How does this firm (or whatever it is) know I torrented something? My VPN app took a shit in the middle of a download and I think it exposed my IP to some “anti-piracy” bullshit firm that contacted my ISP. ISP emailed to let me know and to “not do it again”. How does this firm know about torrenting? Do they like watch these sites and hope someone’s VPN slips like mine did today?

  • ducklingone@lemmy.todayEnglish
    281·
    6 days ago

    Bind your torrent client to your VPN interface so that if the VPN loses connection for whatever reason, nothing downloads or uploads via your client.

    • penquin@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      51·
      6 days ago

      I’m gonna need a lot of education before I start torrenting 🤦🏽‍♂️ I didn’t even know such thing existed. How do I do that?

      • ducklingone@lemmy.todayEnglish
        6·
        6 days ago

        I’m using qBittorrent’s web ui, and you get to the setting from Options (cog symbol)->Advanced tab->Network Interface. Figuring out which network interface is the VPN interface depends on your OS.

        • penquin@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          31·
          6 days ago

          Ok, so I found that and changed it from “any interface” to “proton0”. So that means, now if my vpn is not connected, my qBittorrent won’t work anymore?

          • WorseDoughnut 🍩@lemdro.idEnglish
            3·
            6 days ago

            Exactly, it will now only be able to access the Internet via that interface even if proton is running but not actually connected.

            • penquin@lemm.eeOPEnglish
              31·
              6 days ago

              I don’t to keep bugging you about it, but proton connects like three freaking networks, one is pvpnsomethingsomething, the other one is killswitch and the third is ipv6leakprotection. I chose all three and qbitorrent just stalls on each one of them :/

              • WorseDoughnut 🍩@lemdro.idEnglish
                2·
                6 days ago

                Sorry for the delay, just saw this.

                So the “pvpnsomthingsomething” is most likely the name of the server you’re connecting to, but if you’re not using the paid tier for Proton it won’t let you select servers that support peer to peer traffic. Sounds like that might be your issue if you’re still getting stalled with that network connection selected.

                Also, the killswitch and the ipv6 “networks” that it creates are just there to enforce the killswitch (ie. create a fallback dead-end network device if the VPN goes down) and to catch and dead-end any ipv6 traffic that might be leaking.

                • penquin@lemm.eeOPEnglish
                  2·
                  5 days ago

                  Got it. Thank you so much. I was testing protonvpn to see if it’s any good. I’m going to get the plus version then and just start from there.

  • themachine@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    6 days ago

    They watch the swarm. You can view connections of the swarm. They see your ISP owned IP and send an email.

    • penquin@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      21·
      5 days ago

      Oh damn. Thank you for this. Didn’t know it even existed.

  • Howdy@lemmy.zipEnglish
    81·
    6 days ago

    Look into transmission open VPN docker container. Forces/ensures VPN connection. Easy to setup and configure.

      • scutiger@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        5 days ago

        Many places have laws in place currently stating that you can’t be personally identified by your IP. So if you get emails about piracy and copyright issues coming from a law firm representing rightsholders, the best course of action is usually to ignore them. Responding to them is essentially admitting that you’re the person they’re looking for and that you committed the offense in question.

    • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      killswitch doesn’t work because packets can still get through between the time when the VPN goes offline and when it activates, need to bind torrent client to vpn or have some firewall configuration to prevent non-vpn traffic

    • penquin@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      12·
      6 days ago

      I use proton VPN and I have the Killswitch on, but it was the free version and the Windows version of proton VPN doesn’t give me the option to choose the server. It chooses it for you (unlike the linux client which I use as my main most of the time). It apparently used a server that didn’t support p2p and then the download “stalled”. Checked around and found a little window hidden behind qbit torrent that said “your connection was disconnected because you used a server that doesn’t support p2p”. I have windscribe premium, but I’ve noticed that it has IP leak, so I’m just waiting for the subscription to expire and I’m not renewing, and have been testing proton

          • TheBigBrother@lemmy.worldEnglish
            31·
            6 days ago

            There are VPN services which leak IPv6 addresses, so it’s better if you disable it and I suggest you to use a private DNS service also.

            So disable IPv6, force killswitch and implement secure DNS, you should be fine with that.

  • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    2·
    6 days ago

    I’ve heard they monitor the torrents and try downloading from the peers as evidence of them distributing the content.

    Anyway, you could set up firewall rules to only allow connections via VPN interface (and out to the VPN server, of course).

    • penquin@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      I see. Also, could you please elaborate on the firewall bit? I’ve set up some rules on games that force data collection before where I just blocked the in and out on the game, but I don’t fully understand the "only allow connection via VPN). Do you have clear instructions on how to do that? A tutorial? And what does that do? Thank you, btw.

      • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        Oof, sorry. This will depend on OS and the software you use for FW configs. I am too dumb.

        For example, I use UFW on Linux. So for me it’s

        # Deny all incoming and outgoing traffic by default
ufw default deny outgoing
ufw default deny incoming

# Allow connection to VPN server
ufw allow out to <VPN server IP address> [port] <VPN server port number> [proto] <tcp|udp>

# Allow connection via VPN interface
ufw allow out on <interface name> from any to any

# Enable UFW
ufw enable

        That’s just one simple way.

        • penquin@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          Thank you. I’m not that familiar with UFW, but I have used its UI app, GFUW. I’ll mess with it and figure something out. Does blocking outgoing traffic prevent others from seeing my IP address, or do I need to combine that with a rule that only allows connection to the VPN server?

          • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            1·
            5 days ago

            I am not sure I understand your comment.

            Blocking outgoing traffic blocks all outgoing traffic, thus including traffic outside of VPN.
            Allowing outgoing connections to the VPN server simply makes an exception in that blocking, otherwise you couldn’t even connect to a VPN.