I hope this title has caught your attention.

I see far too many people getting caught in the trap of thinking they are safe online, when they're really far from it!
This is not so much a How-To, more an argument and a "How-Not-To" Guide.
Its by no means exhaustive, and Im 100% happy to be proved wrong in everything Ive written, my only hope is that from this we can provide a safer place for people, globally, downloading torrents.

IP Filtering - What it does
IP filtering is great for blocking a list of bad guys. If you run a Mailserver and want to avoid it being used to as a Spam bot/relay, then this is ideal technology to use.
IP filtering takes a list of IP addresses (Known / assumed 'bad' or malicious, or potential government or anti-piracy IP ranges) and stops your computer from connecting to, or allowing a connection from.
In laymans terms:
It stops you from connecting to the Bad-guys, and likewise them to you.

Whats an IP? Whats DHCP?
An IP Address is a unique address that you computer has. Every time you type in www.google.com, it actually connects to Google's IP address: 64.233.167.99
Your computer has been assigned an IP address when it connected to the internet, either directly, or your Router / Modem has one and it passes data through to your PC.
A lot of places use DHCP which stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (Extended reading at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHCP )
In a nutshell, this means that each time you connect to the internet, you get a new / different IP Address.

Why is this relevant?

Lets say you get blocked from a Forum for spamming, they ban your user and block your IP.
Simply restart your router (If you're with an ISP that uses DHCP) and go back to the forum, re-sign up and you're away laughing again.

Note: I am not condoning nor recommending anybody try that with spamming forums, Im just using it as an example. Lets all be mature here

Thats nice, but what does it all mean?
Well it basically means that if you can change your IP, then so can John Doe who works for the RIAA, or your government. Sure, you can block a range of IP Addresses, but whats to stop Mr Bad-guy from going home and doing work, instead of from his office?
Whats to stop the Bad-guys from using a Proxy server to hide their IP?

Whats a proxy server?
A proxy server is another computer elsewhere (usually on the internet, but sometimes used locally for corporates etc) that specific types of traffic can pass-through.
This was mostly useful back in the days of Dial-Up, where your ISP would keep a copy of frequently accessed websites cached in their proxy, saving them from having to re-download it each time. Not quite so much used for that any more, more used for anonymity.
This is because when you use a proxy server, if done correctly, all your internet traffic appears to originate from the Proxy Servers IP Address.
In other words, they take the fall (Except for when they have logging, and know who's been using what etc, but you get what I mean...)

Great! Where can I get me a proxy server then?
Not so fast!
Unfortunately if you're clever enough to use a proxy server, then surely governments or large multi-million dollar anti-piracy groups are also clever enough to use them then, yes?
Sure, it means that they wont find YOU, but effectively it means that IP Filtering is useless.
Also, you dont want to use a proxy for things like traffic, because its so bandwidth-intensive, its basically just bad-etiquette. How would you feel if somebody else was pumping gigs and gigs of data through your connection on a daily basis?
So, dont use a Proxy server, its not intended for torrents, and dont use an IP Filter / blocker

But if I dont block their IP's then the Bad-guys could poision my torrent and give me viruses?
A common misconception.
The very nature of bittorrent means that when John Doe creates a torrrent, its divided into virtual chunks. Each of these virtual chunks is run through an SHA-1 algorithm so you get the SHA-1 hash.
IF somebody downloaded the torrent, changed some of the data, then began sharing this changed data, even IF your computer downloaded it, your bittorrent program is smart enough to check and make sure that its the "correct" data. If the data isnt what it should be, its discarded and re-downloaded from another source.
There's no way to fool it, so provided you've downloaded the torrent from a reliable source, you can download it, tamper with it, then TRY and re-seed it until the cows come home, but nobody will actually get the data...
More reading for the curious here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_%2...ishing_torrents
And the technically minded curious people, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1

Then why does uTorrent / my Bittorrent program tell me there's a few MB of wasted / discarded data?
Its the internet, people go offline / stop seeding / close the program.
When this happens, you dont have the entire segment of the torrent, so that part just gets dropped / wasted, and your torrent program goes and asks somebody else for it.
If you've downloaded, say, 700MB worth, its not uncommon to find 5-10MB is wasted. Its absolutely nothing to worry about.

