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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der[quote comment="307824"][quote comment="307804"]Guys, open your eyes: Even if you’re using a proxy, all the incomming connections are completely unanonymized!
Check it out yourself: Download Netlimiter or a similar program and take a look at the connections your Torrent-Client establishes. You’ll see that a lot of connections are not send through the proxy.
Proxys DON’T make you anonymous in the P2P-networks. Only VPN does that, because it forces ALL connections to go through it.
So please, don’t pay them a cent - It’s a scam![/quote]
Dude your an idiot and a troll.[/quote]
He is actually right. The Outgoing Traffic is routed through the btguard-proxy but you still get incomming directly from the seeders. Which kinda is the whole Problem with filesharing. VPN saves you some trouble there. vpntunnel.co.uk was recommended here some time ago and seems to be a bit overloaded at the moment, but will be back to faboulus hopefully soon.
Any service that doesn’t allow anonymous payments I would avoid like the plague.
If you pay by credit card, paypal, echeck or any other kind of fiat currency you’re screwed.
For financial privacy, cash and digital gold are the only options.
[quote comment="310887"]
He is actually right. The Outgoing Traffic is routed through the btguard-proxy but you still get incomming directly from the seeders. Which kinda is the whole Problem with filesharing. VPN saves you some trouble there. vpntunnel.co.uk was recommended here some time ago and seems to be a bit overloaded at the moment, but will be back to faboulus hopefully soon.[/quote]
Actually you’re wrong, I tested it myself and you can too. Start a BT transfer, run “netstat -n -b”, and you’ll see that you’re only connected to there server.
I just got my trial username/password for this and set it up on uTorrent. Ever since the school dorms I live in switched ISP’s, my Web and BT traffic has been horribly slow, we are talking download speed of .7k, but usually 0. If I fire up eMule or Ares, traffic is better, but still not stellar.
So, with this proxy, my speeds have went up to 50k, which I haven’t seen for months. I dunno about you guys, but for me, that is worth $5/month. I wish I could just switch ISP’s, but the dorm management controls the provider. Hopefully I’ll be seeing > 100k speeds soon :)
[quote comment="308172"][quote comment="307854"]GUYS,
This service doesn’t say no one can snoop on your traffic; people still can, they admit that.
This service doesn’t say you will not get in legal trouble, because that is always a possiblity.
This service DOES say, if you are being blocked from downloading by your ISP, then this service should be able to bypass that.
Its that simple; if your ISP is screwing with your torrent, these guys can probably help you. That’s all they are saying, no more, no less. [English isn't rocket science!][/quote]
Actually, they do say right on their site that they protect you from your ISP. They cannot do that by using a plain text method.
Nor can they prevent any throttling based on actual packet inspection. Because it’s all plain text, packet inpection will still show you up as using bittorrent. Many ISPs use ellacoyas for DPI to prevent bittorrent use. Sandvine is not the only nasty out there.
As for their argument that “Your ISP doesn’t sniff your packets to find you out”, they obviously have no clue how things work at various ISPs. If they did, then they would know 3 of the biggest UK ISPs are about to start copying all traffic passing over port 80 for the purposes of targetted ads (including the traffic you now send through this proxy). Once this happens, the BPI can make a very easy case for copyright infringement tracking being the responsibility of the ISP as they are no longer merely conduits for data. The UK govt has already threatened legislation if the ISPs cannot come to an agreement with the BPI.
ISPs in other countries have to comply with draconian government regulations which this does nothing to protect against.
A VPN or SSH tunnel protects you against both ISP monitoring and mafiaa monitoring. They state in their comment above that they are working on an SSH solution.
If they truly believed their own crap about ISPs not looking at packets, they would not be building an SSH solution.[/quote]
Actually, ever since I started using them, the throttling has stopped working and I am getting deceent download speeds from my dorms ISP. So maybe its time to backpedal…eh?
[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]
Umm Oink…..
I dont see anywhere to get this “free” trial mentioned
i hope this works..what 5 bucks u talkin about
Anyone know any usenet providers not based in the USA or Canada??
Hmm. Well, if and when one of our ISPs gets us, and prevents one of us from seeding.. then we’ll do something about it… mebbe try out this service… until then, screw them.
I signed up to bt guard.so many clients do not allow tracker connections in the u.s.
My expierience…that the same torrents underway were imediatly open to a butt load of trackers…speeds went way up,tho not,”amazing”Also…my secondary internet use speed has increased dramitacally(throtteling?)finally…the peace of mind of privacy for my legal downloads…2 cups of good coffee a month…I am a fan so far and recomend giving it a go
works -
actually my speed increased
Is anybody else concerned by the following?
1) there is very little info about them on the web
2) nothing pre-dates March 2008
3) certain discussion groups contain hints of possible “honey trap”
Am I just being more paranoid than normal?
No, you’re being cautious. BTW, BTGuard is on the Bluetack/Peer Guardian blocklists. So, for those using this “service”, you’re not going to connect to anyone that filters IP’s.
Well, well,
What a discussion here at the other end of the world…
In Europe we have the same problems with legal downloading, etc, etc.
What about hiding your IP-addresses with hideyouripaddress or sthng like that?
Where is the free trial? The link to the free trial page only takes you to a purchase page. What a scam.
They target PRIVATE trackers.
It is because, paying for torrenting is REALpiracy. Free torrenting, is not, according to the Telecommunications Act of 1996…
information wants to be free :)
These comments are some of the dumbest shit I’ve ever read!
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