How to Torrent Safely

Torrenting isn’t always safe. We’ve listed the main risks of torrenting below, which you can mostly eliminate by following our safe torrenting advice.

1. Malware and Viruses

Torrent files and magnet links themselves aren’t dangerous. They don’t contain viruses as they just configure your torrent client to upload and download whatever it is you’re torrenting.

The risk is that the actual files you download might contain malware. This could be spyware or ransomware, or any other kind of virus.

It’s therefore extremely important you trust the source of files you torrent. Equally, you must use a good antivirus program.

The risk of downloading dangerous files is always there when torrenting, but being cautious and running virus scans greatly reduces risks.

2. Legal Risks and Copyright Trolls

Torrenting copyrighted content is illegal. The biggest risk associated with torrenting is the legal consequences you may face if you do so.

Because torrenting is peer-to-peer, it involves both downloading and uploading the file, which is a more serious offence than downloading a file alone.

In the US, the punishment for breaking copyright laws can be up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine. In the UK, ISPs can throttle and even disconnect internet connections.

Some companies (copyright trolls) know about these penalties, and use the threat of legal action to get paid – even against users that haven’t even shared copyrighted material.

Copyright trolls watch public torrents and collect lists of IP addresses. Then, they send legal letters to the ISPs those IP addresses belong to. ISPs can then forward the legal threats to their customers. You can find out who your ISP is using our ISP checking tool.

This practice tends to target vulnerable or less tech-savvy people. Copyright trolls are looking for an easy payday, not to protect their intellectual property, so they only target people that don’t know any better.

Using a no-logs VPN that doesn’t leak your true IP address virtually eliminates the legal risk of torrenting.

3. Hackers

Being targeted by hackers while torrenting is very unlikely, but still a possibility.

A hacker could use your publicly visible information (e.g. your IP address) to impersonate you, target you in scams or DDoS attacks.

Again, using a VPN virtually eliminates the risk of this, since it masks your true IP address in the torrent swarm.

Hackers can also use malware and ransomware to target you, which is why you must also have malware protection (antivirus) running on your device.

4. ISP Throttling

ISP throttling is less serious than the risks above, but it’s very frustrating when it happens.

If your ISP can see you’re torrenting a lot, it may decide to throttle your entire internet connection.

ISP throttling is more common in some countries than in others. It’s an issue particularly in East Asian and South East Asian countries, like Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore,.

A VPN prevents your ISP from monitoring your internet activity, and reduces the risk of them throttling your connection.

1. Use a VPN to Hide Your Torrent IP Address

The best way to torrent safely and anonymously is to use a virtual private network (VPN).

A good VPN hides your true IP address, which stops copyright trolls from identifying you.

VPN software also hides your torrenting traffic from your internet service provider (ISP) and network administrator (at school or work).

You must only use a VPN optimized for secure and private downloads, though. We recommend secure VPNs for torrenting later in this guide.

A P2P-specialized VPN service, like ExpressVPN, records fast download speeds, doesn’t keep internet logs and never leaks your IP address.

In our ExpressVPN P2P tests, the VPN’s high-speed and IP leak-proof servers always masked our identity.

Another reason for using a VPN is to bypass internet blocks imposed by your school, workplace, or ISP on file-sharing websites and trackers for torrents.

A VPN bypasses content filters by routing your connection via a secure server, assigning you a new IP address. You’ll have to connect to a different country to bypass geo-blocks.

What About Using Proxy Services for Torrenting?

Some torrenters choose to use proxy services when torrenting, such as the Shadowsocks SOCKS5 proxy.

A proxy is similar to a VPN in that it changes your IP address, but it doesn’t encrypt your torrenting traffic.

In other words, your ISP can still see you’re torrenting, and can throttle your connection.

We strongly recommend you use a secure torrenting VPN rather than a proxy.

2. Use a Safe Torrent Client

There are many popular torrent clients available, but not all of them are equally secure and private.

It’s important to use a torrent client that isn’t only easy to use but, crucially, doesn’t contain viruses and protects your privacy.

For instance, the popular uTorrent is full of invasive adverts. The software also contains bloatware.

We’ve tested qBittorrent, uTorrent, Deluge, BitTorrent, Transmission and Vuze. Based on our analysis, qBittorrent is the safest torrent client.

3. Only Visit Safe Torrent Websites

There are a thousands of websites hosting torrent links around the world. You must be careful which one you use, though.

Sadly, many file-sharing websites host fake links and sometimes links to virus-ridden files.

It’s always best to stick to trusted sources, like the Internet Archive, to avoid nasty surprises. Even then, read through comments to make sure nobody has had a bad experience with a file.

Make sure your antivirus software is always running, with real-time monitoring enabled, to avoid visiting dangerous websites.

4. Only Download Torrents You Trust

Torrents can contain dangerous content such as malware, spyware, and ransomware. It’s really important you only download torrents you trust.

Some torrent sites have trusted user icons to mark regular contributors who only post safe torrent and magnet links. This a is useful tool to find virus-free torrents.

Look for files with a good number of seeders, too. That being said, we generally advise avoiding the most popular torrents, since these attract copyright trolls.

Always double-check the contents of a downloaded file. If you expected a video file and you get a .exe program, do not open it.

In fact, be wary of file extensions you don’t recognize. If you see an unfamiliar file type, look it up on a search engine before opening it.

5. Install Antivirus Software on Your Device

Following from the above advice, you must scan every single file you download using effective antivirus software.

There are several good free antivirus applications, but at Top10VPN.com we primarily use Malwarebytes.

The premium version of Malwarebytes features real-time monitoring and protection.

We recommend you do three things with your antivirus software:

• Scan any torrent file you download
• Set up regular (daily) device scans
• Enable real-time website monitoring to block access to dangerous torrent websites

Installing a secure torrenting VPN isn’t enough to maximize the protection it offers. You must also adjust its settings accordingly.

Along with your VPN, you need to configure your torrent client to further safeguard your security and anonymity.

The above instructions are written for qBittorrent, but you can follow them for other torrent clients, too.

A .torrent file doesn’t actually contain the files you want to download. It is used as a guide by your torrent client to connect to other users who are uploading (or “seeding”) whatever it is you want to download.

In order to open a .torrent file you need to download a torrent client, such as qBittorrent or uTorrent. When this is installed you just have to double click or open the .torrent file for your client to begin torrenting.

There are two risks when you do this, though:

1. Your IP address will be visible to anyone else with the .torrent file
2. The contents of the torrent could be harmful

To be as safe as possible, we recommend always using a VPN when you torrent and following the rest of the advice on this page.