1

I know (it even says it on the page when you go to download Tor!) that torrenting over Tor is a no-go. There are several reasons for this, I quote the tor project website:

Torrent file-sharing applications have been observed to ignore proxy settings and make direct connections even when they are told to use Tor. Even if your torrent application connects only through Tor, you will often send out your real IP address in the tracker GET request, because that's how torrents work. Not only do you deanonymize your torrent traffic and your other simultaneous Tor web traffic this way, you also slow down the entire Tor network for everyone else.

Would there be any way (theoretically speaking) to modify a torrent system so that it would be safe to use over Tor? (Get rid of IP broadcasting, make proxies better recognised, etc). I am not asking about the realities of setting up such a network, only whether it would be possible.

Improve this question
4
  • This question is a bit general. Yes, you could write a torrent client that refuses to use UDP trackers and actually respsects proxies. Why wouldn't you be able to?
    – user5
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 14:32
  • @SamWhited I am not talking about a client, I am referring to redesigning the whole protocol to make it tor-safe.
    – felixphew
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 22:29
  • The protocol is perfectly Tor safe as long as you're using the older TCP variant (newer versions use UDP which can't be routed through Tor). The problems you mention above have nothing to do with the protocol, but have everything to do with poorly written clients.
    – user5
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 22:32
  • The simplest approach is routing a TCP-mode OpenVPN connection through Tor. Then route the torrent client through the VPN tunnel, which can handle UDP just fine. However, it will be slow, because everything will use just one Tor circuit. But at least it won't hurt other Tor users as much ;)
    – mirimir
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 8:10

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

You could use Tortilla which as I understand it would allow for this action, but may have an impact on the Tor network.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .