Downloading large files in a matter of seconds was considered almost impossible before the introduction of torrenting. However, there are several safety factors that are not taken into consideration by torrent clients, endangering your privacy. In such circumstances, you can seek refuge from a safe torrent client that takes extra steps to safeguard your privacy, like qBittorrent.
A safe torrent client encrypts your downloading activity, prevents advertisements, and allows you to search for torrent links within its own interface. But what if I tell you that a safe torrent client can provide you with all of these features and more absolutely free of cost? Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? Well, qBittorrent is here to fulfill your dreams, then.
Now, picture qBittorrent as a ladder through which you can reach heights of safe torrenting, but it still needs the support of a wall to allow you to step on it. In this case, the support it needs is a VPN or antivirus software.
Why Use qBittorrent? (Pro’s)
The decision to choose a torrent client might be overwhelming for a lot of torrent users; however, in return, the results of several torrent clients can be extremely underwhelming. On the contrary, you should rest assured that employing qBittorrent will save you from experiencing these two extremes and make your torrenting experience much more secure.
Some of its safety features are as follows:
Open-sourced:
qBittorrent is an open-source program that allows you to examine its source code and even invites you to look for defects or potentially harmful content. Hence, you already know what you’re getting into, leaving no room for accidental trouble.
No Ads:
Let’s admit it, being interrupted by advertisements in the midst of downloading torrents is pretty frustrating. However, what’s worse is when your finger is itching to click the skip button, but then, to your utter horror, the advertisement leads you to another window.
But with qBittorrent, say goodbye to such unnecessary troubles. Since the client does not include any advertisements, the user experience is undoubtedly enhanced. It is also safer and more private since there is no third-party involvement due to ads or trackers.
Enhanced security features:
qBittorrent consists of two sophisticated functions that enhance your privacy. These functions are network interface filtering and IP binding. They are responsible for limiting your torrenting activities to a single network adapter or IP address and also for preventing IP leaks from occurring.
Anonymous mode
Anonymous mode is a reliable feature in qBittorrent that guarantees safe downloading by hiding your information from trackers and peers. It enables you to regain control over your privacy as it prevents others from monitoring and making significant changes to your torrenting activity.
How to Use qBittorrent on Your Device?
BitTorrent is available on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X devices; hence, if you own any of these, you are fit to continue torrenting via the qBittorrent client. Here’s how you can use qBittorrent on your device:
- Firstly, you will need to activate the qBittorrent search engine. To do so, open the menu bar, click on the “View” option and select “Search Engine.”
- Next, a dialog box will pop up, requesting you to install Python to proceed with the search engine installation. Click on Accept if you do not have Python installed on your device already.
- As soon as the Python installation is complete, a new tab will appear in the qBitTorent interface.
- Now, you need to install search plugins to access the search engine. For this, click “Search” on your new qBittorrent interface tab, and from the drop-down menu, select “Search plugins….”
- Your search plugins will then appear in a popup window. At first, your plugin list will be completely empty, for which you have to click on the “Check for updates” button to fill it with suggested plugins automatically.
As a result, when you wish to search for a torrent, you may use qBittorrent’s personal integrated search engine. All you have to do is update it on a periodic basis to ensure that your plugins are functioning properly.
Is qBittorrent safe to use?
Despite its efforts to provide maximum safety to its users, qBittorrent consists of some loopholes that tarnish its clean slate. However, qBittorrent is as far as you can get in terms of privacy and safety. There is no other torrent client that matches its capabilities. Hence, it is a wise option if you use qBittorrent along with a security platform that is able to mitigate its errors.
You need to know its drawbacks as well to fully understand the areas in which you will need to seek protection by other preventive measures. These drawbacks are as follows:
Exposed IP address:
Since you are connected to a wide network during P2P sharing, all the other users connected alongside you will be able to see your IP address. Hence, it becomes easy for copyright trolls to attack you, resulting in legal complications.
Malware risks:
While torrenting, there is always a threat of unintentional malware download looming over your head. qBittorrent does little to eradicate this threat; hence, you always have to be on guard against viruses or spyware.
The debate of its legality:
There are huge debates regarding qBittorrent’s legality. Even though the platform itself is legal, there is a lot of copyrighted content that is deemed illegal to download. Moreover, you are bound to face severe legal repercussions if you even accidentally download a copyrighted torrent link.
