Torrenting on PIA

Spud1200

Is anyone still torrenting with PIA. Is it still safe to actually torrent with PIA does anybody know.

I am genuinely worried about this and want to get some feed back. I don’t think I have been as hard hit as many of you but I am getting disconnects regular. I have checked my IP Addresses and don’t appear to be leaking DNS Address requests.

At the end of this month I will be leaving and going else were especially because of the lack of customer support and information we have been given as paying customers. Seriously it wouldn't kill PIA Support staff to put out an Announcement.

scodan

I torrent using uTorrent daily and each and every time a new release is put out. I run PIA in my router along with the socks5 proxy PIA provides. No disconnects EVER. I have been a customer of PIA for many years and am not going anywhere. You can always check your torrent ip and mine is NEVER my actual IP.

Ashoka

You can put on the killswitch if you want

The proxy isn't teh same service as the VPN, and while it works it will limit your speed. I'm capped at 6.5 mBps download on the proxy in the midwestern US

I can max out most of my 150mbps connection without the proxy

scodan

I use both the proxy and the VPN. Can never be too safe. It's plenty fast enough for me.

muminur

To be honest, I also did not know what I should look into when I decided to buy a torrent VPN. I did not know what are the advanced features that will help me to stay safe and anonymous. After some research and helpful blogs about VPN for Torrenting , I finally made my decision and bought PIA VPN.

You need to do two things, first turn on the kill switch so that your IP is not exposed if anyhow you do torrenting without VPN connected,
Secondly, avoid the US servers as much as you can. I don't care if Trump says it is safe to use USA servers for torrenting.
Look out for the DNS and IPv6 leak protection alright?
Hope you will be assured now.

Omnibus_IV

muminur said:

...
Secondly, avoid the US servers as much as you can. I don't care if Trump says it is safe to use USA servers for torrenting.
...

You had better explain and have a good explanation else you will treated like a troll. US servers are VERY reliable. The problem is not the US Servers it is the people who think a VPN is a cure-all for all their woes on the internet. If you don't know what your are really doing, don't do it. Plain and simple.

mel1f1carius

I got an Infringement letter after downloading a popular show torrent while using both the VPN and the Proxy. How is that even possible? I was also using Peerblock with updated block lists from Iblocklist. Client is Deluge. I have killswitch and IPv6 leak protection turned on, Was also using a foreign server...

Bruno501

Torrenting on PIA  is not tht tough. Just make sure to use some fine VPN's. You can not spam it, you are getting tracked. I remember when i was researching  so i got that problem.

gkim

mel1f1carius said:

I got an Infringement letter after downloading a popular show torrent while using both the VPN and the Proxy. How is that even possible? I was also using Peerblock with updated block lists from Iblocklist. Client is Deluge. I have killswitch and IPv6 leak protection turned on, Was also using a foreign server...

did you have forced encryption selected? i wasn't using vpn, just proxy and i have gotten a lot of notices. i'm afraid to even torrent anymore

Omnibus_IV

If you have the VPN tunnel established and you are encrypted you should have no issues. However, before doing anything that require a VPN you much make sure you are protected. The first is to check IPLEAK.NET and see if your ISP IP address or DNS appears. If it does, busted.

Also, if and when you torrent you have to check the trackers to see if your ISP IP or ISP DNS appear in the tracker. There are many ways to check this and IPLEAK.NET also has the means to check this. If you see your ISP IP address and/or ISP DNS then you will violate someone's terms of agreement.

So the key is to make sure your ISP IP address is suppressed and replaced with the VPN public IP  and DNS address.

gkim

Omnibus_IV said:

If you have the VPN tunnel established and you are encrypted you should have no issues. However, before doing anything that require a VPN you much make sure you are protected. The first is to check IPLEAK.NET and see if your ISP IP address or DNS appears. If it does, busted.

Also, if and when you torrent you have to check the trackers to see if your ISP IP or ISP DNS appear in the tracker. There are many ways to check this and IPLEAK.NET also has the means to check this. If you see your ISP IP address and/or ISP DNS then you will violate someone's terms of agreement.

So the key is to make sure your ISP IP address is suppressed and replaced with the VPN public IP  and DNS address.

thanks for this. right now i have in advanced settings of PIA
tcp, auto, no local, kill switch enabled, dns leak protection enabled, ipv6 leak protection enabled.

in deluge
network>incoming ports, use random ports
outgoing ports, use random ports
encryption, forced for inbound, outbound and full stream for level, encrypt entire stream enabled
proxy type socksv5 w/auth, user/pass from PIA, host proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com port 1080.

I also changed the DNS settings going into NCPA.CPL and changing preferred and alternate DNS to 
209.222.18.222
209.222.18.218 respectively
I did it for the TAP network as well. (restarted after saving)

am I missing something obvious? also, i know this sounds stupid, but how do I find out my real IP? the IPLEAK.NET is saying "No forwarded IP detected. If you are using a proxy, it's a transparent proxy." does that mean my VPN is not working? haha that would suck. but the webrtc detection IP is different than the first IP on top so maybe that's a good sign.

