I have been informed that my ISP (i guess alot of them do) tracks downloads. I also heard that I can prevent myself from any sort of harm by getting an IP protector. I tried PeerGuardian, but something didn't work with the installation. Can someone help me with this problem? Some information that might be useful upon helping me:

I have windows vista
I have full version of norton 360 (lol, please don't comment on that. xD)
I have wireless internet from a router that is actually mine.

I think those are probably what you might need to know, but I don't know. lol. If anyone can help me find a good IP protector that would be cool, thanks!

You could try out the Tor network. Tor is free, and that means it is a little slow. Downloading large files across the Tor network is doable, but it isn't good etiquette. I would keep myself constantly connected to the Tor network if it didn't inhibit bandwidth as much as it does, but it is pretty effective at making yourself anonymous, and works great if you just downloading music, or browsing the web. I wouldn't torrent gigabyte sized files over the Tor network, however.

http://www.torproject.org/

There are also faster alternatives that require monthly payments, but, nobody likes those payments

i used to use PG. what happened when it didnt install and, if you got it from a website, wat website did u use?

Excuse the racism, it's a picture I found on the net. Very informative.



Basically, if you don't want your ISP to know what you are downloading, use someone elses internet (unsecured wireless, known as war driving), or pay for a VPN (Virtual Private Network). You could use Tor like CecilSunkure said, but it's incredibly slow. Like, a 40kb/s connection speed is rare, you would have dailup speeds most of the time.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Dec 5 2009, 11:46 pm by tearshed.

Thanks guys

@tearshed Nice photo pl0x xD

Very helpful, thanks alot guys.

@tearshed

They monitor games and software. I've received a letter before.

Not my image. I would disagree with the image stating ISPs don't track games/software, they are copyright material too. But the other points still stand.

1) ISPs DO monitor HTTP traffic. Many, in fact, redirect requests to their own search engine. I fucking hate this, because Bell has effectively hijacked the power of Firefox's awesomebar, and Chrome's omnibar by validating every single possible request I send. I can almost never google through either anymore, and in fact, typing in 'google', and hitting enter yields this page for me: http://search.domainnotfound.ca/bellcanada_keyword/ws/results/Dns/google/1/0/0/Relevance/iq=true/zoom=off/_iceUrlFlag=7?_IceUrl=true

Yes, it is exactly as frustrating as it sounds, and if this doesn't happen to you, consider yourself extremely lucky.

2) War driving is the art of finding unsecured connections, not leeching them.


Really? That's incredibly odd. I've never heard of anyone around here getting a letter, including a friend who filled up a 1TB HDD in 6 weeks, all torrented. Who was your ISP?

I know my friend got a letter for torrenting Sims 2, so I know they watch certain games, but I don't think most are monitored.

Also, my GF asked me out to Winter Formal with this crap, she had her uncle, a police officer, come to my house and go through a huge list of piracy charges. It scared the crap outta me because the charges were real, but I already knew that the company didn't know who I was, only my ISP, so I just tried to play it cool, I hadn't made any money off of it, so no major things I could be charged heavily for.

When I found out what it really was, I immediately proceeded to torrent something, just because I knew I could still do it

Basically, use PeerGuardian, figure out how to install it properly, if you get a letter, then lessen down on the torrents, because those letters are just a warning.

Here's the best solution:
Only download Japanese shit, that way American companies can't sue you, since you haven't pirated any of their stuff.

Works for me

Seriously the list that the image tearshed took from /g/ is a good one:
1. Steal wifi
2. Proxy
3. rapidshare/megaupload, people have forums where they upload pirated software to megauplaod for instance and provide links/passwords. You can search for "warez forum" and you'll hit something reasonably legit. btw this is what I do.
4. usenet (costs money)

ISPs monitor http traffic obviously. However they are not allowed to admit in court that they know what you are downloading over http.

Yes they also monitor games and other copyrighted stuff. Well why wouldn't MediaDefender (or another company like this) do it when they get an offer by a game company?
Also I know several people that already got that letter.
And I don't know about the US but here in Germany there is laws where the ISP is forced to reveal your data. Don't know the specifics though.

Btw. I've torrented and emuled a lot over the course of the years, but I was very careful not connect to spying servers (PG) and only get old stuff which isn't monitored anymore. Never got into trouble. Now I've got access to Usenet and RS accounts, so I don't torrent anymore.

If you don't want the redirections when a domain name doesn't exist, you can use different DNS servers than your ISP's DNS servers. For example, there are the OpenDNS.org DNS servers; however, you must make an account if you don't want to get the redirections.

I am aware, I'm going to start using Google's DNS soon, because frankly, if I'm going to be redirected, at least they'll just redirect me to where I'd end up going.

I wasn't aware of that one. I'll take a look at it and see what they offer.

Doesn't sound like they do redirection, from what I've read so far. Still reading the information, though.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 8 2009, 5:21 am by ShadowFlare.

First time that ever happened to me I found a little link that allowed me to disable it for my account. ;o

@Syphon: I think it was Cogeco, I don't remember. Either way, my brother and I downloaded countless games and the like, but I only got it for Animal Crossing Wii.

It doesn't actually disable it, it just takes you to a phony page.

Mine did. I never got that kind of page again.

Set your computer/router up to use different DNS servers, e.g. 4.2.2.1-.8 (Level3, doesn't work on connections that aren't Level3), or 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 (Google DNS, beware) and this won't happen. They're not actually monitoring HTTP traffic, that only happens in the UK.