Does your ISP block torrents? Learning to work around the problem

Can ISPs calculate torrent traffic?

This is often possible if you are using an outdated torrent client.

But no matter how Bittorrent traffic, for example, is encrypted, the provider can identify it by the following signs:

• Multiple simultaneous download threads.
• Multiple TCP connections.
• Heavy load on the Internet channel.

DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) technology can also be used to analyze unencrypted DNS queries. This is how the use of torrents is detected.

The provider can also hire a specialized monitoring agency that will identify the provider's IP addresses among seeds and peers. That is, those who download and distribute torrents.

Does your ISP block torrents?

The easiest way to find out is to try downloading something on torrents. If the tracker has a sufficient number of seeds, but the download speed is extremely low, most likely the provider is blocking torrent traffic.

Try downloading the file directly, simultaneously with a running torrent client. If the direct download is more stable and faster than the torrent, then the problem is most likely on the provider’s side.

If you can't access some torrent sites, your ISP is likely blocking them too.

You can find online tools online that can help you detect ISP blocking, but they haven't been updated for a long time and are unlikely to work well.

A small note

Sometimes the problem may not be with the provider, but with peers, which themselves block or limit the amount of traffic. This happens if after downloading the content you do not distribute it.

In this case, you should increase the maximum number of peers and/or connections. And don't forget to check your torrent client's bandwidth settings.

If this does not help, then the problem lies with the Internet provider.

Content

• 1 Why you need to be able to bypass the blocking
• 2 Can anyone find out that I visited blocked resources?
• 3 Using third party DNS
• 4 Brave Private Browser
• 5 VPN
• 6 Our official browser plugin
• 7 “Access to RuTracker” ( unofficial plugin
  for browsers)
• 8 Tor Browser
• 9 Step-by-step instructions for installing Tor Browser on Windows
• 10 Mirrors rutracker.org
• 11 Blocking announcer trackers (bt)
• 12 anonymousX
• 13
• 14 VPN Gate
• 15 Opera Turbo
• 16 Mobile devices
• 17 Tweaking Tor + Chrome + Firefox + Opera 12 + uTorrent
• 18 Forum sections on bypassing blocking

How does your ISP block torrents?

Each provider has its own methods, we can only speculate. Typically the following methods are used:

• Restrict access to torrent sites using DNS filtering, IP or URL blocking.
• Using DPI technology to analyze traffic and terminate torrent connections.
• Blocking BitTorrent ports (for example, TCP ports 6881-6889).
• Bandwidth throttling of a torrent connection, which discourages any desire to use torrents.

How to unblock torrents (7 ways)

With that said, let me tell you about the solutions that will allow you to torrent freely. Some, by the way, will also help with access to blocked torrent trackers.

The list is compiled according to the degree of effectiveness and convenience of the methods.

So let's get started:

Use VPN

VPN services like CactusVPN are the best way to enjoy torrenting without worrying about ISP interference. We offer a service that allows you to “hide” your IP address and apply end-to-end encryption. How it works?

1. You sign up for CactusVPN and use the VPN apps to connect to one of the VPN servers.
2. The application and server establish an encrypted connection between themselves. Encryption and decryption occur on the end devices, and the data is only accessible to the application and the server.
3. When you open a torrent site, connection requests are routed through CactusVPN servers. Communication with the site is carried out through the server's IP address.
4. Thus, the provider's firewall rules are ignored, since they are applied to a different IP address.

Using a VPN, you can access torrent trackers and traffic, and avoid ISP bandwidth restrictions. And since all traffic is encrypted, the provider will not know anything.

Our official browser plugin

Install our official browser plugin

you can use the following links:
Mozilla Firefox Google Chrome, Brave, Yandex Browser Discussion, installation instructions, FAQ:
Features

: - Bypass blocking - Comfortable work with mirrors - Use any address with all links redirected to it *
Minimum Firefox version: 56 We can guarantee the safe use of only the official plugin.
You can use everything else at your own peril and risk. The plugin provides access to the RuTracker forum; for normal downloading and seeding of distributions, you must additionally configure a bypass for blocking bt*.trackers

Looking for a reliable VPN?

