CyberGhost VPN is an excellent option for newcomers to the world of VPNs. The service offers reliable apps for all platforms that are easy for beginners to use. This service is very user-friendly, but it’s natural to have questions if you’ve never used a VPN before – especially for torrenting. To help you out, we’ve outlined how to use CyberGhost for torrenting and explained why using a VPN for torrenting is so important in the first place.
First and foremost, CyberGhost is designed to provide online privacy. It encrypts your internet connection, which prevents local networks, ISPs, and government snoops from monitoring your browsing habits and online activities. This includes any file sharing on torrent sites.
Connecting to a VPN server abroad lets you bypass restrictions in countries where popular torrent sites are blocked. It also hides your IP address, which is particularly useful for torrenting since normally, other people downloading the same file can use this information to track you down.
It is dangerous to torrent without a VPN, regardless of which county you are in or what torrent site you use. That is why so many people turn to CyberGhost to protect themselves. Keep reading to learn how to use CyberGhost for torrenting and ensure you never fall victim to hackers.
What are the benefits of using CyberGhost VPN for torrenting?
When you connect to one of CyberGhost’s servers, all your data is encrypted before being sent over the local network and onto the internet. If you use the OpenVPN protocol, your torrents will be protected with AES-256 encryption. The WireGuard protocol uses the highly reliable ChaCha20 cipher. No matter which one you decide to use, hotspot owners and ISPs will no longer be able to track your file sharing.
Using CyberGhost for torrenting provides several key benefits:
- Robust security: CyberGhost offers reliable encryption, DNS leak protection, and a kill switch to keep your personal data and devices safe from prying eyes.
- Conceal your IP address: Using CyberGhost VPN ensures that other peers can’t detect your home IP address. This prevents hackers from probing your network for vulnerabilities to spread malware, adding you to a botnet, or engaging in data theft and fraud.
- Unrestricted access: With servers in over 100 countries, CyberGhost allows access to torrent sites that might be blocked in your region.
- Fast speeds: CyberGhost offers many torrenting-optimized servers for high-speed downloads. With more than 9,000 servers, it automatically manages user load to avoid congestion, ensuring the best possible speeds.
How to use CyberGhost for torrenting
In this guide, we’ll cover the step-by-step process to set up CyberGhost for torrenting, ensuring you can download files securely and anonymously. Additionally, we’ll share some tips and best practices to maximize your safety and efficiency while torrenting.
- Get a CyberGhost VPN subscription: If you haven’t already subscribed to CyberGhost, follow this link to get a subscription. Using our link applies an automatic coupon code, ensuring you get the VPN at the lowest cost possible.
- Download the CyberGhost VPN application onto your torrenting device. CyberGhost has apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. This means you can torrent using any popular device or torrent client.
- Launch the VPN app and log In: Open the VPN app and log in using your credentials from sign-up.
- Enable the kill switch: In the CyberGhost app settings, ensure the kill switch is enabled to protect your torrenting privacy if the VPN connection drops.
- Select the protocol: Go to the protocols section in the CyberGhost app settings and switch to WireGuard for the fastest download speeds.
- Choose a VPN server: Select a server that fits your needs. Connect to a server in your country or a nearby country for the best speeds. Alternatively, connect to a server in a country where torrent sites are available if torrents are blocked in your location.
- Establish the VPN connection: Wait for the VPN connection to establish and launch your torrent client.
Now that your CyberGhost VPN connection is established, you’re ready to start downloading torrents securely. Always keep your VPN connected when visiting torrent repositories to ensure your ISP cannot track your torrent activities.
Why should I enable the CyberGhost kill switch for torrenting?
One of the primary reasons for using a VPN is to prevent local networks, ISPs, government snoopers, and other eavesdroppers from being able to track your web visits, communications metadata, and any downloads or file-sharing activities.
CyberGhost VPN is a reliable service that can provide you with watertight privacy while torrenting. However, it’s important to understand that your VPN connection could potentially drop out due to:
- Unstable Wi-Fi connection: If your Wi-Fi connection is a bit wobbly, this could cause your VPN app to disconnect. If this happens, your torrent activities will become visible to the local area network and your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
- ISP connection issues: If your ISP’s internet connection is temperamental and drops out for a few seconds (or longer), the app will disconnect from the VPN server, meaning your torrenting will no longer be protected by the encrypted tunnel.
- VPN server issues: It is possible that the CyberGhost VPN server could have a momentary lapse, which again can potentially cause the VPN to disconnect.
To protect against all of these possibilities, CyberGhost VPN has a system-level kill switch. This feature is designed to lock your internet traffic to the VPN. It works by cutting off your internet any time the VPN connection drops out.
With the kill switch enabled, you cannot use the Internet unless the VPN is connected. So, if you become confused and don’t understand why your Internet isn’t working, remember that you need to connect to the VPN to disable the kill switch!
