Will a web proxy hurt my BC performance

[rpwicked]

Hello everyone, I hope someone here can shed some light on this for me. I was looking around the web and came across, I'm guessing it's software, called "Hide My a**". It says it's a web proxy, used for pretty much masking your ip address. How it does this, I'm not sure. I'm not even too sure about what exactly a web proxy is.

I currently do not have anything like this and thought it sounds like a good idea. Can someone tell me, will my BitComet still function properly, btw I am using version 1.27 on an XP machine running with a chrome browser, but I also have CometBird browser installed, I just use chrome more. I wasn't sure if hiding my ip, would I still be able to contact peers, or actually, the bigger issue, would peers still be able to find me so I could upload.

Before I go ahead and do this, any info back about hide my a** interacting with BC would be greatly appreciated. Any info about web proxys in general would also be appreciated, seeing I don't know much about them, and I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Thank you all and to all a good day.

[greywizard]

A web proxy, does exactly what it says, which is proxy your connection towards any web site through the proxy server. In the case of an anonymous web proxy (as in this case) the target site will see the web request as coming from the proxy site, instead of your computer. Thus you'll remain hidden behind the proxy, for all the web sites you visit. The proxy server will intercept your requests and fetch all the pages in your name, but presenting itself as the source of the request to any server.

BitTorrent transfer don't use the HTTP/HTTPS protocol (which is used by all web sites) thus the transfers and connections made by BitComet won't be affected by the use of a web proxy.

You could still try to use it as a proxy for connections to the tracker if you really want.

However, HideMyAss provides also a VPN service.

If you'll use that, then every connection made from your PC will be routed through a remote VPN server and their service doesn't seem to be set up for P2P, therefore they don't appear to be forwarding incoming connections. Therefore your guess is right, in that case other peers won't be able to contact you and you'll get a yellow light.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

That is a website that allows browsing the internet via a free proxy. You cannot use it for bittorrent downloads.

It is possible to use a proxy with bitcomet, but any free one will cripple your speeds, probably 0-3kB/s max.

To be anonymous, you need another computer with an internet connection that transfers all connections to you. These aren't free and usually arn't cheap. A good VPN provider could possibly get you speeds close to normal, but most are very slow because they allow multiple users to share the connection. You'd need a dedicated server to do the job efficiently.

BitComet is currently betatesting an anonymous download feature for our VIP service. It's available to all users who purchase a VIP account.

BitComet Anonymous Download

TorrentFreak Article

[The UnUsual Suspect]

@Wiz, if you look on their webpage, they offer "free web proxy", and a "pro vpn subscription"

http://hidemyass.com/vpn/

This vpn service is not free and won't work efficiently (if at all) with bittorrent downloads. You'll need a dedicated vpn server, or at least a vpn service that is designed for p2p.

[greywizard]

@TUUS: I know it's not tailored for P2P.

That's why I told him in the last part of my post that it will get him a closed listen port.

Those ARE dedicated VPN servers, they just don't forward incoming connections, as they don't seem to have been setup specifically with P2P in mind.

For all the rest of the applications which don't need open listening ports they work just fine and your entire PC is being hidden behind the remote access VPN.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

Are they really a dedicated vpn server, or just an account to use on one? I suspect it's the latter. I know you can't rent a server for that price.

What some companies do is with vpn and seedboxes is over-sell accounts. For example, if you have a gigabit server, you can rent 10 accounts each having 100mbit/s, but what they do is rent 50 instead of ten. Then the ones that intend to actually use all the 100mbit will be very upset, so they'll move them to a less crowded server for a week or two, then performance declines again and they eventually leave, but other users who don't use as much aren't as unhappy, so that is their target, get only them and get rid of the users that expect to get what they paid for. Then you can oversell the bandwidth and get away with it.

I've never seen a really serious torrent user that was happy on a shared seedbox, and my home connection can out-perform some of them.

A real dedicated server would cost much more then the prices they quote.

[rpwicked]

Thanks to both of you guys. The feedback was exactly what I needed. What you said was pretty much what I was thinking. It would be nice to have for everything else I do on the web, but if there's a chance it will affect BC then the heck with it. I'd rather have nice speeds on torrents. Thanks again to both of you.

rpwicked

[greywizard]

@TUUS: As I said, I think this service was never created with P2P in mind.

I'm not sure what will be their upper limit for bandwidth, but for most other applications it will probably work just fine. If you need a VPN for P2P then you will obviously look for one that offers all that P2P needs (high bandwidth, port forwarding, etc.)

@rpwicked: As I said in my above post, if you use just the web proxy service, it cannot interfere in any way with BitComet, since BitComet doesn't use HTTP for transfers.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

One other concern with using an http proxy for web traffic. Some web pages use cookies that connect directly to their server, in which case they will know your real IP address. You can block cookies, but some sites require them, and even if they don't, you could constantly get logged out if you don't have cookies enabled.

A more secure (but not entirely) way to browse the web is using TOR It will be slow because it relays all data through multiple connections worldwide. They have a portable version that comes with portable firefox that you can run on the same computer as other web browser using your normal connection, and use the "tor" browser only for websites your concerned about. It will be annoyingly slow, but it's free. Don't use it for downloading though, your downloads will most likely fail and your violating the terms of use.

@Wiz, I think the terminology we are understanding differently is the word "dedicated". They may give you a dedicated VPN account, but not a dedicated server.

[zardave]

as far as free proxies go, ive been using anonymouse.org for quite some time and its been flawless.

you do have to put up with small popup ads but its been workable for me in situations where i needed a proxy.

[mospirit]

I have been using HMA's VPN service for the last 5 years now and i am completely happy with it. right now i am paying $78 a year and my bandwidth for where i have lived was always maxed out (3Mbps now and 5Mbps first location) some servers allow port forwarding but most dont or did and have closed. I'm no expert at this but my connection is not any slower for where i live while running the VPN and I have never been popped for DLing.