Try CactusVPN - we offer high-speed servers with torrenting support and unlimited bandwidth.
The servers support the IKEv2 and L2TP/IPsec protocols and provide consistently high speeds. And if the VPN connection is lost, the Kill Switch option will help you, which works both at the system-wide level and at the application level. And you don't have to worry about your ISP catching you red-handed.

Don't forget about the intuitive client, available on most platforms.

Special offer! Get CactusVPN for $2.7 per month!

And once you become a CactusVPN customer, you'll have a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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Use proxy

A proxy server hides your IP address just like a VPN. It will definitely help unblock torrent trackers.

However, not all proxies can unblock torrent traffic.

Why?

Because many of them do not use encryption. Even in cases where it is used, it is not reliable enough, making it vulnerable to DPI technology.

Although HTTPS proxies can help in this case. They provide greater security and can hide torrent traffic from the ISP.

But instead of paying more and struggling with an inconvenient interface, why not use the services of a VPN provider whose servers are duplicated by proxies? With CactusVPN, you can use secure VPN servers as a proxy at no extra cost.

Encrypt protocol

If you don't want to use a VPN, you can use the torrent client's built-in encryption. Typically, the necessary settings can be found in the section: Tools > Settings > BitTorrent . This way you can configure the encryption mode of the torrent client used. To enable encryption, you must select one of the following options: Allow encryption or Require encryption.

It is important to note that this solution has certain disadvantages:

• By enabling forced encryption (using the “Require encryption” option), the number of available peers will be greatly reduced. Since after enabling this option, the torrent client will only connect to peers that use encryption. And if there are not enough peers, the speed will drop significantly.
• But the torrent client only encrypts the headers of the data packets, not the payload (data), and such encryption will not help you that much. It will be quite easy for the provider to detect torrent traffic.
• Sandvine is said to have created an application that can identify BitTorrent traffic even when encryption is used.
• The encryption built into torrent clients is too weak (as only 60 and 80-bit encryption keys are used).
• And this will not help unblock torrent trackers.

Use port 80

If your ISP is blocking ports, you may have to use one that they cannot close, namely port 80. In TCP, this port is the default port used for HTTP data transfers. It is used for web traffic, so it is safe to say that your ISP will not block it.

To configure a torrent client to use this port, you usually just need to go to Tools > Settings > Connection. Enter 80 in the port field, and disable UPnP along with NAT-PMP.

The only downside is the drop in speed. And the lack of encryption, of course (since the HTTP protocol is used, not HTTPS).

You can try to find other ports that the provider has not blocked.

Use mobile internet

There are two options:

1. Use mobile Internet on your smartphone or tablet to download torrents. The mobile phone uses a different network from the provider, so there is no blocking of torrents (unless the mobile provider has decided to prohibit their use). Then simply transfer the downloaded content to your main device.
2. Connect your device to your PC in modem mode, start downloading the torrent, and then connect back to your ISP network. The torrent client will continue downloading as normal. But this will only work if the provider uses a firewall with a basic blocking setting.

Use Seedbox

Typically, Seedbox is a paid VPS (Virtual Private Server) that is used for downloading torrents. It can unblock torrent trackers and traffic by masking the IP address, hiding the browser history and using the HTTPS protocol to encrypt traffic.

So, in a way, it's an HTTP proxy, only much faster.

Before you ask, no, there are no free Seedboxes. VPS owners pay to rent servers, and they need to make money somehow. The free Seedbox will most likely be a dud and/or infect your PC with malware.

In our opinion, Seedbox is the best VPN alternative if you're only interested in torrenting. True, they are usually more expensive. A VPN subscription will cost about $4-5 per month (for a long-term subscription), and a Seedbox subscription for the same period will cost from $6 to $15. Some plans can cost up to $50 or more, depending on your needs.

Use Anomos

It's worth noting that the Anomos website is no longer operational, which is why it's at the bottom of the list. To use the service, you must download the application from a third-party site or from SourceForge.

