Well, After hundreds of GB of torrents downloaded, I slipped up. I've been changing around linux distros recently and i believe i configured my VPN wrong or forgot to turn it back on after doing something. Well, I finally got hit with a copyright warning. Just your typical "we had to send this" type of warning but none-the-less, I slipped up.

Sharing this because the day before it happened, I read a post about not only having your killswitch on but also binding your client to you vpn interface for situations like this. Needless to say I didn't take that precaution. For those who are on linux, I found a great post about how to set this up on reddit and wanted to remind people to "double wrap" because why not be safe lol.

The steps were more or less as follows (for QBitTorrent at least):

Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced Settings
Under "Network Interface", select your vpn interface. To test, check what shows with your vpn on, and then turn it off and re-navigate to this part to see what dissapeared. Thats likely your vpn interface if the name wasn't clear. (Do not be seeding/downloading torrents while doing this in case).
To test, download a non-copyright torrent like the Ubuntu ISO torrent. In the middle of download, disconnect or close your vpn connection. This should stop the download.

Not sure if reddit links are cool here but here is the guide source if anyones interested. Binding VPN to Torrent Client

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[–] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Were you using a public or private tracker?

[–] JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Public I assume, I'm pretty new to torrenting and haven't really dove into private trackers yet. Any resources your recommend on reading up on that?

[–] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

It can be tough to get an invite to a private tracker, but that's all I've been using in my 20 years of torrenting and I've never received an ISP letter. I don't use a VPN. Just keep an eye out for open sign-ups. Once you're in, it's essential to keep a good ratio.

[–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Tormenting? That sounds a bit extreme

[–] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago

Lmao Oops, fixed

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

~~/r/opentrackers~~ /r/opensignups to find openings and read the rules of wherever you're joining. Typically, they just want you to seed for X amount of time within Y days. I've also been temporarily banned once for not having any activity several days after joining on one of the more popular sites.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 5 days ago

That sub was banned. There is r/OpenSignups though. You can monitor the rss feed if you don't want to go on reddit.

[–] JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'll take a look at this. Is there any downsides to private trackers?

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Mainly just that you need to maintain a fairly high seed ratio to keep access. A lot of trackers will limit how many concurrent torrents you can have, based on your seed ratio. And depending on the tracker and the media that you want to download, you sometimes run into situations where just nobody else wants what you're seeding, or where the torrent has so many seeds that you barely get to contribute.

Last time I was on a private tracker, I was one of only like 3 other users who were downloading episodes of Doctor Who. I could seed those for months, and never go above 1.0 because there just wasn't interest in that.

I'm not sure if this is considered a good practice or not, but what I ended up doing was occasionally torrenting something that was really popular, even if I had no interest in it, just so that I could seed something. It definitely helped to keep my ratio up, and as far as I can tell it's overall a net benefit to the network as a whole, so I don't think tracker admins would have issue with it. But it just felt weird, to me.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 4 points 5 days ago

I'm not sure if this is considered a good practice or not, but what I ended up doing was occasionally torrenting something that was really popular, even if I had no interest in it, just so that I could seed something.

This is absolutely recommended in order to build ratio. Find and download brand new torrents to get the best chance at upload credit, especially if they're freeleech files that don't count toward your download ratio.

Also every tracker I've ever joined has some sort of bonus point system that allows you to buy upload credit and improve your ratio with points earned from seeding, uploading, leaving forum comments, etc.

I've been able to build super high ratios even with garbage upload speeds just by seeding things for a long time to the point that I don't have to worry about it even with automated downloading via sonarr/radarr.

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

!opensignups@lemmy.world is active enough.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The last post was from a year ago and the next last one from two years ago.

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago

Oops, I linked the wrong one and got fooled because the most recent post is actually open again.

!opensignups@lemmy.ml is more active. (Although not bustling either)

[–] CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago

Getting an account on a big general tracker like TorrentLeech is a pretty good foot in the door. They do open signups frequently. There's also IPtorrents and their whole network, although they're pretty looked down upon by the private trackers community. If you want to start working towards invites to more selective trackers, MAM, OPS, and RED all have an interview process. MAM is by far the easiest one to build a ratio on, although note that they do not like to be thought of as a stepping stone.