We’ve covered how to ensure that your traffic is encrypted, and also how to hide yourself from being seen by anyone who might not have your best interest in mind, while connected to various trackers. The next and final step is just this. Be smart. When using torrents to file share, choose sites hosting these torrents which are reputable. To take this even a step further, use torrents for legitimate purposes. Many distributions of Linux are are shared through torrents to ensure that the load on the host server is minimal. Torrents are not only used to pirate things, and that is something that needs to be recognized and embraced as we move towards new ways to distribute materials. Torrents, whether used for ‘good’ or ‘bad’ are wonderful things.

That being said, if you do choose to torrent, be sure to use only sites having a large user base. These are the ones which are going to be the least likely to give you spyware and viruses, while at the same time providing a large enough user base where any one user is not going to be overly interesting to those watching. My personal favorite site is http://www.demonoid.com. It has been through its share of troubles in the past, having to change server locations multiple times due to law suit threats. A few days ago the site was taken down entirely, with only the cryptic message: “The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.” left for its users. The reason why Demonoid is such a great place is due to its community. Registration is usually upon invitation only, and users are forced to maintain a good download to upload ratio. These restrictions come together to make an environment where torrents are fast, friendly, and safe. Let’s all hope for safe and soon return for the best site out there. Here’s to you Demonoid and its users.