Where is good description of Proxy's FAQ

[captnzap]

Where can i find a good description of why and how to use a proxy with torrent clients?

I want to know if it increases privacy/security?
Can you set up the proxy address in Transmission and not need to use VPN to avoid the ISP or local network monitoring?
I would assume that the local network admin can see the TCP packets are torrent packets.
If you subscribe to a VPN service, do you use it as the proxy address?
Why do people use proxys?

[kjf]

There are different ways to use a proxy with a torrent client.

You can use a HTTP proxy to allow your client to announce to a tracker you can't access directly. With modern clients, this is largely unnecessary, as DHT has replaced the need to announce to a traditional tracker.

You can use a SOCKS proxy to connect to other peers. It does not encrypt your connection, so it will not mask any activity. It will hide your real IP address from any peers you connect to, and it may allow you to connect to peers you wouldn't be able to connect to directly. Your client cannot accept incoming connections through a proxy.

A VPN sets up a two way tunnel between you and the VPN host. You do not need to change any settings in your torrent client to use it. In addition to hiding your real IP address, if configured properly, you can also accept incoming connections, and the connection is encrypted so any observers, including your ISP, cannot see what is inside the connection. They will still see that you are moving large amounts of data.

[captnzap]

Since I already subscribe to VPN for other purposes, it sounds like there is no great advantage to SOCKS proxy. I would assume, and please correct me if i am wrong, that with OpenVPN your actual ISP IP address of origin his hidden from other torrent clients, encrypted or not.

The only reason i was asking is because in some situations i am streaming or using a torrent client at the same time i am doing something on the local network. Using VPN, the local network sees my IP as from the outside and denies or limits access. I thought perhaps configuring the torrent client or a web browser with a proxy would avoid changing my apparent IP.

There are different ways to use a proxy with a torrent client.

You can use a HTTP proxy to allow your client to announce to a tracker you can't access directly. With modern clients, this is largely unnecessary, as DHT has replaced the need to announce to a traditional tracker.

You can use a SOCKS proxy to connect to other peers. It does not encrypt your connection, so it will not mask any activity. It will hide your real IP address from any peers you connect to, and it may allow you to connect to peers you wouldn't be able to connect to directly. Your client cannot accept incoming connections through a proxy.

A VPN sets up a two way tunnel between you and the VPN host. You do not need to change any settings in your torrent client to use it. In addition to hiding your real IP address, if configured properly, you can also accept incoming connections, and the connection is encrypted so any observers, including your ISP, cannot see what is inside the connection. They will still see that you are moving large amounts of data.

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Since I already subscribe to VPN for other purposes, it sounds like there is no great advantage to SOCKS proxy. I would assume, and please correct me if i am wrong, that with OpenVPN your actual ISP IP address of origin his hidden from other torrent clients, encrypted or not.

The only reason i was asking is because in some situations i am streaming or using a torrent client at the same time i am doing something on the local network. Using VPN, the local network sees my IP as from the outside and denies or limits access. I thought perhaps configuring the torrent client or a web browser with a proxy would avoid changing my apparent IP.

There are different ways to use a proxy with a torrent client.

You can use a HTTP proxy to allow your client to announce to a tracker you can't access directly. With modern clients, this is largely unnecessary, as DHT has replaced the need to announce to a traditional tracker.

You can use a SOCKS proxy to connect to other peers. It does not encrypt your connection, so it will not mask any activity. It will hide your real IP address from any peers you connect to, and it may allow you to connect to peers you wouldn't be able to connect to directly. Your client cannot accept incoming connections through a proxy.

A VPN sets up a two way tunnel between you and the VPN host. You do not need to change any settings in your torrent client to use it. In addition to hiding your real IP address, if configured properly, you can also accept incoming connections, and the connection is encrypted so any observers, including your ISP, cannot see what is inside the connection. They will still see that you are moving large amounts of data.

[kjf]

Since I already subscribe to VPN for other purposes, it sounds like there is no great advantage to SOCKS proxy. I would assume, and please correct me if i am wrong, that with OpenVPN your actual ISP IP address of origin his hidden from other torrent clients, encrypted or not.

With any VPN or proxy, remote clients will see the IP address of the VPN or proxy server as your IP address.

The only reason i was asking is because in some situations i am streaming or using a torrent client at the same time i am doing something on the local network. Using VPN, the local network sees my IP as from the outside and denies or limits access. I thought perhaps configuring the torrent client or a web browser with a proxy would avoid changing my apparent IP.

A VPN operates at a lower level than a proxy, so you can't configure any piece of software to use them directly.

You can configure the VPN to not automatically hijack all traffic, and then configure the client to only use the network interface set up by the VPN.

Depending on your OS, you can also set up a static route that keeps local traffic local.

How you go about doing all that depends on the OS, VPN client and torrent clients in use. For some OS/client combos, it is not even an option. You would just have to switch the VPN on and off as required.

It is a bit overkill for just a torrent client, but you can always set up a virtual machine for the client and run the VPN inside of that. However, unless your VPN server allows multiple logins, you would have to switch off the VPN in the virtual machine to use it elsewhere.