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Piracy @lemm.ee penquin @lemm.ee

Got an email from ISP

How does this firm (or whatever it is) know I torrented something? My VPN app took a shit in the middle of a download and I think it exposed my IP to some "anti-piracy" bullshit firm that contacted my ISP. ISP emailed to let me know and to "not do it again". How does this firm know about torrenting? Do they like watch these sites and hope someone's VPN slips like mine did today?

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  • I've heard they monitor the torrents and try downloading from the peers as evidence of them distributing the content.

    Anyway, you could set up firewall rules to only allow connections via VPN interface (and out to the VPN server, of course).

    • I see. Also, could you please elaborate on the firewall bit? I've set up some rules on games that force data collection before where I just blocked the in and out on the game, but I don't fully understand the "only allow connection via VPN). Do you have clear instructions on how to do that? A tutorial? And what does that do? Thank you, btw.

      • Oof, sorry. This will depend on OS and the software you use for FW configs. I am too dumb.

        For example, I use UFW on Linux. So for me it's

        # Deny all incoming and outgoing traffic by default
ufw default deny outgoing
ufw default deny incoming

# Allow connection to VPN server
ufw allow out to <VPN server IP address> [port] <VPN server port number> [proto] <tcp|udp>

# Allow connection via VPN interface
ufw allow out on <interface name> from any to any

# Enable UFW
ufw enable

        That's just one simple way.

        • Thank you. I'm not that familiar with UFW, but I have used its UI app, GFUW. I'll mess with it and figure something out. Does blocking outgoing traffic prevent others from seeing my IP address, or do I need to combine that with a rule that only allows connection to the VPN server?

          • I am not sure I understand your comment.

            Blocking outgoing traffic blocks all outgoing traffic, thus including traffic outside of VPN.
            Allowing outgoing connections to the VPN server simply makes an exception in that blocking, otherwise you couldn't even connect to a VPN.

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