Anomos itself is something like a torrent client with end-to-end encryption. Since it is written in Python, its user interface is quite user-friendly and easy to get used to.

However, there are certain inconveniences.

• The project is most likely no longer supported by the developers and has been abandoned. So, don’t be surprised by constant bugs and freezing applications.
• Anomos can only open files with the .atorrent extension. You will have to either look for them or convert regular torrent files into this format.

Using a regular torrent client with a VPN sounds much more convenient than Anomos.

Why are some sites blocked?

Blocking websites on the territory of the Russian Federation is carried out by a special government service - Roskomnadzor. This authority restricts the functionality of sites whose content falls into the following categories:

• materials containing child pornography;
• information about narcotic substances, as well as psychotropic devices;
• calls for extremism;
• sites distributing unlicensed content;
• description of suicide.

A list of all blocked Internet addresses can be viewed in the “Unified Register of Prohibited Sites” on the website of the government agency.

An interesting fact is that an analogue of Roskomnadzor also operates in the People's Republic of China. There, this government agency has already blocked all popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, as well as Instagram.

Despite the fact that, at first glance, Roskomnadzor is doing a good deed, many sites that do not harm network users in any way are also blocked. Therefore, it is often necessary to find a way to bypass the ban blocking.

Will Tor help if your ISP blocks Utorrent?

In theory, yes. Tor is an anonymous network that hides your IP address and encrypts your traffic. The principle is similar to VPN, but unlike the latter, it encrypts traffic several times.

This sounds good, but there is a problem - using torrents through Tor is not very secure. The developers themselves state this and urge people not to do this. Using this network violates the privacy of your web traffic. And the torrent client may end up ignoring the Tor network.

Tor is also not very suitable for downloading torrents due to its limited speed. The Tor network has more than 2 million users and only 6 thousand servers. Accordingly, downloading torrents of 60 GB in size in a short time is simply unrealistic. Not to mention that because of you the network will work even slower.

If you check the speed of Tor, you will see that downloading a 1 MB file takes on average about five seconds. The resulting download speed is below 1 Mb/sec, which is not enough to work with large files.

We are dealing with speeds of megabytes per second. Since the average download time for a 1MB file is five seconds, that means the download speed is 0.2MB/sec (or 2Mbps), which is even worse.

It turns out that Tor is not at all suitable for torrenting. It's much better to use a VPN or Seedbox.

Will changing DNS eliminate problems with torrent blocking?

Not really.

If your provider uses DNS filtering to block access to torrent sites, then you can change the DNS. And your DNS queries will go through a different DNS server than your ISP.

To do this, it is recommended to use the following settings:

• OpenDNS : 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
• Google Public DNS : 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
• Cloudflare DNS: 1.1.1.1.

However, changing DNS will not prevent the ISP from blocking torrent traffic directly.

Yes, by changing your DNS you can access torrent trackers, but your ISP can use DPI technology to view unencrypted DNS queries even if you are using a third-party DNS server.

The provider can see all requests, for example, to Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1), and to any torrent tracker (for example, thepiratebay.org). As a result, the provider rejects all DNS requests, which will lead to connection errors.

It's better to use DNS over HTTPS to encrypt your requests (CactusVPN will help you do this), or use a VPN with encrypted DNS servers. The second option is preferable because it can unblock both torrent trackers and traffic.

Message about app installation being blocked

Many users are confused by the message: “The installation is blocked, the application contains a code to bypass Android security.”

The notification appears when a third-party application is installed and the system classifies it as unsafe. The code to bypass protection may contain not only useful utilities, but also viruses, worms and other computer monsters. In any case, the message is worth paying attention to.

How to proceed

If the level of trust in the new program is high, you can first look at the application code on Android or immediately install the utility:

1. Expand the message by clicking on "Additional information".
2. Select not “OK”, but an unsafe installation option.

In the future, to avoid problems with installing programs from unknown sources, you need to give special permission to the device:

1. Open settings.
2. Login to "Security"
3. Place a tick next to the appropriate item.
4. Confirm your agreement with personal responsibility.