Mullvad is not in the top-10 of VPN services on brand awareness but users who gave it a shot speak really well of it. The provider first and foremost concentrates on the security aspect of the service, but is Mullvad good for torrenting as well? I checked if this VPN is torrent friendly and how it provides user protection during the file sharing. Here is what I learned.
Does Mullvad Allow Torrenting?
Right off the bat, Mullvad allows torrenting p2p across the board. Although the company doesn’t have a great variety of locations (it only has less than 300 units in its server park spread out in 22 countries) but you can connect to any of them without a fear to be banned or suspended.
The service has no restrictions on bandwidth and server switches; it doesn’t apply throttling either. Mullvad supports great speeds through its European servers (please note that I hooked up from Europe) but the overseas connections were average. Anyway, I always recommend using server is torrent-positive countries such as Netherlands, Romania, Canada, etc.
Mullvad Torrent Security Features
Mullvad has been around since 2009 when two security enthusiasts decided to create a really safe service. They registered the firm in Sweden. To be fair, such a country choice is not the best for a VPN for two reasons: Sweden as a part of EU is a subject to the Data Retention Directive; it is a member of the intelligence group known as 14 Eyes. Therefore, any information that is stored on VPN’s servers can be available to the government. This said, such a hostile jurisdiction can threat your privacy only if the provider has something to keep.
To somehow bypass unfavorable legislation, Mullvad developed one of the best privacy policiesin the industry. First of all, the service doesn’t need your name and email to sign up. It generates a numbered account for every user which becomes your admission to the system. Secondly, the service records absolutely no logs. Unlike the majority of competitors, their logless policy really implies no information about your connection and browsing history. That makes Mullvad an outstanding anonymous service for your torrenting activity.
Mullvad has interesting encryption features. OpenVPNis a well-known and respectful protocol widely used throughout the industry. The provider enhanced it with AES-256 cipher, RSA-4096 handshake andDHE-4096 perfect forward secrecywith a key updated every hour. If you have no idea of what all those letters and numbers mean, I’ll put it simply – Mullvad offers a really strong security.
In addition to OpenVPN, the service comes with a new Wireguard protocol that may soon shape the VPN industry. This protocol uses cryptography as a base and promises to be faster, simpler and more secure than any other encryption options. Currently, Wireguardis available for Linux computers and routers but torrent buffs already appreciate its blazing speeds.
The service keeps leakage under control thanks to DNS and IPv6 leak protection. Kill Switchwill safeguard your data if you experience connection failures.
Torrent users will be happy to know that Mullvad supplies anonymous and fast SOCKS5 proxy. Moreover, the service is glad to offer one more type of proxy called Shadowsocks.
Mullvad Prices
The service has no tier discounts for longer subscriptions. No matter what duration you choose it will cost €5 per month (it is a little bit less than $6). There is basically no trial period but you can test Mullvad for free within 3 hours. If you don’t like the service for any reasons, you can get your money back within a 30-day refund window. The service accepts anonymous payment methods such as Bitcoin and gift vouchers. You can even send them cash in an envelope (they don’t return cash payments though)
Mullvad for Torrenting: Conclusion
Mullvad is a privacy dedicated provider capable of making your torrent experience as secure as possible. It carries out a truly zero-logging policy so that it never knows what you do online and how you use Mullvad’s services. The provider supplies a military-grade encryption along with a crypto-based protocol of a new generation. For a faster connection, you are able to use two types of anonymous proxy.