What does it mean to encrypt a torrent?

Question

I've heard people say you need to use encryption to help not get caught for downloading illegal files. Is that what encryption does? And how do you activate it on something like uTorrent?

Answer 1

OK, here's a few pointers...some will disagree, some will agree. It's all about messing around with things until you find what works for your computer and connection.

1st ensure you are using a port above 5000 [some say above 10000] Options/preferences/connections click on random port until you get one above that. Don't enable 'Randomize port each time Utorrent starts'. [some say do, I just change mine daily myself]

Options/speed guide and set that depending on your internet speeds then do the port test to ensure your ports are open. If all is well tick enable encryption and use selected settings.  

Options/preferences/bit torrent got to protocol encryption and select enabled and also tick allow incoming legacy connections.

There are a lot of tweaks for Utorrent and your computer, search for some optimization guides.

This should get you on your way though. Oh and use Peer Guardian 2 when downloading or uploading torrents. http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

Email me if you need more tips and pointers.

EDIT: There are lots of legal torrents too, I wish people wouldn't continuously associate them with illegal files.

Answer 2

Because of the way torrents are transferred to your machine it is very difficult to be tracked. You really don't need to worry about this unless you are downloading a lot of things.