Jurisdiction
qBittorrent was established in France, which is a member of the Nine Eyes Alliance. Even though qBittorrent hasn’t been involved in any data tracking scandal, its jurisdiction serves as a threat to users as Nine Eyes Alliance is known to monitor and analyze users’ data traffic.
How to Access qBittorrent Safely?
With the ongoing privacy threats that are prevalent nowadays, it is tough to imagine a platform that truly values your privacy and complies with all of its promises rather than constructing a mirage of false hopes. qBittorrent itself possesses enhanced security features compared to uTorrent; however, it falls short on some critical security functions. Hence, to mitigate the outcome of these security flaws, qBittorrent requires a helping hand, which is lent by incorporating the following security measures:
Safe download links
The internet is full of potentially hazardous Bittorrent download links lurking to infect your device. Some downloading websites may include adware or bloatware in their installers to further complicate matters. To avoid such hazards, you should always download the qBittorrent app from its official website to ensure that the program is safe to use.
Using a VPN
A secure torrenting VPN is the armor you need to protect your digital rights. A large chunk of your online privacy is integrated within your IP address, and a VPN performs an effective job of concealing it from third parties. On top of preventing IP leaks, you need to ensure that your VPN possesses an automatic kill switch, military-grade encryption and enables P2P transmission on nearby servers.
Using an antivirus software
Just as the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure,” installing antivirus software is better than paying huge sums of money to avoid legal trouble. All torrent users are aware of the possibility of unintentionally downloading malware while torrenting. But to prevent this malware from spreading across your device, you need to install reputable and up-to-date antivirus software. The anti-virus software will scan and identify any malware-infected torrent link even before you download it and prevent it from spreading before it’s too late.
Do I Need a VPN for qBittorrent?
A VPN is your safest bet if you want to win the race of digital privacy. Although there are various suitable alternatives, none of them quite match the global stature of VPNs. Here’s how a VPN can make your torrenting experience in qBittorrent much more secure:
- It conceals your IP address, making it impossible for any potentially harmful user to identify and target you in a torrent swarm.
- VPNs are also a secure tool for encrypting your data traffic. Most premium VPNs employ military-grade encryption that conceals your online activity and even helps to avoid ISP throttling.
- It also prevents DDoS attacks from cybercriminals included in the torrent swarm since they can not access your IP address.
- VPNs are equipped with ad blockers that will prevent your device from establishing connections to phony websites, such as shady torrent trackers.
A good VPN connection will allow P2P transmission on a wide range of servers. It should further consist of enhanced privacy features such as military-grade encryption, audited no-logs policy, automatic kill switch, port forwarding support, and IP and WebRTC leak prevention.
Which is Better: qBittorrent or uTorrent?
Despite the fact that both uTorrent and qBittorrent share several common features, qBittorrent wins the race by a large margin when it comes to safety and security. Some of the features that deem qBittorrent as a more secure platform are as follows:
- qBittorrent is completely ad-free, ensuring an uninterrupted torrenting session. Whereas uTorrent hosts a number of third-party advertisements that pose a severe threat to your privacy.
- uTorrent download links incorporate bloatware bundles, requiring you to delete them manually once the download is complete. Moreover, bundled software is also deemed to possess potentially harmful malware. Whereas, if you download qBittorrent from a reliable source, you wouldn’t have to face such privacy threats.
- qBittorrent is an open-sourced program that provides enough transparency for you to analyze its flaws and advantages yourself. Meanwhile, uTorrent leaves no room for users to judge its efficacy since it is closed-source. This lack of transparency also surrounds uTorrent with an air of malevolence, making qBittorrent a much more reliable option.
Overall, qBittorrent comes out as the clear-cut winner in terms of privacy. It further possesses a user-friendly interface and high download rates. It allows you to stream while downloading at the same time, add torrents automatically, and load metadata beforehand.
Final Words
To conclude, qBittorrent does as much as it can to ensure user safety. However, the user itself also has a role to play if he wants to enhance its safety further. You can do so by avoiding the download of copyrighted content and incorporating additional privacy measures such as installing a VPN or antivirus software.
