PeerBlock is a conventional ‘resolution’ for downloading torrents securely; chiefly because it’s free. We think that applying PeerBlock forms a fake sense of safety; and often does more outrage than good. You’d be much better off picking one of these Peerblock alternatives. Here we present some not much known truth about Peerblock.
What Is Peerblock?
For those that aren’t aware of Peerblock; here’s a quick intro and truth about Peerblock:
Peerblock is free software; that is often adopted by p2p and BitTorrent users for the proposed goal of making their downloads more ‘secret’ by obstructing peer connections from specific IP addresses.(Also read, 5 Best VPN for Torrenting & P2P File Sharing 2017)
Peerblock enables users to pick from 3rd party ‘blocklists’ (some are free, and some are ready to buy); which are substantially enormous databases of IP addresses; that will be blocked when Peerblock is initiated.
In theory, this idea is engaging. The idea is that if you can recognize particular ‘undesirable’ IP addresses; which may belong conceivably to wicked users, governments, or monitoring bureaus; which may sell BitTorrent data to the leading bidder; you can obstruct these connections; whereby making downloading torrents ‘safer.’ Read on to know more about truth about Peerblock.
Truth About Peerblock
It turns out there are some problems with this approach:
#1 -Peerblock Blocks Way Too Many Peers
If you apply the three most prevalent blocklists openly accessible for Peerguard; you would presumably believe that they would consolidate for a few thousand, maybe 10 thousand IP addresses blocked. In actuality, just the top 3 blocklists consolidated list of 1.1 Billion IP addresses. That’s over 25% of all available IPv4 addresses on earth!
Apparently, not all of these peers (not even similar to the preponderance) are malicious or unwanted. The result is that since you have far fewer peers to pick from, your download rates may be much more hindered when applying Peerblock.
#2 – It’s Impossible To Block All Malicious IP Address
One more truth about Peerblock is, it lists are created by blocking IP varieties of different types. Some IP ranges refer to research institutions, some to the state, etc. The fact is though that the single way to tackle every malicious peer is to obstruct every single IP address on earth (then you’d have zero peers).
Any user or company that is circumscribed to control your torrent activity is not going to be discouraged by the reality that their IP address got hindered. Some organizations’ whole income depends on their capability of logging the IP addresses. It’s not as if they’ll go out of the market just because their IP address got obstructed.
The fact is it’s strangely simple to change IP addresses.
By utilizing a VPN service, a data monitoring agency can have 10’s of thousands of IP addresses accessible at a single click.
Even if you apply a blocklist that hinders the IP varieties of popular VPN providers; a monitoring organization could still generate their own IP changing service by borrowing a VPS for under $100 a month. If their new IP’s get obstructed, they can just transfer the entire system to a different server with a new set of IP addresses with relatively concise trouble.(Also see, How To Check Your Torrent IP Address)
The bottom line is that it’s absolutely improbable to block every IP address that monitors torrent exercise.
Peerblock Doesn’t Encrypt Your Data
Even if Peerblock apparently could block every wicked peer’s IP address, there’s one monitoring company that it can’t prevent. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Three all of your internet traffic is routed via your ISP’s servers; they have complete access to your data stream.
Your ISP can detect what sites your visiting, what protocols you are applying (like BitTorrent) and what files you’re downloading by employing a technique known as deep packet inspection.
There is a comparatively easy solution to block deep packet inspection, however. If you encrypt your incoming/outgoing data by employing a VPN (virtual private network) service; even your ISP can’t decrypt or view your data
Peerblock Doesn’t Hide Your IP Address
Your IP address is the unique identifying data about you that arrives in a BitTorrent swarm. Your IP address is apparent to peers in the swarm, and this comes as another truth about Peerblock that it can’t do anything to alter or hide it.
Various services allow you to apply an anonymous IP address (one not directly connected to your internet connection) when downloading torrents. The two most common options are; a VPN service or a torrent proxy service.
If you employ an anonymization service like Private Internet Access VPN, the IP address they ascribe to you when you connect to the VPN server will be the one that is apparent to torrent peers; not your true IP address. Since PIA doesn’t retain any logs or records of your internet activity; no records are tying your anonymous IP address to your real one!
Even better, Private Internet Access covers both VPN and Proxy service at no added charge for as low as $3.33/month!
A VPN Is the Easiest Way To Download Torrents
We’ve already explained you the two points of vulnerability where anyone can trace your torrent activity:
The two means your torrents can be monitored:
- Your ISP is monitoring your unencrpyted internet traffic.
- If the IP address that seems in your torrent swarm can be traced to you
Peerblock cannot and does not fix either of these vulnerabilities. An anonymous VPN service fixes both.
An torrent-friendly VPN offers two sets benefits to allow you to download torrents anonymously.
- The VPN service encrypts all data transmitted between you and the VPN server. Your ISP cannot read it.
- The VPN service assigns you an ‘anonymous IP address’ that will be visible to the public while your true IP address will be visible only to the VPN server. Your ‘anonymous IP address’ will be the one that shows up in a torrent swarm. If you choose a VPN service that doesn’t keep logs, no one can trace your true IP address and hence your location.
