What Should You Remember When Torrenting With a VPN?

Do you know what a VPN is?

What about torrenting?

In an age of increasing internet censorship, as well as streaming service lockdown, these are two questions you deserve to know the answer to.

A VPN is a virtual private network. VPNs encrypt all of the outgoing internet traffic from your computer. The process masks your IP address — which is like your digital footprint.

A VPN can be used for many things. Some people like to use VPNs to keep their data private from snooping internet service providers like Comcast while some like to use VPN to access content at schools or torrent content from file sharing websites. Check out some more uses on a VPN, or see common questions about VPNs.

Torrenting is a file sharing protocol that uses P2P, which means that computers are connected to a network exchanging files. People who host the files and let others download are called seeders while people downloading the files are called leechers. Despite many common thoughts, it’s not illegal to torrent content. However, it is illegal to distribute and download copyrighted content that isn’t meant to be shared.

Torrenting content with a VPN is a great idea since a VPN will hide your IP address. Yes, your IP address IS public knowledge if you torrent. For a guide on how to see this information, click here.

Torrenting is one of the most useful file-sharing P2P protocols there is. However, if you’re not using a VPN you could put yourself at risk. That’s why we’ve outlined 5 useful tips in this infographic: