or the complete system is re-started.

The other thing to bear in mind when running an Immutable VM is that Windows Updates will cause the host computer to re-start periodically. You can control this but be mindful that keeping the host computer up-to-date is also key to keeping yourself free from overall infection.

Links:

• VirtualBox   - the configuration of to create an immutable VM
• Windows 7 XP-Mode 
• Windows Virtual PC

Netflix and the Roger's Bandwidth Cap

Rogers doesn't have a "Cap" - rather a "threshold", over which you will pay for your extra useage up to a maximum of $50 per billing period.

Contrary to the CBC news reports that claimed that Rogers lowered their "caps" earlier this year when Netflix got approval for providing service in Canada, what they actually did was to raise the "Extra Usage" charge from a maximum of $25 to $50 per billing period.
So the real cost of Netflix in Canada, if you are near or above your alloted bandwidth is not $7.99 per month as Netflix say on their website but rather up to $57.99 per month (not such a bargain as the bill of fair is much more restrictive than what is available in the US and on P2P file-sharing sites).

For those that are on an "Extreme" plan you are currently paying for 95G per monthly billing period, so if you use the Netflix service heavily (they say on their website that you can expect 1G per hour for normal DVD quality and 2G per hour for HD) you will be paying this extra rate if you go above 95 (or 47 and a half) hours per month.

Of course if you are well about this $50 threshold maximum it makes sense to use more bandwidth rather than less - this kinda makes a nonsense of the concept of a "Cap"????

BTGuard TOS

You are told by BTGuard that you must not use their service to perform illegal activities.


 

Downloading from file-sharing sites is an illegal activity.
BTGuard might get a court order sooner or later, and its users might get copyright infringement letters

The link above is from Peerblock forum August 14, 2010 - post "Caught Again!"

As far as I am aware there is no such thing as "The BTGuard Infringement Police" - This is probably a scare tactic used by APOs 

Links: 

• Torrenting on The Technology Muse
• The link from the PeerBlock forum that suggests that you are not secure using PB

Ipredator

The Pirate Bay's VPN service

Apparently there have been suggestions that this is not as secure as it could be:

• iPredator website
• The torrentfreak.com article.  - 17/06/2010 
• Is a VPN Useless for BitTorrent?
• Fear and Doubt spread by Anti P2P agents ----- ap2p_fud.html
• Anti P2P Scare Tactics  - if they can't find out who you are, they will try and frighten you into not downloading. ------- ap2p_scare.html

The Pirate Bay

A re post - Ipredator etc - magnet links

Isohunt

IsoHunt is my preferred torrent tracker (well it was in 2009)

Apparently based in Canada, IsoHunt are not above the laws dictated by the US legal system. Canada, like the rest of the free world has obligations under ACTA, WIPO and the upcoming Bill C-32.

There is no point in repeating what IsoHunt have on their home page. They more than cover their situation with the US legal system. However, downloading from P2P networks remains to be largely an illegal activity even if there are legal uses for such a network. Let's face it - this is NOT why we use P2P networks!!!!

It looks like BTGuard are sponsors of Isohunt.

Some searches:

• is isohunt legal in canada? - 26 Apr 2011, ccra-adrc.gc.ca - I think these people should be concentrating on our taxes, not worrying about stealing copyright material. Anything is illegal if you use it to download intellectual property.     

• The Pirate Bay
• My thoughts on Torrenting and File Sharing

Download vs. Streaming

If you are downloading iPlayer programs (as opposed to "streaming" them) - turn off your proxy (or VPN) connection after the download has started. [or toggle your Internet connection to - "Direct Connection"]

This way the peer-to-peer nature of the Kontiki download software will not know where you are getting the authorization from. When you download the program is more than likely NOT coming from the BBC server (hence it is not blocked outside the UK) - it is coming from other computers on the Kontiki network that have downloaded the material.

See the message in the Download manager that tells you the speed and the number of sources to see what I mean.

If you do this you will minimise the chances of the BBC working out where the requests for its programming is coming from as well an lightening the load of the proxy or VPN server. In fact it is probably a good idea to download ALL the programming that you want to watch in this way.

If you are outside the UK the connection for the download is likely to be slow as you are connecting to other computers in the UK (or at least slower that if you were located in the UK). It is also likely that the speed of the download is pretty much the same as it would be if you have the connection via a proxy or a VPN - but it could be faster!