I would like to get into torrenting including private trackers, seeding back and all that stuff, while also remaining fairly safe from gov as much as it’s possible.
I have multiple reasons not to torrent at home: the internet at home is really bad and I need to do something about it, but even then, I don’t want to keep my computer running 24/7, especially that I don’t have a very power efficient setup. And I want to seed as much as possible, because I often download obscure files and not many people are seeding… so I want to give back to the community ;).
Another reason is that I don’t have that much storage now and it would be beneficial to rent a seedbox with plenty of storage space. Buying several HDDs would still be cheaper in the long run, but I don’t have anywhere to put them. I don’t have a NAS yet and money to buy one.
I’m afraid that torrenting on a VPS would quickly result in a termination of a deal. And it would be pretty easy to pinpoint who is torrenting. Does anyone have a bad experience with torrenting on a VPS?
Maybe it is possible to connect a VPN to a VPS to add an extra layer of anonymity (privacy?), but that would be an extra cost… so maybe it would be better to live with the risk for a while and save for a NAS and connect a VPN to that?
Hearing about seedboxes I was pretty sure at first that it was all about many people seeding from the same IP, so there is a plausible deniability. But it seems that they are just VPSes with more storage at the expense of performance and with preinstalled software for torrenting. So now I’m even more confused. I also want to host some not piracy-related services in the future, like Grocy and Matrix. Maybe I would just rent another server for these if that was necessary.
I have been pondering about that for a while now and can’t decide. What should I do?
Update: I subscribed to ultra.cc and I like it so far. I will try to solve problems with my internet in the meantime (not only torrenting doesn’t works, but video calls are unusable too because of stuttering) and then try to move to the local computer. I forgot that I have an old notebook laying around. Having it connected 24/7 will kill the battery of course, but the notebook is worthless and unreliable for daily use anyway.
seed boxes are usually fast and the most cost-effective.
Just get a seedbox for a month to develop a good ratio and soothe your guilt.
Continue downloading things you actually want for your own use at home.
I had a seedbox for a few months several years ago and I’m still using the ratio I achieved from that time.
That won’t work, private trackers require you to seed every torrent you download for at least a few days, some for weeks. Not following that rule will lead to hit and runs regardless of ratio.
Yes, your client needs have the torrent but you can throttle bandwidth as much as you like.
In many countries, like australia for example, its almost impossible to maintain a good ratio on a residential connection.
Getting a seedbed for a couple of months solves that problem. You dont need to use it to download the stuff you actually want.
I mean, sure, but that’s also against the rules and defeats the whole purpose. Just get a hosted seedbox at that point, the small ones are not very expensive.
You’re overthinking everything.
Go to your router, turn on qos. I like the cake aqm built into some of the alternative firmwares. Whatever you have is fine though. Now your internet connection quality/speed doesn’t matter and you’ll still be able to use it while torrenting.
Get a computer and put some drives in it. Or attach them to it. Use mergerfs and snapraid. Now you have a seedbox/nas in your house. You can use it with Jellyfin. If you’re worried about the power, use a device called a kill-a-watt to get real numbers, look at your bill and do the math or just trust me that it’s not expensive compared to a remote seedbox.
Subscribe to a vpn service with port forwarding. This is not meant to be super private from the cops, but to obscure your torrenting from the isp/authorities. Windscribe and air are good cheap options.
E: here’s why:
If you had a free remote seedbox you’d still need qos to make your internet connection usable while you transfer files torrented on your seedbox into your computer so you can do something with em.
If you had a free remote seedbox it would have a space limitation and you’d need some kind of mess of drives to plug into your computer or a nas to store all the files you transfer in from your seedbox.
If you had a free remote seedbox you’d need some kind of a vpn service to obfuscate your connection to the known seedbox provider ip range from the isp and any other people looking.
So just cut out the middleman. You can’t get a free remote seedbox anyway, they cost money per month. You’re also up against the fact that seedboxes are most commonly used for racing, taking advantage of very high bandwidth, low latency, fast storage datacenter space to get lots of upload and build ratio, not what you’re talking about so all the seedbox services are designed for either that or baby’s first time using qbittorrent.
Even though I have a great internet connection, plenty of storage on a NAS, and a mini PC as a server, I still like the idea of a seed box that’s just off in another country somewhere. Everything has its place, and I don’t have to clutter my own server with things that maybe I want to seed but not keep around on my local network.
Locally, I route any downloading type apps through Gluetun for that little extra bit of anonymity.
VM or containers behind a vpn would be my reccomendation. Use the money saved from renting a seedbox or vps to create a nas.
I recommend keeping it simple.
There’s nothing special about a ‘seedbox.’ It’s just a computer.
If you want a computer that’s on 24/7 to use as a server, get a used dell optiplex from walmart for $100.
Don’t buy small form factor shit unless you have a specific reason to have a small computer. Don’t buy into the memes or hype surrounding ‘boutique’ products. They are all for idiots with more money than sense that try to fit in with other idiots on the internet.
