How to download torrents free safely

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Related Articles. Part 1. Ensure that you have an antivirus installed. A good antivirus will help protect against malicious torrents. Windows comes with Windows Defender, which is perfectly sufficient for catching most viruses.

You can enable Windows Defender from the Control Panel as long as you don't have any other antivirus program installed. If you'd prefer, you can install a third-party antivirus instead, such as BitDefender or Kaspersky.

Regardless of what you choose, you should only have one antivirus program installed at a time. See How to Install an Antivirus for instructions on picking and installing an antivirus program. Look for torrents with lots of seeders. Lots of seeders generally means that the torrent is free from viruses. This is because others have checked and found no viruses, and then start sharing it.

While this certainly is not a guarantee, it can help you whittle down the list. A lot of seeders will also result in a faster transfer. Check the comments before downloading. This isn't a bullet-proof solution, but the comments section of the torrent can help you determine if it contains any viruses.

If there are a lot of comments but nothing about a potential virus, then chances are better that it doesn't have one. If lots of comments talk about viruses, you probably want to avoid that torrent. Avoid file types that are prone to viruses. Try not to download torrents for programs, as executable files EXE, BAT are the most common way of transmitting viruses. Cracked programs are the most dangerous files you can download through torrents. Join a private torrent community. If you can get an invite to a private torrent community, you're much less likely to get a torrent with a virus.

This is because the torrents are all created and shared by members of that community, so they should be much more trustworthy. It can be difficult to get into a private community, as you usually need to know someone who can give you an invite.

The best way to do this is to be active in various online communities and befriend someone that has access to a torrent community. Part 2. Understand how torrents connect. When you download a torrent file, your IP address is public to anyone else sharing that torrent. This is essential in order for the torrent client to connect to other users, but makes you vulnerable to organizations that track torrent traffic.

These include your internet service provider ISP and copyright enforcement agencies. This means you may have trouble opening certain files. If you are sure they are not harmful, you can disable your antivirus until you open them, but that is always a risk. Some torrent sites are extremely popular and used by many. The harmful torrents are reported and quickly removed. Websites like x or ThePirateBay have a huge number of seeders and leechers and are therefore much safer to use.

There are also private torrent trackers which are known to be secure, but you usually need an invitation from a member to register a new account. When you are torrenting, you are connected to peers seeds and leeches via your IP address.

Because your IP address is public, your location and metadata are visible to those who may track your internet activity. For example, your business or even government. To hide your activity while downloading torrents, it is best to get a Virtual Private Network. This software hides your real IP address and masks it with a different one.

This makes it much harder and sometimes even impossible to track what you do online. You should check online how they work. Support WizCase to help us guarantee honest and unbiased advice. Share our site to support us! Click here to take advantage of this awesome deal. No, thanks. Best VPNs for. Follow our experts. Top 3 VPNs. Our Reviews WizCase includes reviews written by our experts. Referral fees Wizcase may earn an affiliate commission when a purchase is made using our links.

Download a VPN with servers specifically optimized for torrenting. Install a trustworthy torrenting client , such as BitTorrent, uTorrent, or Vuze. Start downloading files! To access any torrenting community, you first need to receive an invitation with login details. ExpressVPN — All of its servers support torrenting and it records fast speeds for hassle-free downloads. Try ExpressVPN risk-free with its day money-back guarantee.

CyberGhost — Optimized servers for torrenting, but I sometimes experienced slower download speeds as nearby servers were congested. PrivateVPN — Unlimited bandwidth for fast downloads, but less servers to choose from overall.

Log in to your account and make sure all security features are turned on. Connect to a server of your choice and start downloading safely! My download speeds remained very similar, no matter which server I connected to. Over global servers, with selected locations optimized for P2P Zero data caps for uninterrupted torrenting bit encryption Download files on 7 devices at the same time day refund guarantee. Over servers across 75 countries Zero monthly bandwidth caps bit AES encryption Ability to torrent on unlimited devices at the same time day refund policy.

Is torrenting legal? Can torrenting get you arrested? Who are copyright trolls? How does P2P file-sharing work? What is IP binding? Can I use a free VPN for torrenting?

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Loved it! Your email Please enter a valid email address. Thanks for your feedback. Written By Julia Olech. I am a writer, blogger, and technology geek. I love discovering new gadgets that make life easier and more fun. What makes it even worse is the fact that you could be downloading a torrent file containing the virus without knowing. Sometimes, they could cause your device to take ages to load files, shut down unexpectedly, too much heating, and even corrupt your other files.

Also, various torrent trackers filter and remove the files that have been reported to contain malicious content. There are several ways that you can use to mitigate the potential torrenting risks , and they include;.

Disclaimer : All the tips are provided only to educate general internet users on how they can download torrents without compromising their security. As a rule of thumb, you should not torrent without a VPN. Think about a VPN first when torrenting, always. A quality VPN will encrypt all the incoming as well as the outgoing internet traffic on your device.

Moreover, torrenting while connected to a VPN that supports P2P traffic prevents the services and websites you visit to track your IP address. Most agencies monitor the popular torrent websites to get to users when they download the torrent; a VPN will block anybody who attempts to unzip those tracks to obtain your real IP address by only providing them with the IP address of the VPN server.

Besides, a VPN will help keep all the hackers at bay so that they cannot obtain your actual IP address for hacking into your system. So, the first and most important step to download torrents safely is to get a quality VPN for torrents , such as ExpressVPN that offers lots of bandwidth, zero-logs, faster speeds, and special torrenting servers. Just like a VPN is essential for downloading torrents safely, so is a good antivirus. In fact, it should be part of your active security tools when surfing the internet.

The easiest way that most hackers use to get into your device is by hiding malware in the torrent files you download. Once downloaded and stored in your device, they then can access your device and obtain personal information to use against you.

For instance, malicious actors use several nasty malware such as Trojans and Ransomware to infect your device and can even control the device.

Ransomware, for instance, enables the hacker to control your device and encrypt it to demand payment. On the other hand, Trojans are mostly designed to enable the hacker to commandeer the microphone or camera of your device and steal data, photos, personal files, contacts, or snoop on your daily activities.

If you have a quality and up-to-date antivirus installed on your device, it will protect you from all such possible hassles and ultimately enable you into staying safe when torrenting. The primary concern when torrenting is to avoid the potential risks associated with torrent downloads such as malware and strikes from legal authorities.

One of the best ways to do this is to ensure that you are following a crowd. Seeders are users that have downloaded the files fully on their devices, and they allow others to take some data from them their computers. A torrent without seeders should be considered malicious and should be avoided. You can ascertain a genuine seeder and a fake seeder there easily. Therefore, looking for seeders and checking for flairs will prove to be significant to help you avoid most of the torrenting risks.

You definitely want to get your file from a reliable torrent. Torrent sites attract a huge amount of users, and the fact that most of the websites provide a section for the users to comment on what they feel about particular torrents is a great way to ascertain whether a given seed is genuine.

After that, look at the torrent seeds and click on the one that you fancy, then scroll to read the comments of other downloaders. So, even though checking out user comments is vital for safe torrenting, you need to be cautious when making a decision dependant on the comments. The private torrent communities, which are also dubbed as closed-door torrenting communities sometimes, are private trackers that are meant to preserve the torrent quality.

Such communities work under the one-in-one-out policy ; therefore, the private trackers already in the community will not carelessly want to lose their place in the big table, and they could rather jealously guard the spot. Most of these communities are only accessed via an invitation, and if you manage to get one from any of them, then you can be assured of a place where you can trust the quality of torrents.