Now is the time when VPNs are no more a mystery! Many of the netizens know already what a VPN is and why people use it. But, you may not know that for torrenters in particular, a VPN is a must!

However, a lot of torrent downloaders don’t know how much they get exposed while using P2P for file-sharing. Though BitTorrent is an advantageous platform for file sharing and downloading, it has a downside, which isn’t private, unless you use the best VPN for torrenting.

Also read, Best Torrent Sites For Comics

But, let me tell you here, all the VPNs out there, boosting their quality and privacy; do not always live up to the mark.

Some of them, don’t allow torrenting at all; while others fail to offer a robust system to avoid IP leaks and remain anonymous while torrenting.

To this end, we, at BestVPNAnalysis, present you with a complete guide on VPN for torrenting. In which, we’re going to cover all the nitty-gritty information about torrenting, torrent VPN, and legality of torrenting. So, be with this till the end to learn about our tested and reviewed best torrent VPN.

What’s Torrenting?

Torrent downloading or P2P (peer to peer) file-sharing stands as the most collaborative means of sharing files over the internet. By using the BitTorrent Protocol, a pool of users can download a file residing on the seeder’s system in an instant also called torrent trackers.

What’s A Torrent VPN?

A “torrent VPN” is basically a VPN service that enables torrenting! This may sound pretty much obvious, but various downloaders assume all VPNs allow torrenting. Unfortunately, this isn’t the truth. Instead, some of the highest-profile providers in the VPN market do not allow downloading torrents (or only allow legal torrenting).

If one of these VPN services gets a DMCA complaint or alike, then you may find your VPN subscription canceled. Some VPN providers even go so far as to give over customers’ specifications to copyright holders!

Luckily, there’re also numerous reputable VPN companies that do good businesses out of protecting their P2P-users. Just make sure that you choose one of these! All the VPN providers listed in this article, of course, fall into this category.

You may also check, What is Torrent? & 5 Ways to do Torrenting Anonymously

Why Do You Need A Torrent VPN?

A VPN is an online privacy service that lets you hide what you get up to over the internet from other users, workaround blocks and other forms of censorship, and appear to be in another country to unblock services such as US Netflix and BBC iPlayer.

It will also shield you from hackers when you are over a public WiFi network, and also protect you while P2P filesharing.

Now, just for a second think the last two synonyms for torrenting: P2P (peer-to-peer) and file-sharing. Downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol is, by its very nature, a genial exercise – you share torrent files on your system with others, and others also share files on their devices with you.

To that end, your system connects to all the other BitTorrent users who are sharing the same files as you (whether “downloading” or seeding).

Here in the picture above, we can see the IPs of every peer who is getting to share the same files as me. And if I can look at their IPs, then so can copyright holders too who control downloads of their intellectual property! If you like frightening yourself, try visiting iknowwhatyoudownload.com!

Also check out, Best VPN for uTorrent

How to Choose the VPN for Torrenting?

There are unique features that you should be looking for when choosing the torrent VPN. These features are ordinarily available as add-ons and can better your torrenting experience:

Speed

When it comes to downloading torrents, we can’t get away with the importance of connection speed. A high-speed internet connection is of no use if the VPN you’re using throttles the speed. For this reason, we recommend you to choose the VPN with no speed caps.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth throttling is something that’s unbearable for torrenters. You must have experienced a sudden drop in downloading speed when you reach the predefined data limit. Usually, VPN providers do throttle bandwidth in order to avoid full servers. This causes slower downloading and streaming speeds. Having said that, it’s always smart to check with your provider before getting the subscription.

Security Protocol

Secure tunneling protocols are the mandatory requirement for safe and anonymous torrenting. The L2TP/IPSec tunneling protocol with 256-bit encryption ensures top-notch protection while you seed or leech torrents from different sites. On another hand, the PPTP protocol only offers 128-bit standard encryption that is not preferred for torrenting. The VPN mentioned above services provide L2TP/IPSec protocol at an affordable rate, so you get the best out of torrents safely and securely.

Wide Spread Servers Locations

A VPN with a wide range of servers spread across different regions offer high-grade overall torrenting experience. As a torrent website that may be available in one state may be blocked in other. Also, torrenters often face server congestion issue that results in sluggish downloading. To get rid of such difficulties, you can connect to a server that is close to your region. It will guarantee seamless torrent file downloads with little to no ping spikes or speed problems.

