Title, I haven’t Yo ho ho’d in forever in internet time… What/where do I need to start again? I’m tired of ads and 3+ streaming services to watch stuff that’s interesting. Running windows. Thanks dudes and dudettes.
Well, let me start with this gorilla they called Harambe…
Refer here for the most pirated stuff. Ask further if you need anything more detailed
VPN isn’t needed if your country doesnt persecute individual piracy.
Thanks ill check it out!
qBittorrent is probably the best torrent client for Windows
Mullvad is a relatively cheap and trustworthy VPN provider(they unfortunately removed port forwarding, which is important for torrenting)AirVPN and Proton VPN are trustworthy VPN providers that support port forwarding
Servarr is the way to go if you want to set up a server that automates everything for you
Jellyfin is the best media server, far ahead of Plex and fully FOSS
FMHY and the Champagne Piracy Wiki have lots of valuable information
A bit of topic but why the hell does the champagne wiki reccomend Edge as a browser citing it’s AI capabilities? Is this copied directly from MS marketing material?
Edit: I am starting to read through it and there Is so much bad, outdated and just wrong information there:
- they recommend to set a DNS level adblocker using an app that isn’t supported on the android version the guide is for and completely forget that you can just set the DNS server without any additional app on any modern android version (what is what the provider of the Dns server they recommend reccomends)
- they tell you protonVPN doesn’t support Torrenting (maybe just bad wording) and recommended mullvad because of that
I don’t really want to continue beyond before-you-begin
Edit2: Uh why is there an extensive article on how to deal with addiction and how to do meditation in the piracy section?
I don’t think I should continue any further
Edit3: you can contribute to the wiki by sending markdown files in a discord channel. Wikipedia should switch to this model as well imo
“far ahead of Plex”
I love and use jelly fin but let’s not lie here.
But Mullvad dropped port-forwarding which is relevant in the context of torrenting.
God dammit
I keep forgetting that. I didn’t really notice it, since I use a seedbox anyway, but that might be a little to much for a new user.Why is port forwarding important? Sorry if it’s a dumb question, lol.
Why is port forwarding important? I have my torrent server running, downloading and uploading perfectly fine. Is port forwarding needed for like something else besides general down/uploading?
To my understanding, it works like this: your client talks to the torrent tracker, then it sends you the data about seeders and leechers. Then your client tries to connect to them, but if neither you nor the other peer have port forwarding, you cannot connect to each other. This is not a problem for popular torrents with lots of peers, but when there are not so many it can be a problem because the other peers might as well not have port forwarding, so peers cannot connect to each other and the torrent will eventually die.
That’s why it is recommended to use a VPN with port forwarding. When not using a VPN, if your router supports uPnP you are already port forwarded (with the default settings in qbittorrent).
Thank you! I did some reading and that’s also how I understand it: at least one peer has to have port forwarding enabled / listen on a port for two peers to connect. Also I found out about “Hole punching” or “NAT punching” where a middleman server is used to open up ports on two peers that do not have ports forwarded yet to allow them to talk to each other directly. This is also used in BitTorrent. And also explains why it works without explicit port forwarding enabled.
Also Gluetun if you want to run qbittorrent in docker with a tun interface.
I know sharing is caring but it should be said that if you dont plan on seeding anyway, mullvad is perfectly fine for torrenting.
I also think its worth mentioning that proton only supports ephemeral remote port forwarding which is objectively worse then airvpns implementation, if port forwarding is super important to you.
You can’t say jellyfin is far ahead of plex when it doesn’t have nearly as many clients as plex does. I’ll agree that in the free tier jellyfin is better, but as of now it’s not as fully featured as plex pro. Even non pro plex just makes it easier to share outside your home too.
which platform that you use to consume media is missing a jellyfin client? there are a lot of jellyfin clients: https://jellyfin.org/downloads/clients/all
Hmm looks like they have a WebOS client now. Personally that covers my personal use case since the family that I share plex with just has rokus and apple tv
Please could you elaborate about how qbittorent is a good VPN and why is port forwarding important for torrenting ? I’m kind of confused about those statement…
I’m fairly positive they meant “qbittorrent is a good torrent client” instead of “VPN”
As far as port forwarding, I know it’s important for seeding but I don’t know why.
It’s a poor analogy, but imagine a public IP like a hotel, there can be lots of guests (clients) at this hotel. Hotel policy is they won’t let any outsiders in unless you know the room number (port) of the person you’re trying to reach.
