Ive thought about torrents but they require a paid vpn from what i know? I dont really want to pay, which is why im thinking about piracy because im not made of money and cant afford a vpn. Im just not sure if its possible to be safe and sail the seven seas all for free?
What would you advise i do? what did you do when starting out?
Mooch off someone else’s paid VPN.
I2p or opendirectories or direct downloads. Id personally opt for i2p as at least you give something back.
That being said a vpn is cheap.
It depends where you are in the world. Some countries care more about copyright laws. Sometimes you can get away with torrenting with little to no consequences.
Otherwise, stick to direct download and streaming websites. There are a lot of great sites for movies and tv shows. They tend to come and go. Just remember to install an ad blocker. For games, you’ll need to look at direct downloads. Some good links in other comments.
Seems like a lot of people replying need to work on their reading comprehension…
Use private trackers only. Public trackers are way easier to identify you on.
Disable DHT, PeX and Local Peer Discovery in your BitTorrent client. This will prevent you connecting to random public peers.
If you’re just interested in movies/TV I recommend streaming sites with an adblocker. Just so much easier and safe enough. Find sites on fmhy.netUse private trackers only. Public trackers are way easier to identify you on.
Source on that? This is the first I’ve heard of it
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Lemmy.ml account and making a snarky, nonsense comment. Name a more iconic duo.
Unfortunately any unencrypted file sharing, or really any unencrypted internet usage at all, carries some risk of ISPs or governments snooping on what you are doing. BitTorrent is just particularly notable because of its history and that by the nature of the protocol, you are uploading (seeding) in addition to downloading.
A good VPN is a few bucks a month and provides a lot of other benefits. It’s worth considering.
yt-dlp and a streaming site
I use this one so I don’t have to keep track of sites that go down:
Better to use fmhy, gives backup websites as well.
Find someone in your circle of friends who can give you an invite to a private tracker or use usenet. Also vpns arent necessarily “required”. It will depend on your area and your download setup.
usenet
Doesn’t that require a minimum of two paid services?
Depends on your location, your isp, and how patient you can be. There are free providers and indexers.
You can also find private torrent sites with temporary open registration on opentrackers (mostly new ones but not only). There you can find invite forums (so mind your stats).
fmhy has a beginners guide, there’s lots of options that don’t require torrenting
for torrenting specifically, I’ve been using cloudflare’s vpn (1.1.1.1) without issues, though it requires a bit of setup with wireguard
Mullvad will coat you 5 bucks a year. If you don’t pay for it, you’re the product.
Do you have a dvd/blu ray disc drive? You could go to your local library and go hog wild on their selection
Mulvad is 5 euro per month for up to 5 devices. You could split it with 4 other people…
Only use direct downloads. For example https://rentry.org/megathread-games#direct-downloads I don’t torrent, I don’t use a VPN, nor pay for anything in order to pirate. Sometimes you might have to wait for slower download speeds but often times there is a mirror that will cap out my speeds of 200mb/s
I2P
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Decade and a half ago I torrented all the time and didn’t get caught until I stupidly downloaded something from the top 100 torrents on pirate bay.
Not sure how safe torrents are now.
Never have had any issues with direct downloads and streaming. Just use your head, adblock, and virus scan your downloads (knowing that keygens or cracked exes may show as viruses).
For safest option and free: Use an up to date web browser with a good adblocker (ublock origin is the current best), stick to direct downloads using a download manager to manage the 12+ parts, and virus scan everything that you download. Download from trusted sites from the megathread. Direct download is generally safe, unless you live in one of the few countries cracking down on fitgirl repacks specifically. Then that site is off limits for you.
You can use torrents without a VPN, it’s just not safe. You could be caught and the penalty will vary based off of what you’re downloading, where you live, and who you use for an ISP.
