Originally Posted by Aladdinsane

Hi there,

A while back I downloaded some movies from a public tracker and then I did get a notice from my ISP Time Warner that I was infringing on copyright don't do it again etc.

I'm a Demonoid member and former what.cd member. But I don't understand, what makes a private tracker safe from your ISP seeing that you my be downloading the latest Hollywood blockbuster?

A good friend says it's time to use a VPN, but I guess that's a different topic.

Thanks!

In one word. no you are not safe. Use a VPN and/or a seedbox. Even a mis-configured VPN can cause issues due to DNS leaks. Use ipleak.net to test your ip address and rtc and dns leaks. In fact, you may want to consider setting up a VPN router (like DD-WRT), so that any traffic going through that router/SSID goes through the VPN--essentially masking your entire internet traffic through that router/SSID. AND, if you are more paranoid, while normally connected and VPN'd that way, you can use a software client VPN ON TOP of the base VPN (double-tunneling). But, that's not really necessarily, but an option.

You could also attempt to use public/retail wifi and use various methods (up to and including using a vpn) for circumvention around blocked protocols but since you wouldn't be using "your own" physical pipe in this example, that's just another added layer of security.

Using a private tracker since its not as open to the "general populace" adds an additional security layer. Also private trackers lock down their .torrent files so they can only be used by authenticated users. However. with no encryption of the traffic itself (ignoring bittorrent client encryption ingoing/outgoing setting), ISPs can still look at your traffic/protocols. But since that private tracker site is closed to most people, it's an added layer of security, and quality (in terms of the items available bitrates, no-fakes etc).