So, theres no winning then right?
Not exactly.
You can use encryption, which masks the type of traffic you're sending & receiving from your ISP, so not only are you less likely to have your traffic bandwidth-shaped (Especially if you're using a random non-standard bittorrent port), but even if somebody on the internet captures the data, they still then have to go through the hard process of decrypting the data.

But cant the Bad-guys see that Im connected and downloading that torrent still?
Unfortunately, yes, chances are XYZ on the internet can still see you're downloading whatever torrent. Its just part of how bittorrent works, and there's no way around it because proxying isnt viable for torrents.
You could use your ISP's proxy, IF you had to, but thats only a certain amount of anonymity still. The purpose of this guide is to convince you NOT to use IP Filtering because its a waste of time, not to show you how to stop the RIAA from knowing that you're connected to the latest Audio Album torrent.
IP Filtering is not technology that should be applied to torrents, and its a waste of peoples time and a common misconception that you're safe.

But if its encrypted, then Im safe, right?
Well, the RIAA or whoever can still see you connected to the tracker.
Lets say they're really mean and out to get you, they proxy themselves so they appear to come from a legit source (Not one that IP Filtering would have stopped even if you HAD it setup), so IP Filtering is effectively useless.
They can see you're connected to the tracker and potentially download parts of a torrent from you. If that happens to be the latest Audio CD then you're screwed either way, regardless of IP filtering. The RIAA wouldnt care about speed, they're not after the data from the torrent, just details of who's connected to it.
So, you're not safe, even with IP Filtering, so dont bother, and do the world a favor and tell other people not to bother too! Chances are you're just blocking potentially good people who could speed up your downloads!

My ISP will cut my internet if I download torrents
Well its not if you download torrents, but illegal stuff through torrents.
And again, there's really nothing you can do to stop that. All your internet traffic passes through your ISP, so:
Encrypt it! Its harder to detect, meaning not only can they not see what you're downloading, but you're likely to get faster speeds if your ISP throttles torrent traffic
Dont download illegal stuff. Unfortunately, its one of the plain truths. Dont like it? Find another ISP that cares less... It might not be the biggest, or the cheapest monthly, but its your choice still!


Summary
So IP Filtering wont work, and proxying isnt gauranteed to make you totally anonymous. Whats the solution? How can I torrent and be safe?
There is no real solution unfortunately :(
Even so-called Dark-net's out there are flawed, there's nothing to stop the Bad-guys from also joining the Dark-net and you're back to square 1 again.
You can only employ best-practises:
Download from reliable sources, and people you trust, at places like this forum.
Anti-virus & anti-spyware software is nice, but not a total solution in themselves
Find a review site, or look for torrents where lots of people have already downloaded it and confirmed it working, other people you see as regulars and also trust.
Dont stop seeding as soon as you have the file to 'minimize your risk', it doesnt work like that. You've downloaded the file, might as well seed and make others happy, and keep the world of bittorrent going :)
Lastly: If you download, there's always a risk. Chances are if you're not selling stuff to friends / family / workmates / random people, you're less likely to become a target.

So I shouldnt use IP Filtering?
No!
Be smart, not ignorant :)

Hopefully this guide has helped you a little more to understand how bittorrent works, why you're not as safe as you thought with IP Filtering, but still pretty safe anyway.
Feel free to debate it, discuss it, ask questions, or complain that Im a loser for telling you that you're not safe when you previously thought you were, I dont mind. Prove me wrong, please, I would love to be :) Im also happy to help and answer questions that no doubt will arise.
Its probably a bit messy, I just sat down and wrote it all in one go, but it gets the basic message across.
If this guide has helped, please, drop a line of thanks :) And please, dont use IP Filtering ;)

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Thanks vieta for taking your time ,greatly appreciate this

good point mate

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