Data Logging Policy

Data logging policy is one of the obscure terms of a VPN service provider. Usually, VPN providers keep online activities of their users and then pass over the log to government agencies if asked. But, only the torrent VPN makes it up to the mark by not saving any of your browsing histories. The VPN services stated above offer absolutely zero data & activity logging policy while guaranteeing maximum security and privacy to the users.

Internet Kill Switch

An internet kill switch is an advantageous feature offered by many top-notch VPN provider apps. It guarantees that a user’s IP is never revealed on the internet, in case the VPN connection drops (disconnects). To give identity protection, it instantly kills the internet connection when the best torrent VPN is unexpectedly disconnected, letting no traffic to leak through it.

Furthermore, if the internet kill switch is turned off, your system automatically connects to the internet revealing your real IP address & location. This makes you vulnerable to all sorts of cyber threats, ISP deep packet inspection, and State mass surveillance. Hence, torrent VPN with the Internet kill switch feature is highly suggested for torrenters.

NAT Firewall

Network Address Translation (NAT) changes the IP information of your system into packet headers in order to route them to the destination (usually the internet). “In simplistic terms, a NAT Firewall ascribes all your devices a unique address (IP Address), so when these systems connect to the internet using the router, it recognizes all the authorized devices but obstructs unauthorized devices from connecting to your network.”

The firewall drops unrecognized IP packets protecting you from malicious IP packets to enter into your system through a public IP. However, when you use a VPN, the encrypted VPN tunnel between your device and the VPN server transfers through the NAT firewall. This makes the NAT firewall incompetent to read the data as it is encrypted. All the best torrent VPN listed here offer NAT firewall between the VPN server and the Internet, filtering all the traffic through NAT firewalls.

Port Forwarding

A NAT Firewall may give robust gains, but users have reported on many issues while using NAT for torrents and P2P file sharing. Besides, the NAT firewall can significantly affect your download speed. However, this problem can be fixed by Port Forwarding; which will enable torrent traffic to pass through a particular port in the NAT Firewall. The best VPN services specified in this guide offer port forwarding that will allow you to download torrent files faster from anywhere in the world.

Best VPN For Torrenting

In order to decide which VPN is best for Torrenting, we set the standards mentioned above to test and assess the VPN service. Torrent and P2P file-sharing users need anonymity above all. Secondary but essential factors are infinite data bandwidth and high speed. Considering these requirements, we have listed the VPN for torrenting below:



Is Torrenting Legal?

Most of the torrenters remain worried while torrenting and that’s mainly because of the severe laws in most countries of the world. However, a lesser-known truth is that all the torrent stuff is not illegal and you may download it without needing any permission. For example, sometimes a business company uploads its official content as a torrent file so that all its employees could get it more efficiently without any vulnerability danger.

Furthermore, the legality depends on the torrent site you are using to get files. A lot of sites only provide legal torrent files for which they keep copyrights. Popular torrent websites such as ThePirateBay and Kickass comprise a mix of illegal and licensed content, and the torrenters couldn’t distinguish between them.

So, it is recommended to use safe torrent sites that only contain the legal content.

Also, see, Is Torrenting Illegal? Is It Safe? Know All Questions about Torrenting

What Consequences You May Face?

People in countries like Switzerland, Spain, Hong Kong, and Mexico would not have to trouble about the limitations or implications while using torrent sites. These countries permit the citizens to use torrent freely and download files. Hence, you must choose the VPN which has a server at least in one of these countries.

On the other hand, most countries have strict laws for torrenters and also for the torrent sites. It is likely that you receive a notice of copyright infringement if you are a resident of the USA, UK, India, China, Australia, or Canada. In the worse situation, you can also be penalized for illegal torrent downloading. For a deeper look into all about torrenting, you may check, The Comprehensive Torrent Guide for Everyone

Beware Of Copyright Trolls!

Copyright holders can also take you to court and charge damages for the loss of money your piracy of their content has caused them. An especially nasty offshoot of this, which is becoming very common, is the practice known as “speculative invoicing.”

This is typically done by legal firms known as “copyright trolls.” They specialize in monetizing the accuser of piracy by giving victims letters asking a cash settlement in return for avoiding legal pursuit for copyright offenses.

If you ever fall for them, then seek the help of the UK government’s official guidance.

Final Words

Though there is a good lot of torrent VPN providers; the one with the fast speed and the complete server coverage will be in handy. A list of VPN has been noted, with the criteria considered above.

Use any of the VPN and gain one-click access to unlimited torrents. 100% protection from hackers and secure anonymity against DMCA, Copyright trolls, and ISP surveillance are other significant benefits. Write to us with your feedback in the comments below.