Experienced torrent users are always baffled by how often new or novice torrenters download unsafe torrents. These files can include malware, could never finish, and can also include video files which will not play. How do experienced torrent users find safe torrent files?
Let’s look at the basic tactics you can use. Be sure to fire up your VPN which allows torrenting, and you’ll be good to go.
Download safe torrent files
Unfortunately, there are a few groups of people who use torrents to spread malware or just for the LOLz (usually done with mislabeled torrents). There are also inexperienced people who upload torrents that do not finish or that are in a bad format.
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Let’s not forget that some files are of such poor quality that it simply is not worth your time to watch them. These are things that you will want to avoid.
How to find a safe torrent
Only use the best torrent sites
There is an absolute glut of torrent websites out there. A number of them are spam mirrors sites which are built only to distribute malware by looking trustworthy. They’re quick and cheap to make, and they can get good returns for the spammer or hacker.
You can read our article on the 10 best torrenting websites to get the full details. Each one of these is a trusted website and has moderators who help take down bad torrents.
Read all of the comments
All of the best torrent sites feature some sort of comment system. The comments in here will be generated by actual users, and for the most part, have built a community of trust. Reading these comments can teach you many valuable things about the torrent you are interested in. Common things you’ll find include:
- Whether people are asking for passwords to access the file.
- If someone is complaining about whether or not they need a special player for the file.
- Comments on the general quality of the audio and video.
The comments section on every torrent website is going to help you find a safe torrent. If you are looking to download a file then there are no comments, and you are unsure, just wait. If you can’t wait, keep looking as there are usually many different torrents files for any given piece of content.
Is the source trusted for having safe torrents?
The torrent industry has been around for a long time. A number of uploaders have become trusted in the industry. If you see their names, you can be pretty much certain that it is a safe torrent. Keep track of who you download from with a safe file, and be sure to use them in the future.
Has the file been released?
All too often, spammers put up torrents for content that hasn’t even been released yet. A good way to be sure that you are avoiding this is by using a tool called Sqwakr.
All you have to do is sign up for the content that you would like to see, and it will automatically notify you when a high-quality version is released. You won’t have to second-guess whether or not what you are trying to download is quality or not. The only deal is with movie and TV releases.
Other ways to find a safe torrent
There are a few other small things that you can do to make sure that the torrent you download is safe:
- A single rar file is often a file which needs a password. You should avoid it. You may also see that it has a readme.txt file.
- A single AVI file is also risky.
- Any unknown, brand new tracker (that cannot be found on Google but still has lots of seeders on one file) is a bad sign
- Discover the average file size for the content you’re trying to download. If it is too big or too large in comparison to the average, it probably is fake.
If all of the tactics discussed above fail, be sure to download the best virus protection software available. Even the most experienced torrent users can download an unsafe file, but having virus protection software can protect you.