Damn! Got my first copyright notice. Time for extra precautions. ~ Bauer-Power Media

May 1, 2015

Damn! Got my first copyright notice. Time for extra precautions.

7:00 AM

Paul B

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last week my Plex media server randomly disconnected from my VPN service while in the middle of downloading a popular TV show. It was during that window that my IP was made available to those who snoop Torrent peers looking for IP's to complain to ISP's about. Yesterday I received my first hand slap letter from my ISP about it.

This isn't the first time that Torrent Privacy has let me down. They only have one server for you to connect to in the Netherlands and if it is having problems, you are not protected. It's kind of a pain in the ass really.

Not wanting to kowtow to my ISP and copyright cronies, I decided to change to a different VPN service that has multiple VPN servers all over the world. If one is having a problem, I can easily switch to another. It's called EarthVPN! From their page:

Connect From Anywhere
Our users have access to all 32 countries and 151 locations, strategically placed on 6 continents to facilitate minimum latency, greatest speed and continuous connectivity wherever you are in the world.

PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, OpenVPN and SSH/Socks Proxy
EarthVPN supports all the major VPN protocols: PPTP, L2TP, SSTP and OpenVPN(Both TCP and UDP Mode) protocols on all servers, and provides the highest level of security using advanced encryption and authentication protocols that protect your data from unauthorized access.We also provide SSH Tunnel/Socks proxy.

Absolutely No Logs
EarthVPN neither logs VPN usage nor user activity. Neither us nor third parties are technically able to match an IP address to an account. Under no circumstances we will provide any personal or private information to third parties.

On top of switching to another VPN service, I wanted to be able to have a backup in case my VPN connection went down in the middle of a download. Now, EarthVPN offers proxy services, but I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket. Instead I found a site that offers a list of free proxies called idcloak. From their page:

idcloak's free proxy IP list offers public web proxies from around the globe. It is the world's largest proxy sites list, constantly updated with the latest fresh proxies... Our IP proxy checker tests each proxy for speed, connection time and anonymity levels. It also validates the proxy protocols for each proxy on the list so you know what to expect before you connect.

So now when I'm downloading my favorite shows my Torrent client will be proxied through Germany, while my entire internet connection is VPN'd through Sweden. If my VPN connection goes down, I should still be somewhat protected by the proxy. That's the idea anyway.

How do you protect your identity while using BitTorrent? Let us know in the comments!