Tips and Tricks for Fast and Safe Torrents
Updated on July 13, 2021: From now on, traffic filtering, malware protection, and suspicious DNS activity blocking are available as a part of the separate DNS Firewall app.
Have you ever chosen a torrent with the highest number of seeders only to find out that the speed still leaves much to be desired? Disappointing, isn’t it? But don’t jump to blaming your ISP or VPN provider if you’re using one (and you definitely should when in comes to torrenting). Keep your chin up! VPN Unlimited team has prepared handy tips for you to torrent safely and to choose torrents with max speeds. No time to waste, let’s get started!
How to Download Torrents Faster: Choose Torrents with the Highest Download Speed
A bit of basic terminology first. You are probably already familiar with the terms seeder and leecher. If you didn’t actually dig into the subject, a seeder is someone who has already downloaded the file to some extent, and is uploading it at the moment. Vise versa, a leecher corresponds to a user in the process of downloading the torrent. Leechers may be uploading at the same time, but their contribution here is partial. Catching up?
Some mistakenly assume that the more peers (clients that both down- and upload a torrent), the better. It’s not exactly so. Bram Cohen, BitTorrent’s inventor, noted that torrents with more peers are not always the fastest. What you should pay attention to when picking the fastest torrent is SLR (seeder per leecher ratio). The seeder to leecher ratio information is normally shown on a torrent download page, and in the table with other alternatives:
To make sure you are getting it right, let’s do some calculations.
Have a look at the table below. At first glance, you may think that a preferred torrent file is the one with 400 seeders. But that’s wrong. Check the seeders ratio: the torrent with 35% seeders will be faster than the one with 27%.
All in all, if you have a choice, pick the torrent with higher seeder per leecher ratio. Another aspect of torrenting that you definitely shouldn’t forget about is security.
How to Download Torrents Safely Without Getting Caught
Though torrenting gained a somewhat bad reputation for copyright laws violation, a big part of the overall torrent content is legal. Nevertheless, since the legality of shared files is difficult to determine, many countries have taken steps to forbid any kind of torrenting. What are the consequences in case you get caught? Well, those vary and can include fines, or even jail. For example, under the UK law, netizens caught downloading copyright-protected content from popular repositories like Torrentz or The Pirate Bay can be put behind the bars for up to 10 years.
But what if you are a law abiding netizen wishing to load legal content? Cheer up, it’s possible! All these restrictions don’t suppress users’ craving for free content. Don’t let your internet freedom get infringed.
So how to download torrents safely without getting caught? And what can you do if torrent sites are blocked in your country? That’s where a VPN technology comes in. By using a reliable VPN app that allows torrenting, like VPN Unlimited, you hide your real IP address and become anonymous to ISP surveillance. Thus, torrenting using VPN, you mitigate the risk of being tracked. Besides, your internet traffic gets encrypted and passes through a secure VPN tunnel, protecting all data transmitted online (check out our Info page for more information).
How to Download Torrents with VPN Unlimited
Torrenting using VPN is quite easy. All you need to do is:
- Download VPN Unlimited.
- Create KeepSolid ID and log in.
- Connect to the relevant torrent server (please note that not all servers allow torrenting, those that do are marked correspondingly, check the pic below).
- Make sure the connection is established successfully (e.g. by using an IP check service)
- That’s it, now you can start downloading torrents securely.
Note: VPN Unlimited does allow P2P download on certain servers, but according to our Terms and Conditions, user’s actions should not violate the DMCA, or bear any criminal character.
Bottom Line on How to Download Torrents Securely
Wish to load movie torrents or other legal content? Be it from one of The Pirate Bay, or any Pirate Bay alternative like RARBG, Extra Torrent, Torrentz2, etc. – just follow our tips for choosing the fastest torrents, and don’t forget about security. Get VPN Unlimited now and download torrents safely, without any risks!