File sharing is close to becoming a tradition in internet culture. The usage of peer-to-peer networking (in short, the sharing of data between interconnected machines) has proven to be a very effective way of acquiring whatever people desire online. Among others, this method makes music, movies, or any multimedia content much, much more accessible. Various business entities or even affiliated governmental bodies that own such content or have an interest in making it profitable are often not that accepting of the concept of “fair use”. Now because there is some abuse of file sharing, the entities owning the content seek to regulate file sharing. This mainly comes in the form of governmental restrictions, varying from country to country.
Therefore, it can be said that since a lot of countries impose restrictions on file sharing, and there is a need for the restricted content, a solution is also needed. Virtual Private Networks (or VPNs) are the most complete remedy for this problem today. However, not all of them support P2P services like The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, Isohunt or Deluge. Similarly, not all of them come with proxy support. Let’s look at how VPN services support P2P and torrent activities, and which providers are the best at it.
Among other reasons, a VPN service is extremely helpful for torrenting purposes. A lot of countries block access to torrenting sites, and one the one hand, using a VPN helps in either connecting to a country that does not restrict P2P and sometimes boasts solutions like smart DNS implemented into it that will unblock a torrent site even if you use private networking in a country where it is restricted. Furthermore, you will stay safe while doing this, connection wise. All VPN connections are encrypted, meaning that your data traffic is enveloped in a protective layer of other data that will hide your activities.
For the setup of a Virtual Private Network, the only safety setting we do not recommend using is the PPTP protocol. While relatively fast, it offers little protection. Otherwise, L2TP or OpenVPN are the most effective types of VPN security protocols today. For desktop computers and laptops, any protocol is suitable. Most mobile devices can be considerably slower than say a PC, therefore L2TP is more widespread than OpenVPN there (though the latter is also possible). The most torrent-friendly countries to connect to are Switzerland (the best bet), the Netherlands and Spain.
We would also like to address how using a VPN is different from using a proxy. By simply connecting to a VPN network, you can hide your presence online and essentially imitate connecting to the internet from another country. From the viewpoint of P2P, a proxy serves as a catalyst; both a form of indirect protection from outsiders and a tool facilitating file sharing. The disadvantage of proxies is that they do not encrypt your traffic, making their usage less safe, while VPN does use encryption, protecting your privacy better.
In almost all countries of the world today, VPN services are legal to use. You might assume that it is in the interest of governing bodies to regulate it, and while today’s internet is characterized by growing restrictions and governmental control, VPN providers are excluded. There are many possible explanations for this; financial reasons, a general lack of attention and the difficulty of basically circumventing an area of online service that is designed to circumvent in the first place is quite a difficult task. We are nevertheless happy that VPN companies thrive today, as they are gateways towards a more free internet.
Therefore, from a legal point of view, well yes, VPN providers are legal – there is nothing “wrong” with utilizing them. In relation to torrents, popular sites like The Pirate Bay or Torrentz are frequently blocked or restricted in some way or another across many countries. A lot of VPN providers provide support for P2P by either proxies or simply offering connections to countries that do not ban torrent sites. Remember to always check for the log and privacy policy of each provider to find out more about the details of P2P support for a given company.
When we talk about VPN providers that are best for torrenting, there are a number of criteria that should be taken into account. First, regardless of the speeds a certain company offers or promises, there are bandwidth caps present for the countries you connect to. This means that you can only get up to a certain amount of speed per country. The Netherlands for example are friendly to P2P and also have good average speeds. Mexico on the other hand still has a developing network and thus you can expect lower speeds regardless of good access to torrents. Thus, we now present you three torrent friendly VPN providers that work well in every situation and offer a means of using their VPN service for free through free trials.
IPVanish made a strong entrance as a VPN service provider in 2012, long before VPNs became so common, and it’s been further improving its service ever since. Fundamentally, this solution specializes in providing customers with secure and encrypted internet connections across all devices.
Offering customers an impressive 2,200 servers worldwide to choose from, IPVanish is both comprehensive and reliable. It’s also one of the few VPN providers that manage a big portion of its infrastructure in-house, owning 80% of its servers and only using self-developed software for its service. This reduces the company’s reliance on third parties, making it an even more trustworthy option.
As one of the strongest VPNs on the market, IPVanish also boasts a vast range of features that not only provide faster speeds but also permit a custom encryption level and all other elements of a VPN connection. With prices starting as low as $2.99 per month, users certainly get a lot for their money.
VPNArea is a new VPN provider based in Bulgaria that saw the light of day in 2012. Their operations however are done from Switzerland. Their no logs service is thus accessible via countries that have less strict data retention laws; this is always a plus for any VPN service. VPNArea’s strengths are the extensive amount of features they implemented into their desktop clients like automatic IP swapping and a kill switch, or the similarly useful anti-DNS leak functionality. One of the most complete services on the market, they only have to catch up a bit in speed to get to the very top of the pack, which they are quite close to. We also have to honorably mention their customer service: as you will read further below, we ran into a major problem before testing, most probably a misunderstanding. VPNArea is quick to respond and fixes the right that goes wrong in a relatively short time.
Be Safe, Be Private, Be Free – that’s the motto IronSocket (formerly known as HideMyNet) has been sporting proudly since 2005. Through VPN and DNS services built on a solid infrastructure based on years of experience, IronSocket.com provides thousands of users worldwide with free and private access to the web at the highest possible speeds. With VPN servers in 36 countries around the world, and a large part of which allow P2P, you will always be able to connect to a fast server. For those moments where you want the fastest speeds possible to get on a streaming service for instance there’s IronSocket’s SmartDNS solution providing access to over 70 popular services including all your favorites.
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