Many of our readers are asking if choosing NordVPN for torrenting would make any sense, hence today’s article is aimed at answering this existential question for torrent freaks.
Speaking of internet, torrents and anonymity, we must remind our readers that file sharing via P2P based software is more or less illegal in many western countries, as these practices can be easily described as copyright infringement, hence using a VPN service while downloading stuff via torrents would be a wise idea, that if you care about security and personal privacy on the internet.
When you are connected to a virtual private network (VPN), all of your internet traffic is encrypted while transmitted through the VPN tunnel, hence not even your ISP (internet service provider) can’t determine exactly what you’re doing, except for the fact that you’re connected to a VPN server.
While downloading movies, various files or music from torrents is a great way of wasting one’s time and hard disk space, using a free VPN service comes with a caveat: even if there’s a saying about the best things in life being free of charge, free VPNs can’t protect you in the same way as a premium service (a paid one, that is) does.
Table of Contents
NordVPN and Torrenting
To begin with, you should know that NordVPN, despite being a relatively young company (just like almost all others in this racket), is widely recognized to be one of the world’s most popular VPNs for torrenting.
These guys started their business in 2012 and they’re based outside the US, in a relatively small country, Panama respectively, which comes with obvious advantages, like low operating costs and high privacy.
What makes them different from other VPN providers is the fact that they’re experts in offering VPN specialized application solutions for their customers. And one of their specialties is to provide high download speeds to their clients for torrenting activities and P2P file sharing.
To make a long story short, when connected to their servers, the difference in download speeds would be negligible compared to your “regular” (as in unsecured) internet connection, and you can take that to the bank.
NordVPN Safety and No-Logs Policy
Privacy is one of NordVPN’s strengths, including a no-logs policy, which means they can’t provide information on their customers to authorities even if they’re forced to.
The company actually advertises itself as a non logging VPN service, and the fact they’re based outside of the US/EU (in Panama, an Internet-friendly country) makes for a huge advantage for privacy-conscious users, as other VPN providers who also offer zero-log policies are based in the US, which means they can be subpoenaed by the federal government or the NSA at any time and forced to disclose users’ personal information.
Additionally, NordVPN offers to their clients a very cool feature, Double VPN that is, which means your internet traffic is rerouted to 2 VPN servers in different countries. Translated into layman’s terms, you’ll benefit from double encryption (virtually unbreakable). It’s like double the privacy, similar to installing 2 locks on your “web-door” so to speak. The downsides of this advanced encryption system include stress on your CPU and also it may penalize your download speed.
NordVPN’s Main Security and Privacy Features
Dedicated IP Address
One of the most important things for torrenting is a dedicated ( as in static) IP address, a feature that allows you to cruise the internet with the exact same IP address every time you connect to the VPN.
This comes handy when downloading stuff from specific servers, which may require you to have the same IP address each time you’re accessing their data. This is a rare feature as not many VPN services offer a dedicated IP address to their customers, and yes, NordVPN does it.
Tor over VPN
I already told you about the Double VPN thing, but the cherry on top is NordVPN’s Tor over VPN feature, which makes your internet activity virtually untraceable by your ISP or anyone for that matter. If you’re a torrent freak and a bit paranoid about Big Brother watching you, this is an excellent feature to have.
Anti-DDoS Servers
Other goodies include a firewall bypass, which allows you to bypass torrent restrictions due to firewall settings (hence its name), and an anti-DDoS servers, that protects you from being attacked. DDoS attacks are increasingly common and they allow third parties (hackers, criminals) to make your computer unavailable on the internet.
6 Simultaneous Devices
Finally, NordVPN comes with support for multiple devices (up to 6), which means you can use the same VPN account (without sacrificing download speed in the process, nota bene) on six different devices, and supports four protocols: OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, and IKEv2/IPsec.
Number of Servers and their Locations
The company has 3629+ servers in 61 different countries, including the European Union, the Middle East, Asia and obviously the US and Canada. Moreover, NordVPN offers 3000+ free proxies, i.e. a free proxy list, which can be used for boosting privacy on both web browsers and torrent clients.
Amazing Customer Service
If you’re having any kind of trouble, the company’s customer service team is available 24/7, and they can be inquired via email or through live-chat. There’s also a ticket system, but I wouldn’t trust it with my life if you know what I mean.
How Much does NordVPN Cost?
The cheapest (which is actually the heftiest) monthly plan starts at $11.95/month. However, if you think that’s too much for your money, you can go for 12 or 24 months packages, and you’ll benefit from significant discounts of up to 72 percent compared to the monthly plan.
Regardless of your plan of choice, you’ll get all the cool features NordVPN has to offer to their customers. As per payment options, you can use PayPal, your credit or debit card, and even Bitcoin.
NordVPN for Torrents: Final Words
Bottom line, NordVPN is very good and safe VPN service for torrenting, as they offer rock-solid privacy and security, doubled by excellent download speeds.
If you’re into torrenting, using a state of the art VPN is mandatory, especially if you live in the US or the EU. Besides being the great VPN to use for torrents, the company also caters to gaming and streaming audiences, with their lightning-fast TV servers and the Smart Play proxy option, a specific feature of NordVPN that gives you access to streaming services like BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Hulu etc all by using a proxy over the VPN, which means your data would still be encrypted in the process.