Bittorent Security (anonymity)?

zozo
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Ciao all,



France is currently on an all out blitz against illegal downloaders. Not that I download anything in that category... ahem... yeah... whatever.



Anyway, obviously Kazaa and the such are traceable (given recent RIAA blitzs), but I was wondering if Bittorrent downloads are "seen" and if the users downloading are traceable.



If it is, is there any friggin P2P client that allows anonymous friggen downloads???

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    Anyway, obviously Kazaa and the such are traceable (given recent RIAA blitzs), but I was wondering if Bittorrent downloads are "seen" and if the users downloading are traceable.



    If it is, is there any friggin P2P client that allows anonymous friggen downloads???



    A simple Google search would have found you a good explanation of how BT works, but I'll give you a short version.



    To "connect to a torrent" you need a .torrent file, which are usually put on the web. Every .torrent file contains information about the file being shared, plus address of tracker. The sole job of the tracker is to pass around IP addresses of the seeders/leechers that, using the .torrent file, connect to the tracker. Then the seeders/leechers use each others' IP addresses to communicate directly. Ergo, anyone who has the .torrent file can get the IP list from the tracker. Your IP is out in the open.



    I'm stating the obvious here, but it's best if your traffic is private not public. Use DirectConnect, Waste or something else, require authentication and only let trusted persons on the network. This makes you safe from any automated tool.



    There are anonymous public P2P networks like Freenet. They are necessarily a lot slower, because there is a lot of redirection and encryption, but I think they are very secure. At least on Freenet you can't even know what is stored on your own computer's allocated block of Freenet space - ergo, full deniability. I haven't gotten around to checking them out, but I have considered donating to Freenet and the alternatives for principle's sake.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    thanks.



    I asked here because Google tturned up tons of horrible links and crapware and mostly Windows only apps (that were probably spyware anyway...)
  • Reply 3 of 3
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    Ciao Gon,



    been trying that Freenet thing... dunno if it has to be put in a specific directory or whatnot, but I get the following error in Terminal after all the various blurb



    Code:


    Unrecognized VM option 'MaxDirectMemorySize=128m'

    Could not create the Java virtual machine.







    Do I have to set it to less? I have 256MB Ram...
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