I think some ISPs still track if you use torrent and send warning emails.
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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mull is a very decent VPN and that will do OK to anonymize your traffic, but that's all you're doing ... you're far from safe from all threats.
There's malicious downloads, torrent hijacks, honeypots, bandwidth issues, the Number one thing you need to stay safe is COMMON SENSE ...
So educate yourself and learn about this world you're getting into. The information is out there and freely available.
Yes, and Mullvad is the right choice.
Keep in mind that each country has different piracy laws. Some don’t care much and fines won’t be pursued if you just ignore them, some poor countries don’t care at all, some don’t care about foreign content but take their own content and sports seriously, and some take all piracy seriously and hit you with tens of thousands of dollars of fines. I’d recommend looking into your local laws, and if you find out you’re in a danger zone, following the recommendations from your fellow countrypeople.
Even reputable no-logs VPNs aren’t foolproof, they can leak and the killswitch can fail. But Mullvad is currently the best, I heard their killswitch is better than Proton’s currently is.
Different methods carry different levels of risk. You’ll often hear that streaming from websites is safe since it’s not seeding (and exposing your IP address to the pool), but a lot of those sites do torrent from your browser these days (and can’t be bound to a VPN, I don’t think?). They’re also full of malware and malicious ads, so a good adblocker is necessary. The safest methods are private trackers (seeding but only to other private members) and debrid services (lowest risk but no seeding and they’re paid subscriptions. though there’s one that offers some seeding time at the highest subscription tiers). There’s also joining a trusted person’s private Jellyfin server (getting someone else to pirate for you).
Seeding is of course really important for preventing the entire system from collapsing and preventing niche or old media from being lost, so if you’re in a position to seed, you absolutely should. A good VPN bound to the torrent client (after enabling the killswitch and doing the leak tests) and the knowledge to ignore fines is enough for public trackers in many countries.
Note that even in countries where fines aren’t pursued if you just ignore them, (if they do somehow get sent due to a VPN accident or the government further eroding human rights) they’ll be sent out to your ISP and the person named on the internet bill. Your household may have their own thoughts about your viewing history, and some people are concerned about their government getting wind that they consume things like queer or non-English media.
Here’s the piracy community! You should do your research before getting started. https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/piracy
Awesome, thank you for typing all of that out, that’s really helpful. And I subscribed to the community so I can learn more.
pirates together stronk
If you don't want to store the media then yarrlist has a bunch of sketchy streaming sites that work well enough with an ad blocker.
+1 with mullvad. Haven't heard of any issues with them. Had nothing to turn over to investigators multiple times.
You can pay them in cash if you want, so they'd have no PII on you other than your IP.
This is true, I know for a fact. Cops showed up demanded they gave them everything, and they did: they got nothing. Nothing stored, nothing to give.
Bye pig.
That’s neat! As an animal lover, I also love the mole in their logo. Not that the logo has anything to do with the quality of the service… but it is cute.
You can use ipleak.net to see if your IP is visible through your web browser AND through downloading a test torrent.
Thank you!!!
any vpn is better than no vpn, and mullivad is well-reputed
Sweet, I'm doing something right, lol. I got my mom using Mullvad in Russia so she can get normal news and stuff, and I just top her account off with my American card cause she can't. Such a great system.
Mullvad is fucking leg¹t.
Theoretically doing something right, you mean.
*Cough… yes, of course.
I’m very sorry to hear that your mother is stuck in Russia, but at least she has access to the real world Internet.
Thank you. Yes, it sucks. She is 81, and chose not to come here (USA) because everything she knows and her friends are all in Russia. It was really tough for her to be anti-war and lose friends over it, but at least she has not fallen for any propaganda like my dad did. I'm really proud of her, she uses a VPN and knows how to do a lot on the internet for her age.
Now I'm curious. What is Russian news saying about the war?
try searching for rtnews
Or browse .ml.
I am not the best source for that because my mom avoids watching the government channels. But what I do know is they only report “positive” stuff about the war, like how Ukraine is being “liberated” and how Russia is valiantly fighting for its life and values. It’s sick. They never report on true casualties on either side and just say they only hit military targets.
When I lived back there in the 80s and 90s, we experienced a temporary reprieve from this kind of bullshit. For a short period of time, people felt free. The economy sucked, but it actually felt good to know you had a semblance of freedom of speech, comparatively speaking.
Now it’s back to fucking Stalin times. Like they say, all of Russian history can be summed up as “and then it got worse.”
If you want to learn more about Putin’s rise to power and how it was back then, I highly recommend The Man Without A Face by Masha Gessen. It was written in 2012, and it shows exactly who Putin is.
Russia is winning. All Ukrainians are Nazis. NATO made us do it. That should about cover it.
Mullvad haa some advanced features like DAITA and 2 hop you can use for more security.
Thanks! I am learning a ton today. I’m googling every term I don’t know. Feeling very “galaxy brain” right now.
Edit: I should specify I’m using Duck Duck Go instead of Google cause you all taught me that. So thanks again.
Currently, I'm using Mullvad and used Proton a few months ago. Surfshark did the job many years ago.
Just make sure you pair your torrent client and vpn so if the vpn goes offline, the torrent stops down/up loading.
Mullvad has a kill switch you can enable so it disables networking unless the VPN is up and running and traffic is routed through it.
No anonymity no internet. Very useful.
Thank you - I believe that's accomplished by setting Mullvad as the network interface in the client, which I did :D. But I will double check to make sure, theoretically speaking.
Yep, binding Mullvad as the network interface should do it!
check browserleaks.com and their webrtc leak test (or something similar) to find out! (if u get leaks u might need to disable ipv6). Also make sure to have a killswitch enabled in case ur vpn drops connection u dont want to automatically connect without it and expose urself
Ooh, this is exactly the kind of stuff I need to learn how to check, thank you! I mean, theoretically...
You could start by using the connection test on the mullvad website that checks for 3 different leaks.
VPN use is not illegal (yet).
Your ISP can still match your internet traffic to the act of torrenting - however they can not know what you are torrenting and the act of torrenting itself is not illegal.
Theoretically - using torrents to download free use material like you are going to do is 100% legal and above board. So what if you are choosing to use a VPN while doing it?
Thank you! And let’s hope it’s never made illegal, so we can continue to do things legally while respecting our internet preferences…
Mullvad even has their own leak tests on their website. So once you’re connected, just go to the homepage and run a test before doing anything.
Awesome, thanks. I’m learning all kinds of theoretical things!
WebRTC (peer to peer media shit don't worry about it) intrinsically leaks IP information. It needs to be turned off in browsers like Firefox as well if that's whta you're using.
Either through settings, it's in there somewhere, or about:config and search for rtc amd disable.
Mulvad is great but if you need port forwarding you'll have to look elsewhere as they no longer provide that feature.
I've been sailing for a good 20 years now. I run PIA VPN, which I know has concerns with their ownership, but that's what I've always had and purchased before their sale, and have never had any issues. I have received 3 letters from ISPs in my life and all were when my VPN wasn't running. No I have a kill switch in my workflow that will cut access with no VPN.
If you look into something like MEGA, all that data is http traffic. I've used that without a VPN a lot and have had no issues there, but that's now my backup for when alternatives aren't available.
VPN is almost for sure good enough, but there are other actions you can take if you want to take it further. Do a search for fmhy and follow some advice I there for detailed info.
Vpn is someone elses computer
Wrong. VPN is the encrypted tunnel between your computer and someone else's computer.
You're thinking of a VPS.
Website is someone else's computer.