Omnibus_IV

No, it just means it is not detecting any proxy. You can check for proxy (if you are using it in your torrent app) by clicking on the Torrent Address Detection. There it will setup a fake torrent and detect if you are leaking you ISP IP address.

On top of this, you must have some faith. I understand it is hard, but if you do not see your ISP IP then you should be fine.

gkim

Omnibus_IV said:

No, it just means it is not detecting any proxy. You can check for proxy (if you are using it in your torrent app) by clicking on the Torrent Address Detection. There it will setup a fake torrent and detect if you are leaking you ISP IP address.

On top of this, you must have some faith. I understand it is hard, but if you do not see your ISP IP then you should be fine.

I tried the torrent detection and i'm getting "tracker status: ipleak.net: Error: SOCKS authentication error"

also, i found my ip in my router and it's different than the IPLEAK.NET so I think that's good

Omnibus_IV

Your router is going to show your ISP IP to you, but not to the world. My router shows that address. That is not important. It is the tunnel between your local machine (assuming you are running PIA on your local machine) and PIA server. How your ISP is detecting that you are torrenting is probably by the fact that your ISP IP is showing up in the swarm.

Your error message is telling me your login and password are invalid. You cannot use the PIA credentials. You have to use a separate set of credentials. Specifically PIA Proxy Credentials. I have to assume that you have not done that. Forgive me if you have.

gkim

Omnibus_IV said:

Your router is going to show your ISP IP to you, but not to the world. My router shows that address. That is not important. It is the tunnel between your local machine (assuming you are running PIA on your local machine) and PIA server. How your ISP is detecting that you are torrenting is probably by the fact that your ISP IP is showing up in the swarm.

Your error message is telling me your login and password are invalid. You cannot use the PIA credentials. You have to use a separate set of credentials. Specifically PIA Proxy Credentials. I have to assume that you have not done that. Forgive me if you have.

Thanks for the response. Ya, I have set the pia proxy credentials but I'll check again. I know they are totally different credentials. Also, i understand that the router IP is not shown to the world, just was talking through what was being shown to me to do a sanity check out loud.

I regenerated the proxy credentials and it's saying "tracker status: ipleak.net: Announce Sent" but nothing has downloaded from that magnet link, is it not supposed to download? 

Omnibus_IV

Is this proxy in your browser or your torrent? And which port are you using?

gkim

proxy is in deluge and i'm using port 1080, host proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com

Omnibus_IV

In your SOCKS try using 109.201.154.241 instead of the proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com see if that does anything for you. And just to confirm, you username begins with an 'x' and not a 'p'.

Omnibus_IV

Oh... and if that didn't work, recommend you go back to your client control panel https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/client-support/generate-password and reset your username and password. That is about all I can do for you.

OpenVPN

Spud1200 said:

Is anyone still torrenting with PIA. Is it still safe to actually torrent with PIA does anybody know.

I am genuinely worried about this and want to get some feed back. I don’t think I have been as hard hit as many of you but I am getting disconnects regular. I have checked my IP Addresses and don’t appear to be leaking DNS Address requests.

At the end of this month I will be leaving and going else were especially because of the lack of customer support and information we have been given as paying customers. Seriously it wouldn't kill PIA Support staff to put out an Announcement.

Private Internet Access has already addressed this question in the Helpdesk.

https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000471072-How-do-I-ensure-my-security-and-privacy-when-downloading-

https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000740088-Why-Do-I-Need-A-VPN-

They've also answered questions regarding frequent disconnections as well.

https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/hc/en-us/articles/219059608-Why-is-the-VPN-connection-not-working-or-slow-with-the-PIA-App-

https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/hc/en-us/articles/226851548-I-have-trouble-connecting-or-the-connection-drops-frequently-changing-ports

I been customer with Private Internet Access for many years, I use the service 24/7/365 and only exit the application to install an update. I use torrent applications many times a day everyday and never once have I been worried that I wasn't secure.

OpenVPN

Spud1200 said:

Is anyone still torrenting with PIA. Is it still safe to actually torrent with PIA does anybody know.

I am genuinely worried about this and want to get some feed back. I don’t think I have been as hard hit as many of you but I am getting disconnects regular. I have checked my IP Addresses and don’t appear to be leaking DNS Address requests.

At the end of this month I will be leaving and going else were especially because of the lack of customer support and information we have been given as paying customers. Seriously it wouldn't kill PIA Support staff to put out an Announcement.

It should also be noted that Private Internet Access utilizes the double method for BitTorrent traffic on certain servers to circumvent discriminatory practices of data centers and regimes.  

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/18692/p2p-fix-in-certain-regions

 These steps were taken to ensure that we will always have a free and open internet.

RyanZ

I use PIA in combination with a cloud downloader, and i have no fear of anything haha. I love torrenting so better to stay safe than be sorry.