this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024
24 points (92.9% liked)

Piracy

2110 readers
1 users here now

Arr

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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?

all 41 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm gonna need a lot of education before I start torrenting πŸ€¦πŸ½β€β™‚οΈ I didn't even know such thing existed. How do I do that?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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 :/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Fuckers, but how can they see it behind the VPN?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

My VPN app took a shit in the middle of a download and I think it exposed my IP to some β€œanti-piracy” bullshit firm that contacted my ISP.

I think you answered your own question.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

The same way you can see the ip of your peers on any particular torrent.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

You asshole.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

be careful, sometimes it's a scam or a cash grab with no legal basis.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Thank you. That was actually a legit email

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Good to know. Thank you

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Proton has a very nice article on how to set up torrenting: https://protonvpn.com/support/bittorrent-vpn/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Getting a seedbox is pretty easy and generally cheap too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

a killswitch is a must-have in this case then

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months 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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

You might want to cross post to [email protected]

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months 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.