Speed up your torrents using the CyberGhost split tunneling feature
CyberGhost VPN for Android has a split tunneling feature. This means that you opt to route some apps via the VPN and some outside of the VPN. If you torrent on Android, this can help to save processing power by limiting the amount of app data that CyberGhost VPN has to process. If you want to improve your torrent speeds, you can turn on split tunneling and set up the rules to exclude any apps other than your Android torrent client from the VPN.
On Windows, CyberGhost VPN has an exceptions feature. This feature does not allow you to exclude apps from the VPN. Instead, it allows you to select URLs. While this is not a true split tunneling feature, you can still use it to exclude some data from the VPN. For example, if you are streaming Netflix in your browser, you can exclude Netflix to avoid this data being encrypted and rerouted, which can save resources and potentially speed up your downloads.
How to Enable Split Tunneling on Android:
- Open the CyberGhost VPN app on your Android device.
- Go to the settings menu.
- Select “Split Tunneling.”
- Choose the apps you want to exclude from the VPN (any app other than your torrent client that you use regularly but don’t strictly require privacy).
How to Use the Exceptions Feature on Windows:
- Open the CyberGhost VPN app for Windows
- Launch the settings menu.
- Select “Exceptions.”
- Add the URLs you want to exclude from the VPN tunnel (any URL that you are using regularly and may be using up VPN resources unnecessarily because it doesn’t strictly require privacy).
Using these features can optimize your device’s performance and improve torrent speeds by ensuring that only necessary data is encrypted and routed through the VPN.
Can CyberGhost VPN protect me against hackers when torrenting?
Yes. Every time you torrent, you connect directly to the swarm Peer-to-Peer. This means that every other peer connected to the torrent swarm (other torrent users) can detect your home IP address. This allows hackers to probe your home network for vulnerabilities and exposes you to the risk of being approached by copyright trolls.
Using CyberGhost VPN allows you to conceal your IP address. When you connect to the VPN, only the IP address of the VPN server is visible to the torrent swarm. This means that other peers can no longer detect your home IP address. As a bonus, you’re not the only person with this IP address, so it’s effectively impossible to say who did what.
This removes the potential for you to be:
- Infected with malware: Protects against malicious software that can harm your device.
- Subject to device takeovers: Prevents unauthorized access to your devices.
- Data theft: Protects your personal and sensitive information from being stolen and from dangerous secondary repercussions such as fraud and identity theft.
- Added to a botnet: Blocks attempts to add your device to a network of infected machines.
- Targeted by copyright trolls: Hides your IP address from entities monitoring torrent activity for copyright enforcement.
Which countries block torrent sites?
If you live in or visit a country where torrent sites are blocked, you will need to use a VPN like CyberGhost to regain access. To help you out, we have included a list of countries that block popular torrent sites below.
CyberGhost VPN will work to access torrents in any of these countries:
- China: Known for its strict internet censorship, China blocks numerous torrent sites and employs advanced technologies like the Great Firewall to monitor and restrict online activities.
- India: Although authorities largely ignore torrenting in India, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has banned several torrent sites. These regulations, which aim to combat piracy and protect intellectual property rights, have resulted in popular torrent sites being blocked.
- Australia: The Australian government has enforced stringent anti-piracy laws, leading to the blocking of many torrent sites.
- France: France has implemented measures to block torrent sites in an effort to prevent online piracy.
- Germany: Germany is known for its strict copyright enforcement. It actively blocks torrent sites to prevent illegal downloads.
- Russia: The Russian government has taken steps to block access to many torrent sites as part of its efforts to control online content and prevent access to content that criticizes the Kremlin or offers content incompatible with local cultures and beliefs.
- Saudi Arabia: Torrent sites are blocked in Saudi Arabia in order to help enforce strict content censorship.
- Turkey: Turkey has blocked access to several torrent sites for the purpose of regulating content and preventing piracy.
Please note that this list is not necessarily exhaustive. Even in countries like the US and the UK, where torrent sites are generally available, court orders and efforts to curb illegal file sharing can potentially lead to some torrent restrictions. Under these circumstances, you can use CyberGhost to bypass blocks. If you are living in or visiting a country where popular torrent sites fail to load, you can use CyberGhost VPN to regain access.
Does CyberGhost VPN provide port forwarding?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Some torrent users find that to maintain an optimal torrent ratio (upload-to-download ratio), they need to implement port forwarding. This is important for users who need a good ratio to remain in good standing with their torrent community.
Some torrent communities deliberately slow down the downloads of users who do not have a good ratio. This feature helps to keep users honest and forces them to seed (upload) and leech (download) torrent files.
Port forwarding makes this easier by ensuring that other torrent users can more easily connect with your torrent client for seeding. It opens specific ports in your firewall, allowing for more efficient and faster connections, which can help improve your upload speed and overall ratio.
If you need to set up port forwarding with your torrent client, you will need to switch to an alternative VPN for torrenting. You can check our lists of the best VPNs with port forwarding to find the best option.
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