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BitBlinder helps torrent downloaders stay anonymous, avoid filters
BitBlinder first appeared last summer promising free, anonymous torrent downloading. While it's still in beta, my invite has finally come through and I've had a chance to play with the program a bit.
The installer includes the BitBlinder client, relay server, SOCKS client, and Portable Firefox (with the TorButton add-on installed). The client itself is a modified version of BitTornado and anonymity muscle is provided by TOR. While it lacks some of the options of other torrent clients, key customizations are available in the preferences pane -- limiting upload / download speeds and maximum connections, for example.
The installer includes the BitBlinder client, relay server, SOCKS client, and Portable Firefox (with the TorButton add-on installed). The client itself is a modified version of BitTornado and anonymity muscle is provided by TOR. While it lacks some of the options of other torrent clients, key customizations are available in the preferences pane -- limiting upload / download speeds and maximum connections, for example.
Just like when you browse the web using TOR, there's a performance penatly. My Ubuntu 10.04 beta torrent transferred at between 1/7th and 1/5th the speed it did when I used µTorrent. If you're trying to bypass an ISP's filters, however, you're probably more than willing to deal with a little less speed. Slower is better than nothing at all and my peak speed did reach about 110KBps, which is respectable.
BitBlinder offers four levels of anonymity - off, minimal, normal (the application default), and the TOR standard. Increasing speed means, of course, that you're sacrificing some anonymity -- and you'll be notified as you move the slider around.
Now, on to the 'free' part of the promise. When you install BitBlinder, you get credits for 3GB worth of transfers. To earn more, you'll need to set your machine up as a relay server. BitBlinder won't work without community participation: if there's no one online to help proxify torrent traffic. The relay app does allow you to specify limits if you have bandwidth cap concerns.
If filtering and privacy are big concerns for you, go and sign up for the BitBlinder beta program. It's a hassle-free way to wrap your torrent downloads a shroud of anonymity.
Comments
6
Subscribe to commentsayehanMar 22nd 2010 3:36PM
and what if someone downloading from me .. arent am open to entire world :)
why dont i use torrent myself rather than the whole world to access my ip, if i use i will be carefull in choosing torrent sites .. if you use it .. its a proxy for you .. and you dont care and MPAA will come towards me
MxxConMar 22nd 2010 12:32PM
FFS! BITTORRENT SHOULD NOT BE USED ON TOR NETWORK!!!!!!!!!!!
TOS network is not designed for bulk data transfers. it doesn't have enough capacity to handle all the warez kiddies!
it is against the spirit of TOR network to run bittorent on it!
TOR is used for serious cases when one's safety is at stake in hostile environments. TOR is used by human rights activists reporting atrocities out of repressive countries like China and Iran.
It MUST NOT be used for warez kiddies that just want to steal music and games!!!!!
BitBlinder is a horrible idea! any operator of TOR exit nodes must ban bitblinder for misuse of TOR's resources!
Smok3yMar 22nd 2010 12:43PM
This service does not actually use the TOR network, if I'm understanding this all correctly. It simply copies the TOR technology. ONLY BitBlinder users are relay nodes, and are all completely separated from normal TOR nodes and networks.
Do you really think would've been possible for the author of this article to attain 100ish kB/s if he were on the ACTUAL TOR network? Haha.
Smok3yMar 22nd 2010 12:45PM
This service does not actually use the TOR network, if I'm understanding this all correctly. It simply copies the TOR technology. ONLY BitBlinder users are relay nodes, and are all completely separated from normal TOR nodes and networks.
Do you really think would've been possible for the author of this article to attain 100ish kB/s if he were on the ACTUAL TOR network? Haha.
JRKMar 22nd 2010 12:40PM
One thing users of this new service should keep in mind, is that allowing yourself to be a relay server and allowing EXIT TRAFFIC, other users anonymized connections can and will come out on your end, meaning all those other user's potentially unscrupulous activities appear to be coming from your computer/IP.
Exit traffic can be toggled off, for both web and torrenting, but in the settings description this will cause you to gain bandwidth credit much slower.
MxxConMar 22nd 2010 2:14PM
but if everybody does that, their network will collapse.
and by allowing to become an exit node, you are potentially getting into much more trouble since it's going to be not a single user d/l pirated content, but 5, 10, 20?
yes, court would have to be convinced that it was actually you that d/led all that stuff, but do you really want that hassle?