Considering Bittorrent - Any Tips?

First of all, sorry if this is in the wrong section--I find this a bit too encompassing to isolate in a more specific section. If you think this should be moved, feel free to do so!

That said, as the title notes I've finally considered to go into the Bittorrent 'universe' and need help in securing my experience. The programs I got are listed in my signature, though the problem here is how best to use things. My dilemma: I'm a control freak and a performance freak! They don't always mix well in securing situations.


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So with that in mind, here are my main concerns:

1.) Which Torrent client do you think works best with these two aspects in mind? I'm only familiar with uTorrent, but the more the merrier!


2.) Given those stances, my main approach to securing Bittorrent is to contain the downloads in Sandboxie. Problem is there are numerous different ways of doing this and I don't know what works best. Does anyone have a specific set of rules that they pursue? There've been some complex ones that isolate browsers, the program itself but from what I know if the torrent file header is fine/from a good site it's really the end product/file that should be of concern (hence my current strategy). *stumped*


3.) The control freak part of me wants to have complete control whether Bittorrent is accessing the internet or not. I don't know much about Bittorrent here though despite my searching. Is it as simple as having the client closed, or does it entail disabling it from your firewall settings?


4.) This coincides with my previous question depending on the answer of it. Basically, if this does require some tweaking of firewall settings, is there a slimmed down way of doing so? I am aware of many robust products here on the forums, but I like to keep it simple with the built-in Windows Firewall or router if possible. If there is an easier way of tweaking this these ways I'd be grateful for some tips!


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Otherwise that's about all I can think of. I appreciate any feedback in advance and look forward to the discussion (I imagine other newbies might find this useful).

 

3. Stop the torrent after its done. Then close bittorrent.

 

I have used µTorrent for years. It has always worked very well for me.

There is performance issue: when µT is uploading at or near the maximum allowed speed (about 45% or the available upload bandwidth), the browsers become slow and sometimes unresponsive.

On the security side, I always use µT with Returnil enabled. When I download files (to a data partition not protected by Returnil), I scan them with MSE, MBAM, SUPER.

 

First of all, thanks for the feedback guys--I understand this is a little different from the usual posts here.

*facepalms*

I didn't think it'd be that easy! Good to know it's that simple to control. I guess I had this strange suspicion of the way files were so readily available on p2p & bittorrent networks. Guess that solves most of my concerns with firewall control.

I have noticed that as well from some of my friends who use it, I appreciate the heads-up. As for your specified method, that seems to be the same boat I'm taking. Sandboxie has proven to be very flexible on that regard although I'm not the savviest user. Looks like that principle of doing things works though so I'll try and go with that approach somehow.

Great stuff so far! If anyone else has additional things to add I'd be grateful!

 

Can't really say if the torrent client needs to be sandboxed - only real risk should be executible files (especially cracks and such other that are risky). MP3 and such should be ok, but perhaps some vids maybe maybe risky. just scan them first with the av if in doubt.

Regarding firewall, just allowing the selected ingress port for the client should be sufficent for the port server in the firewall. And then keep that port as the default instead of allowing the client to choose a random port on each of it's startups.

Outbound for the destination ports could be something like 80, 443, 1024-65535, but some torrents include unusual destination ports so be prepared to make some adjustments.

 

Thanks 3inchblue, I'll keep these modifications in mind. After some additional searching & the help from these posts I think it's safe to say that this thread has been answered/closed. Again I appreciate the feedback from everyone!

I hope this helps for other newcomers to BitTorrent.