Anonymize BitTorrent Transfers with BTGuard
Written by Ernesto on March 09, 2008BTGuard is an easy to use proxy service that adds an extra layer of privacy to your BitTorrent transfers. The service is designed for BitTorrent users who don’t want their ISPs or any third party to log or throttle their IPs or traffic.
BTGuard reroutes all your BitTorrent traffic through their servers in Canada. This means that anyone who connects to you via BitTorrent, even the MPAA or RIAA, will see BTGuard’s IP, and not yours.
BTGuard does not have any bandwidth or volume restrictions, and while we briefly tested the service (from Europe), the speeds were almost equal to an unsecured connection. Setting it up is fairly easy, the only thing you need to do is enter the username and password provided by BTGuard, and you’re ready to go. Please note that this is only a proxy service, so the traffic between the user and the server is not encrypted, which means that ISPs can (potentially) still monitor it.
TorrentFreak asked one of the founders of the project why they launched the service, he told us: “More and more, people find their privacy being invaded on the Internet and we find it to be a very disturbing, unethical trend. There are some countries that still actively protect privacy, one of which is Canada.”
The BTGuard team decided to setup in Canada not only for privacy protection, but also its close network proximity to the US. “The US is experiencing a privacy invasion epidemic more so than most. ISPs are issuing disconnection notices with little regard for privacy or the accuracy of those who notified them.”
“Companies like MediaSentry collect IP addresses on P2P protocols like BitTorrent; right holders then send the IPs to your ISP. However, MediaSentry systems and techniques have no governments’ authority and are certified by no one and many institutions have received false claims. Companies like this should not be allowed to go around and make or break your Internet connection. These days, some people’s lives depend on it. This is where BTGuard comes in. The only IP companies such as MediaSentry will see is ours.”
BTGuard works differently then some other similar services like VPNOut or Smarthide. Most notably it does not VPN your entire Internet connection. You simply configure your BitTorrent client to route through their servers, so it will only effect your BitTorrent downloads. BTGuard says it has received reports that it effectively bypasses throttling but at this point they cannot confirm that it works in all cases (please let us know in the comments if it does).
BtGuard offers a free trial, and they welcome people to try it, so you can see if it’s works for you. After the trial it costs 4.75 Euro per month which is cheaper than most other services, and a small price to pay for privacy.
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120 Responses
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quit bitching about paying for something, especially to route bittorrent traffic. I agree this isn’t a revolutionary idea for P2P, we do need a way to anonymize but maintain a BT type design that’s free. But this is an excellent patch to get some through until that day for those getting pressured by their ISP!
those who are complaining about having a repository of info aren’t so bright. Your ISP has a repository of your info that you are putting out in the open by using your IP. At least this way your behind a Canadian IP from people who seem to care a little more about your privacy then your ISP does.
With 4.75 Euro per month i could buy most of the junk porn i download…
For me only free services are good enough.
wich part of “i want to pay as little as i can to as little entities as i can” do this people don’t understand.
i pay for internet so that i don’t pay for movies, music and games.
and this people garantee that no canadian asshole will get those datas????!!!!
My guess is that the bandwidth with a proxy service is probably relative to the capping ISP already put on Torrent Downloads.
You’d get better use wiping your ass with that $5!!!
[quote comment="308456"] in america theres this protective law called “entrapment” so if they set a “trap” for you to do something illegal, not only can they not charge you, but they get in some serious trouble. [/quote]
Another one falls for that old myth.
Not only is entrapment limited to law enforcement or its agents (which the RIAA/MPAA are not), but simply offering a service in which they collect your details while you commit a “crime” would not be anything like entrapment. It would be called a sting operation, and stings are perfectly legal.
*IF* this service has links to any rights holders, they could very easily bring civil cases against you.
It may be Canadian, but WHOIS is pointing the finger at the US for all info….
And what’s the deal with the BT Guard website?? It looks like it was designed to look like a late 90’s website!
I smell a Honeypot….
[quote comment="307516"]#8, you’re a *lot* safer on a private tracker. They usually only bother with public trackers (so far). In fact, I haven’t heard about someone being busted on a private tracker. Prove me wrong on that (hopefully, you can’t, though).[/quote]
Um…Oink???
http://www.torrentfreedom.com/
VPN don’t slow me down
@13
as the dollar plummets more people invest in it meaning we actually come up so heralding that as the downfall of americas economics is showing how big of an idiot you are.
They log massively and keep the logfiles for 6 month
—
torrentfreak should write a review about
http://swissvpn.net/
price/month: 5$ ~3.26€
connectable: yes
location: Switzerland
relakks is based in sweden, new european law says that traffic data has to be kept for 6 month = not safe
It seems that, since you must (eventually) pay for the service, that simply by checking your or BTGuard’s financial records, it would be arguable that you were paying for illicit services. Makes me think twice about their service.. :(
why btguard hide their identity?
they are registered in the USA with an anonymity service … why must they hide?
RSS Feeds do not work with this.
“Cashing In on Naive BitTorrent Users”
I’ve gotten my share of threatening emails when i’ve used private trackers.
You people disgust me!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
at 93. what trackers?
another hoax. and as stated above. demonoid was based in Canada and was shut down so don’t bother paying for some lame program. you can use vidalia. it’s free and it does the same thing. And by the way. if you pay than a money transfer will be involved aka personal data. you will be a sitting duck than. dont be stupid people.
I should add this to my list of protection.
I had previously written an article on bittorrent protetion. Take a look,http://neel-ug.blogspot.com/2008/01/protect-yourselves-from-bittorent-evils.html
Take a look at my del.icio.us bookmarks, I collected some interesting (mostly G7-offshore) VPN providers:
http://del.icio.us/CDrewing/relakks
As promised I’ve added the ability to add an encrypted tunnel yet maintain the pro of only having it effect your BT downloads. You can find the encryption option now under the install menu.
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