Imagine you and a friend are staying in separate hotels and want to give each other copies of your favorite Linux .ISOs, but neither of you knows the other’s room number - you show up at the hotel and the front desk tells you to pound sand because you don’t have their room number.
As long as one of you knows the other’s room number though, you can meet.
Torrenting without port forwarding means you can only trade your favorite .ISOs with people who have port forwarding enabled (sharing their room number to the tracker), which makes you less effective of a seeder. Enabling port forwarding allows you to share with anyone (sharing your room number with the tracker).
Radarr, Sonarr, Jellyfin, qBittorrent.
Hold on buddy, i would say that the first three are for veterans
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What? Those are used for downloading. Can you even stream using those? (Well you obviously can with Jellyfin but you stream downloaded content so that doesn’t count)
VPN, depending on how your country handles copyright laws.
You missed Lidarr.
That one i never found much useful.
Just not interested in listening to whole albums, it’s so 2010IMO music makes more sense to download than movies. You might only watch a movie once or twice. Music files are smaller and you’re much more likely to listen to them multiple times.
For movies and TV shows, streaming using Real Debrid is way more convenient.
Jellyseer, prowlarr, and bazarr can be added to that list.
Jellyseer doesn’t have a Windows installer as far as I know.
Bazarr seemed useful but most stuff comes with subtitles anyway, and every time Bazarr grabs them for me, they’re inevitably out of sync because they’re for a slightly different version. I normally have to go to opensubtitles and grab a few until I find the right one. It’s probably more useful if you require subs in a language other than English.
Docker can be the install method for windows, and the whole suite of these apps. Probably the neatest way to go? Typically one installs this suite on a NAS that’s running 24/7.
I tried docker for Windows and it was pure pain. Not sure I’d recommend it for a beginner when the windows installers exist for most of it.
Yeah sure, the *arr suite in general is a bit advanced to set up, even if it can be done in 30 minutes with experience.
Right, reading through the comments, you say you’ve got a couple of kids. I’m guessing that means you’re a bit older and don’t have that much time to binge-watch long pointless series etc
To pare it down, ignore the comments about Sonarr and Radarr etc, they’re for people who are addicted to downloading as much media as humanly possible, or folks in the US with 1990s internet speed. I’ve tried them and didn’t find much benefit to them.
If you just want to quickly download a film or a series, setup is very simple.
In twenty years of torrenting, I’ve never needed more than a good VPN, a good BitTorrent client, and a good website for magnets. Plus a PC hooked up to the TV with the screen extended.
Torrent client - Use Qbittorrent, for reasons explained later
VPN - As others say, port forwarding is necessary. Use Proton, when you start it up, it gives you a different port number each time. In Qbittorrent, click options then connection, and change the port number to the one Proton gave you. Bit of a fucking about each time but worth it
As for torrenting sites, I rarely need anything more than 1337x.to
BUT, as stated, the search function on QBT is amazing for finding obscure stuff. You need to install Python on your PC first, then there are plenty guides online for installing the search plugins. It sounds complicated but is incredibly easy and stable once installed.
That’s it. That’s all I use and have done for decades. With fibre optic nowadays, a 1.5gb film takes about two minutes to download, you don’t need an entire hard disk full of media, just plan ahead
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I didn’t know 1337x rate-limits! Thanks for the info.
Yes, TGX is excellent too
RARBG is sorely missed
Torrentleech is good
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Setting up Sonarr and Radar with docker isn’t all that complex. If you set up Prowlarr as well then you can still get the instant search and download aspect you mention except you can search ALL the good websites at once and (most importantly for my stress level) avoid all the bullshit ads and malware you’ve got to worry about blocking while browsing those sites through the web. Sonarr is perfect for following any show, not just those you might binge watch. Topical shows like SNL and last week tonight get picked up automatically. Long term favorites with unpredictable release cycles (looking at you Doctor Who) get snapped up when they’re most popular and download super fast. Cleaning up old seasons to clear out space is as simple as navigating a web page. Both radarr and sonarr can connect to other services like that.tv so less tech savvy household members can add a show or movie to their watchlist and it will automatically get added, searched, downloaded, and hosted without any extra interaction from me. You can even set up profiles so that certain lists meet quality standards, so for example the kids cartoons aren’t downloaded at the same high a quality as the adult shows.
My point is this, make the switch to automating the searching and downloading, not so that you can hoarde everything, but so that you can’t stop spending as much time being the home video librarian and more time enjoying it. On more than one occasion I’ve been out with friends and somebody mentions a movie they liked, I’ve taken a minute to add it to my list, and the movie is ready and waiting on my Plex (and/or Jellyfin) before I get home.
ignore the comments about Sonarr and Radarr etc, they’re for people who are addicted to downloading as much media as humanly possible, or folks in the US with 1990s internet speed. I’ve tried them and didn’t find much benefit to them.
