I've got lots of questions from people wanting to know how torrents work and whether they are 100% safe. Most of these questions were related to the best places to find torrent websites, and the best methods to avoid viruses and malware. I'm not going to tackle the ethics of using torrents, as that's not the main topic of this article. Anyway, I'm not here to tell people whether to use or not to use such tools to find various materials, films or books online. As an adult, you are the only one responsible for your own actions, so it is up to you to decide whether violating intellectual rights by downloading copyrighted materials is in line with your morale or not. To make a long story short, should you decide to download stuff from the internet, you want to use only safe torrent websites. This article shows you how to ensure you're safe when using torrents.
Here are a few tips to help you make sure you download only safe torrents and not viruses or malware that could wreak havoc on your computer.
Rule no 1: Read The Comments
As a rule of the thumb, avoid all torrents that don't have any comments. Quality torrents have already been downloaded and used by other people, so chances are you're going to find some good feedback in the comments section. You can get a gist of the quality of each torrent by reading what other users have to say about it. You can rest assured that most users would report malware, should they discover that inside of that torrent. Since most comments usually come from experienced users, you can trust them to be for real. This should be your number one rule when seeking for torrents: no comment, no download.
Rule no 2: Choose Torrents With High Seeds
If you want the fastest download speeds, try to pick only torrents with high seeds. Apart from being very fast, torrents with high seeds are generally legit. Nevertheless, don't take this for granted, as not all of them are 100% safe. Always remember that there's always a risk when using torrents (and when you use the internet, in general). Take a look at this link: https://u1337x.org/.
Rule no 3: Have A Sandbox
If you don't know what sandbox technology is, you can find out more by reading our article on this topic. In a nutshell, this system protects your computer, and specifically its operating system and its critical files, from getting infected. The mechanism of action consists from a kind of sandbox, where files are quarantined for a more in-depth examination. My personal recommendation of sandbox software is VMware.
Rule no 4: Avoid Certain Torrents
Some torrents will always be more targeted by malware than others. You can rest assured that porn torrents are among the highest risk ones. In addition, software programs or any other type of executable file pose a huge threat, as you need to grant them permission to change your system files or your computer's settings. Also, if a non-executable file asks you for permission to run as executable, you should remove it right away. A movie or an image type of file will never attempt to execute any kind of program, so that's surely a virus or another malicious script trying to work its way inside your operating system. Never allow any program from unknown sources to run or to install onto your system. Once installed, malware can cause a lot of harm such as blocking your computer or stealing your passwords. Furthermore, some of these malicious software programs are very difficult, if not impossible to remove. If you don't want to format your disk and lose important information, make sure you don't allow such scripts to run in the first place.
Rule no 5: Scan Everything Before Use
Never view any downloaded file before scanning it with an antivirus program. Even apparently harmless files such as videos or images should undergo a thorough scan before anything else! My best antivirus recommendation is AVG, but you can use whatever solution you prefer. Just make sure nothing passes through. I'd also recommend the use of a top-notch anti-malware solution to keep you away from trouble.
