tebo53

At a guess, I've been downloading torrents for over 20 years and never had a VPN. It's the people who actually upload torrents that are in the wrongdoing. In Spain apparently you can download torrents and use them for your own use as long as you don't use them for gainful purposes. I've never heard or read of anyone who downloads torrents being prosecuted by any authorities.

https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/is-torrenting-illegal/


Steve

jackteet

You may well be right. My knowledge is limited and basically obtained from the internet. For me, a VPN will give me peace of mind. Its a personal choice.

bob_bob

Has that actually ever happened?

jackteet

There are companies in the US who act exclusively for the copyright people in chasing those who infringe for damages.. Again this is what I have read on the internet and on torrent forums.
I shall purchase a VPN for peace of mind but also to access certain uk tv channels that will only allow uk audience from the uk.
Apparently a VPN when loaded onto a mobile phone adds security and stops hackers. Whether that is true I do not know.

bobd22

I get a VPN free included with my internet package. We use it to watch UK TV. It's very easy to use, all I have to do is enter providers web site and turn it on. A few seconds later it shows on and we can watch UK TV. Ours being free is on for 3 hours once turned on. We just remember to re turn it on before the 3 hours are up and is then on for further 3 hours. I just keep the web page for turning it on, on my phone home screen and do it from there. One thing if the VPN is on some Spanish apps will not work due to it showing us in the UK. I wondered why sometimes I would get the error message on Spanish apps it then dawned on me reason lol. I'm sure a paid VPN will be just as easy to use.

Mark604

I don't understand it fully but when using a torrent to download something, you are uploading at the same time? In any case, in Germany there are frequent prosecutions for doing it. They are very strict and I'd expect everyone knows someone what has fallen foul of it. Anecdotal or not it does seem a common topic regarding torrents in the country. I think using a VPN gets around this.

tebo53

In Spain it is not illegal to download torrents as long as its for personal use and not for making a profit.on download sites you can set for no uploading, easily set......

https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/is-torrenting-illegal/

Steve

Barriej

We use Nord and it's been good so far, the first year was on offer but this year it cost around €100.
But you can install it on six devices.
The wife uses it at home in spain on the fire stick for UK tv
I have it on the mac and go through apple tv for UK movies (apple spain tv is pants)
Even though we have amazon prime in spain sometimes using a UK server gives prime in the UK...

We are in Australia at the moment and my daughter now has nord on her laptop and fire stick so she can watch uk tv as well...
They live on a farm in the middle of nowhere with a fairly rubbish signal (no cable connection when you live an hours drive from the nearest town) and nord hasn't slowed them down.

Nord gives the ability to choose from many countries and I like watching news programs because the uk idea of news isint anymore....


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olivefarmer

Have you done a speed test withand without vpn? I would be interested in your result.

jackteet

It seems a VPN is a personal choice but at around €100 a year it seems good value and offers protection and additional tv viewing.
Thanks for the Nord recos. I need a very simple interface and have now come down to Express VPN and Nord. For simplicity Express is just ahead and it ranks number 1 on the majority of reviews. Both offer 30 day money back so whats to loose.

jackteet

I decided upon Express VPN. with an offer I got 15 months for €99.00. Setting up was a doddle and operating is also so simple. There are three servers in spain and four in the UK. I can cancel with 30 days with a full refund.
however My VPN was connected when I tried to login to this site. My attempt was refused by the site owner as apparently they dont like my ASN, whatever that is. I therefore had to disconnect the VPN to gain entry. You couldnt make this rubbish up if you tried.

BristolUK

There seems quite the price difference between Nord and Express - or at least Nord has a "standard" version for $2.99.
The cheapest version of Express is $6.67. That's more than double.

If the main reason for using one is accessing geo-restricted content I don't see that Express is worth it let alone for the "extras" with the versions more than $6.

I have two free ones that work with Firefox just fine for ITV and C4. They both slow the internet speed, one of them dramatically but I have found I can disconnect it to get the speed back but without losing the connection.

Neither work well for BBC but having to wait until next day for Doctor Who on an alternative source isn't much of a hardship.

Notdunroamin

For UK TV I use Smartdnsproxy, it's cheap and because it's setup in your device WiFi settings there is nothing to install. That also means that it can be used by an unlimited number of devices so visiting friends etc. can use it if required.
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astera

DNS is probably better than a VPN for watching foreign channels as you're not actually tunnelling to the UK with your connection, but not every device can use it. Easy to do with Apple TV and can be done on a Chromecast as well.

Do you have it set up on a router level? This makes your entire household connect this way which has is pros and cons. Or is this like a secondary router which is hooked up to the main router?

Notdunroamin

You can set it up at router level, assuming you have access, but I prefer to do it on my devices.
My router offers 2.4ghZ and 5ghZ and all my devices are too so I have the 5ghZ setup with SmartDNS and the 2.4ghZ direct that way I can choose between the two in an instant.

Not sure what you mean by 'secondary router', as I say you just set up the WiFi connection to use the SmartDNS router addresses.