What is the most secure linux os for torrenting and such?
Im very paranoid about getting into piracy and im not sure if i should or it or not but there are so many things i want that i cant afford.
is there a secure linux os that i can use without a vpn? im pretty use to windows 10 but i was told linux mint is good for this kind of stuff, is that true?
My favorite setup was a headless Raspberry Pi Zero plugged in and hidden behind furniture in the common areas of a high-rise condo building where I rented a unit for a few months. They have gigabit Internet access. Remote into it, schedule a batch download, then retrieve it from the Zero later. It was cool, but inconvenient. Proof of concept only really.
It’s only partly anonymous as it’s still a location they were directly tied to. Not really something you want to be risking if having the law come after you is part of your threat model.
Still a cool project and definitely overkill for internet piracy 😅
As others have said, just use a trustworthy VPN. I use and recommend mullvad.
All you really need is to not be low hanging fruit. Plenty of people out there pirating without knowing how to obfuscate themselves that are easier targets.
You can’t get around not having a VPN if you don’t want your ISP to know you are doing. Sounds like you might not have a complete idea of what exactly a VPN is doing and why you need one.
So there’s a map somewhere online about which backbones there are, usually I try one server for a year and maybe get a block from another server depending if it’s on a different backbone and their black Friday deals.
I currently am using eweka as the service and for indexers I’m on drunkenslug and nzbgeek
You should use a vpn tho. I use mullvad, the client has a killswitch. Qbittorrent also has one as you can select that vpn connection in the settings. The distro you use does not matter however.
A killswitch in the client is handy, but you can also do this with firewall rules. Allow on the vpn tunnel, block on your network interface except the ip(s)/port to reach your vpn. Perhaps also allow on your local network.
Doesnt matter. Most Linux Distros use some bullshit DNS provider like Cloudflare or Google by default. Also, no Distro has a VPN preinstalled and you should not torrent over Tor.
So get a VPN that supports port forwarding, maybe host your own on an anonymous VPS. then use qbittorrent Flatpak, on any Linux Distro with automatic security updates and a firewall
Most distros use whatever DNS provider your router’s DHCP gives them. That’s not something the OS normally decides. Some browsers are taking upon themselves to use DNS over HTTPS, which often does use Cloudflare or Google, but that’s not the OS doing it.
im very sorry but i cant afford a vpn because im a teen with no job and my family dosent see the point in using vpns unless your part of a big company, which annoys me at times.
Any distro is fine for piracy, you could also set up tor tunnel for torrents Only if your client supports itif ISP is something your worried about or just use a free VPN service
I’d agree but if all I wanted was to torrent without my ISP knowing then its not important, personally I use paid for VPN service but I’d class myself as a privacy advocate
Honestly? Just get yourself a seedbox in a different country. There are plenty of providers out there. Have it do your torrenting for you, and FTP in later to download them to your machine.
You don’t need Linux to torrent. The VPN is so your ISP doesn’t send you love letters. That’s the useful thing. Once you have a VPN, there’s no reason to be paranoid about conventional piracy behavior.
If you’re paranoid anyway, it’s more than just your choice of distro. OpenBSD is kinda made for paranoia, but you still have to think about who you’re hiding from, how much is at risk if you get caught, how much time and money it’s worth investing to protect yourself, what threats you’re up against etc. Like, are you more afraid of downloading malware or being caught breaking the law?
If you just want some movies and music, get a vpn and go nuts. If you have no vpn, you can avoid being noticed by not sharing stuff that’s popular when it’s popular, like blockbuster movies.
Tails is a USB bootable linux distro folks use to buy drugs, FYI. Tor is helpful for staying anonymous from some companies and governments. I2P may be more private than Tor. Like, if you’re afraid your government will put you in jail for political beliefs, then you start looking at in-depth OPSEC.
Let me make an analogy. Your house is like your OS, your house can be very secure, or not at all, it can be very customisable or completely pre-made, it can be completely a black box where you never know how it’s wired or where are the pipes and for some reason the kitchen lights turn off the bathroom ones and it’s illegal to open the walls, or it can be an open plan where everyone can know how it’s wired and where the pipes go.
The internet is the post network, you can send letters to anyone in the world. Your local post office branch is your ISP, you send letters to them, and they redirect it to whoever you addressed them to.
HTTP is like writing letters in plain English and address them to the person you want. If your local post office wanted they can open the letter, read what you wrote, and know what you said and to who.
HTTPS is like writing a letter in a code/encryption only you and the person you’re sending the letter to know. Your local post office knows who you’re sending it to, but can’t know what you’re saying.
A VPN is like a friend who go you can send letters to asking him to send a letter to someone else. Now if the post office sees your letters they can’t know to who they’re actually addressed nor what they say.
Torrenting is like posting things to a bulletin board, except this is done through the post. The content of the bulletin board are public, so you can’t hide the information that you want to watch X movie, if you send the letter through the post they know that you’re sending it to the bulletin board, and even if it was encrypted they can read it, what’s more when someone sees the board and replies to you the post know what he’s replying to, so they know you’re getting the movie you asked for.
On this analogy, does it really matter how secure your house is? Not really. The only way you’re safe is by instead of posting it on the board yourself asking a friend (VPN) to post it for you and receive the responses and send them to you, and between you and your friend you have a code (HTTPS) so that the post office can’t read what you are talking about.
There are reasons why you would want to have a VPN outside torrenting, if you use public internet, e.g. coffee shops or shopping malls, you should be very careful, because on those networks someone can stand between you and who you’re trying to contact and pretend to be them and you would be giving your password and bank details to that person thinking you’re talking to the bank. This is called a man-in-the-middle attack, but if you’re sending those details to your friend for him to send to the bank you know your friend’s address so that’s harder to take, also your connection to him is encrypted, and your bank details are encrypted so that not even your friend can read them, so it’s extra secure.
Also a VPN is not that expensive, the one I use costs €49 a year, if you go monthly it’s €7, for the security they offer it’s a no brainer.
A great description. Although regarding VPN’s and public wifi, I don’t know of any banking or similar sites that aren’t using https nowadays, so man in the middle attacks aren’t such a danger. Not to say you shouldn’t use a VPN anyway, you might as well always be connected to one.
TLS mitigates MITM, but doesn’t completely prevents it. A MITM can emit their own certificates, that’s not unheard of, although harder than regular attacks.
No need to be that paranoid. If you want to be basically bulletproof, pay for a cheap seedbox hosted in a friendly country (ultraseedbox is a good choice), and do your torrenting there. Then use any free or cheap SFTP program to transfer it to your computer.
Plex or Jellyfin are good ways to view the content either directly from your seedbox or off of your local computer, and I know that Plex has encrypted connection options. Jellyfin probably does too.
piracy is not that deep… the OS doesn’t really matter in this case as what you’re concerned about is the ISP, not anything in your own PC. if you don’t have a VPN, your ISP could send letters bugging you for downloading stuff. you’d probably have to get dozens of letters before the ISP would cancel your service.
just get a VPN for $5/month and you don’t have to worry about it.
Your advice on ISPs is jurisdiction specific. As an example, in Germany and some other countries, you have private law firms involved, tracking down people with the help of the courts, shaking people down with threats of civil lawsuits. VPNs good, though.
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