There has been increased limitations and throttling of torrent traffic by more ISP networks during the last years. The number of ISPs that have been limiting BitTorrent traffic has been increasing every day, which led to the “bandwidth war.” However, there is a solution to this – encrypt torrent. Encrypted torrenting will prevent the limiting and throttling of your torrent traffic. This article will explain how to enable uTorrent protocol encryption, qbittorrent encryption, deluge encryption, Vuze encryption, and Tixati encryption.
What is encryption?
Many people use encryption in their day-to-day web activities but just don’t realize it. Each time you use your credit card, purchase on Amazon, or visit your local bank, your web browser is using encryption. The purpose of encryption is to prevent intermediaries or third parties from viewing the data that you are transferring. It serves to prevent data leaking when the user sends their sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, location, and passwords through the internet. The same applies to torrent encryption.
Without the use of encryption, Man-in-the-middle attacks are quite common – user on the same network as yourself can view all the data that is being transferred. Even your own ISP can view all your transferred data using deep packet inspection and also monitor your downloads and archive your web history. Encryption will protect your data, ensuring that only the website/server that you are communicating with can view it.
Why should you encrypt your torrenting?
There are two main reasons to encrypt torrent: speed and privacy. Numerous applications exist that are used for encrypted torrenting, and these can change the mode in which your data will travel. These applications, such as protocol encryption use secure servers to hide your P2P file downloads from your ISP. These encrypted torrenting applications are, therefore, effective in fighting ISP throttling.
When using these torrent encryption applications, two results can be achieved. One is undoing the throttling and blocking of the P2P traffic by the ISP. This will end up with faster download rates for the torrent files.
Torrent encryption is also the best way to keep your privacy and keep anonymity online. Encrypting torrents prevents your traffic from showing up on any logs.
Method 1: Torrent encrypting using a P2P torrent client
Several torrent clients are quite popular with users, and most of this will allow the user to encrypt both their incoming and outgoing data. Here, we will show you how to achieve torrent encryption on five torrent clients. These five torrent clients come free and are very reliable in their operation. Being able to encrypt torrents on them is a bonus.
uTorrent and BitTorrent encryption settings
These two are the most popular P2P clients around the globe and are quite identical. The protocol encryption uTorrent and BitTorrent encryption are enabled by:
- Running uTorrent or BitTorrent on your computer
- Navigating to Options>Preferences
- Select BitTorrent on the left side of the screen
- Select “Forced” in the Protocol Encryption Field
Vuze encryption settings
This has been regarded as the World’s most powerful torrent client. This can encrypt your entire torrent traffic, which most other clients can’t. Torrent encrypt is enabled by:
- Run Vuze on your computer
- Navigate to Tools>Options
- Select “Advanced Mode” on the Mode option
- Open the Connection group of settings located on the left-placed sidebar
- Select “Transport Encryption”
- Then enable “Require Encrypted Transport”
- Finish by selecting “RC4” as the minimum encryption level
Deluge encryption settings
Deluge offers its users with more granular control over their torrent encryption settings. Deluge Encryption is enabled by:
- Open Deluge on your computer
- Navigate to Edit>Preferences
- Choose Network and then view the Encryption segment
- Here you will find different combinations
- To get “Enabled,” use these values Inbound > Enabled, Outbound > Enabled, Level > Either. Ensure that you have enabled “Encrypt Entire Stream”
- To get “Forced”, use these values Inbound > Forced, Outbound > Forced, Level > Full Stream. Ensure that you have enabled “Encrypt Entire Stream”
QBittorent encryption settings
The QBittorrent client has a different operation from the other torrent clients, as it is a well-integrated open-source client. It is quite simple to use, allowing the user to configure every single aspect of the software. It is even possible to remote control it. QBittorrent encryption s enabled by:
- Launch QBittorrent on your system
- Navigate to Tools>Options
- Click on “BitTorrent” on the left-placed menu
- View the set of options on Privacy
- Choose the “Require Encryption” that is located next to “Encryption Mode”
Tixati
This Torrent is for those who are willing to take complete control over their P2P downloads. Tixati will let the user configure every single aspect of the software. This also means that the torrent encryption can be fine-tuned:
- Run Tixati on your device
- Navigate to Settings>Network
- Click on “Connections” on the left side of the screen
- To choose “Optional” encryption, click on “Encrypted preferred” for Outgoing and Incoming Peer Encryption
- To choose “Forced” encryption, click on “Encrypted Only” for Outgoing and Incoming Peer Encryption
Method #2: Encrypt your torrent traffic using a VPN
This method involves the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) application to encrypt torrent data. To achieve full encapsulation of your data, VPNs will often use in combination, military-grade encryption and VPN protocols. This is what you need to know about this method:
- Easy Setup: The design and running of VPNs have changed over the years from complex applications operating within complex systems into simple and greatly optimized applications. VPNs can now be easily installed on different operating systems for computers and laptops and also on your router.
- Able to Keep Your ISP at Bay: The VPN can prevent ISP throttling, letting you continue with your torrenting at fast speeds without fear of legal action.
- No Peer Availability Limits: This can be a huge issue when using built-in torrent encryption. This, however, is not an issue when a VPN is being used. Your Web traffic will become encrypted once a remote server is connected. P2P is then just one aspect of this insanely wide spectrum of possibilities.
- Many Amazing Options: There are numerous VPN providers online but not all are the same and support P2P traffic. However, most provide a great number of options in their use.
Setting up a VPN encryption
You will have to first choose a service that is torrent-friendly. It is also a good idea to choose a fast VPN to ensure a smooth flow of P2P traffic. We advise using Surfshark. To use this VPN:
- Sign-up for Surfshark so that you can have an active subscription
- Then download and install the Surfshark application on your computer
- The application will then try and find the fastest server that is available to you. It will choose a server that is close by to avoid any IPS throttling.
- Activate the “Smart Location” so that it can choose the server automatically
- Your web connection will then be fully encrypted after a few moments
- You can then go ahead and start downloading torrent files via various torrent sites
- When the download is complete, let it seed for a while so that you can give back to the torrenting community
