Newbie Question: Is it safe?

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 4:22 am

I am new to BitTorrent and was wondering if it was actually safe to use, sorry if this is an obvious question...

if its not safe are there ways to make it safe?

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:28 am

http://www.joestewart.org/p2p.html :

Quote:

Security

BitTorrent cannot be used to spread viruses in the way other P2P networks are known for1. On most P2P networks, spreading a virus is as easy as copying it to the shared folder with an enticing name. Since BitTorrent users only share pieces of well-known files whose integrity is known to the tracker, it is not possible to infect a piece of the file being shared. While you could potentially upload a virus to a public tracker and provide a .torrent file for it, you'd still have to convince people to download and run the file just as if you posted it to a website. Another benefit to the BitTorrent model is that users can't unknowingly share out the contents of their hard drive in the way neophyte users have done on other P2P networks. Virtually all of the security and privacy concerns noted by opponents of P2P technology simply don't exist with BitTorrent.

Try googling bittorrent security, bittorrent anonymity, etc. & search the forum.

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:46 am

i use bittorent with Shareaza.
it is good for large files
and you don't have problems so i think it is safe Wink

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 11:13 am

ok thanx, also is it safe legally because I heard that they track you through the program...?

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 3:07 am

If you are downloading illegal movies etc that can cause you to be tracked by authorities such as MPAA. It does happen as I have had a warning from my ISP because they were contacted by MPAA due to movies I had been downloading.

There are ways around it though. Check this site out: Bluetack Internet Security Solutions for information and utilities to block unwanted viewers from seeing what you are up to.

Basically you can get a program such as protowall or PeerGaurdian which blocks certain IP's from seeing your computer and then use a utility like Blocklist Manager to download lists of IP's that are bad.

Hope that helps.