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VPS/VPN and Private Trackers (Questions) (feddit.nl)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello, I would like some info about VPN usage at private trackers. I know it is a per-tracker policy but I notice many being a bit hostile toward em.

Example: A user would like to join a tracker, put a seedbox to help em seeding et al, but even while they allow VPN usage, they don't allow signup with the VPN on (and that absolutely defeats the reason of not having the user's real IP/time logged to a server that may be somehow attacked or forced to give theirs users details for some reason, even if that never happened before in such server). In that case the user would be de-"pseudonimizing" all their future use of the site via VPN since if their users details ever leak that could bind the future use of the site trough a VPN to the initial non-vpn IP address. This example affects every PHD sister sites, I believe.

So, I have some questions on that issue, if someone could help:

1. What is the ideal way to proceed in such situation? Are socks5 or other methods better accepted to unbind the use of the tracker site to the user IP address? (I'm talking about the trackers not even being able to handle such information in case something goes wrong. Not about an ISP or whoever else. Legality is not the concern here, but the very existence of the info itself).
1. Is there any place where we can find this info about trackers policies on VPNs? I did search but never found anything unified.
1. What trackers you know that simply don't care about the use of VPN? Which ones "don't care" but asks you to tell them (configure) your vpn details? Which ones absolutely don't allow them?

Thanks to anyone who can shed a light on these questions!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you live in a place where you can buy anonymous SIM cards and USB modems, that's a safe way to make sure no IP information can be traced back to you.

It's probably a bit overkill for this but if you're not Edward Snowden, you can use that setup for a long time and don't have to discard it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks for answering, I'm not trying to circumvent these sites rules, but to actually better understand em.

I get it that they are probably defending themselves from attackers, abusers, or who knows what else. I just fear that needing people's real IP at time of registration (and even accumulating data that links this ip to the future use of the site) can become a big problem in the future, if something bad happens to them. I mean, they can even be forced to handle their users data, some sites have done that already, using it as "bail"/negotiation when pressured (Torrent Freak has some examples).

So I thought that since the problem could be some user causing harm to their sites, maybe having some other static ip address route (not a shared vpn address) could suffice. But I don't know if that's the case.

Thanks for your suggestion, are they ok with that or would it be considered cheating?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Usually you do not have a static IP anyway. Sure you could probably backtrace the DHCP of your ISP to the date yout that IP got issued...But that is IMO a bit overly paranoid.

Though to be fair' I don't know why they don't like VPNs for signups. Most likely to enforce IP based bans for not following rules or for entire banned countries.
If you don't really care about the rules, just do it on signup but don't connect US -> DE but instead US -> US. That way they may not care enough to enforce rules.
One tracker even mentioned that the rules are there. Some are strictly followed (like naming rules), while others are not followed as strictly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thanks for answering and for the proposed solutions.

About the DHCP backtrace, that is the (standard) procedure being avoided. I don't think it's paranoid, it's just how it already works.