This I really disagree with. Sonarr is absolutely terrible for backfilling shows with many seasons, it’s not at all what its for and you’re much better off manually finding season packs and downloading those and then binge. Sonarr is for monitoring shows with continuous releases and automatically download the new episodes so they’re ready for watching when they drop. I love not having to manually track when the few shows I do follow release new episodes and then add them to my client, because they’re just there in my library when they’re available.
You missed the bit where I assumed OP isn’t looking for long-winded series due to having kids
Grab Stremio, it’s a program you can download.
Once you’ve downloaded that and opened it up, in any browser go to torrentio.strem.fun and click to install that to your client.In the program go into your settings and remove the official sources from showing up (like apple TV, Netflix, etc.) and et viola.
You can use popular lists or search for series, and it’ll find the episode/movie from pirates sources.
The fun thing about this is it’s all educational. Not the program nor the torrentio link are illegal, it’s only what you do with it. So all in all, I hope you enjoy searching for legal documentaries supported by creative commons licensing!
If you want it done simply for relatively low cost ~$40usd/year Stremio + torrentio + realdebrid is what I use and it’s fast simple and works on basically anything although with the debrid you can only have one simultaneous stream if you were to use it on multiple devices You can skip the debrid if you choose to use a vpn instead unless you are in a country that doesn’t care
Also consider Weyd or Syncler instead of Stremio + Torrentio, and Premiumize in addition to Real Debrid. Premiumize can download from Usenet too.
This, I used to use Kodi+Serena+realdebrid but it was not as user friendly. Stremio is by far the best option if you just want to watch shows without making a server/ having to actually manage downloads or making it into a project.
You just set it up and use it like any other streaming app
No reason to self host unless you find joy in maintaining a server/ library
My main suggestion is to search whatever you want with Yandex.com - unlike Google, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Brave, etc etc, Yandex doesn’t delist piracy sites. So, “bookname pdf” will almost always return a good result. “some anime or movie name watch online” will also work.
Oh, and use uBlockOrigin. Ditch Chrome, use Firefox or anything that still makes uBlock works in full capacity.
A laptop with an hdmi, stremio and a real Debrid account.
Simple
Been doing this for like 2 years. It’s great and the entire family can easily use it.
Edit: But have stremio on a Chromecast.
Go to a host like feralhost and rent a seed box. This gives you a webhosted transmission to paste magnet links in from any torrent site. Then you connect with filezilla over sftp, no vpn or nonsense needed and its all super fast because the torrenting is done from a data center and you download only from there over encrypted ssh at max speed when its finished.
That’s just VPN with extra steps. Why not just set up a SOCKS5/Shadowsocks/wireguard/whatever on any hosting and get a lot better experience?
In my country I don’t get good upstream internet so I can still have good ratios on torrent sites and the private trackers I use. The prices on the dedicated seed box services can’t be beat for bandwidth and for someone with kids it’s already all set up.
FWIW if you have a seed box which you can ssh into, you can setup a SOCKS5 proxy to route all traffic through the seed box. It’ll act like a VPN for you and is the best of both worlds in my opinion. This way your ISP and government can’t block your traffic or see that you’re accessing trackers at all (even to get the magnet links).
Pretty sure most hosting platforms have egress costs on their cheaper VM instances.
I know Google cloud charges for bandwidth to AUS, and Oracle is 10TB of egress per month before charging (which I think is the most generous of free/cheap hosting platforms).
Cause they probably don’t know how to haha 😆
Hey, how about you go fuck yourself ? The only reason you’d leave a comment like this is because in real life no one cares about what you think so you need to be a petty loser
Damn. I wasn’t trying to be rude in anyway. My apologies.
I’m assuming you were stoned and simply poking fun.
Do you trust your seed box provider to not rat you out? Or at the very least not have identifying information on you that will be seized in a raid?
How do you do this with zero trust towards any provider? I mean unless you hijack a neighbors wifi, any provider can fuck up their OPSEC and get you burned.
I don’t live in a place that would raid an international hosting provider. In my county no one is ever going to come after me for using a seed box to download tv and movies. I simply do not need to worried about being ratted out.
I don’t know to what extent law enforcement would go to catch a pirate in Denmark. But a guy just got 30days for seeding about 800 movies, so I’m not taking any chances. If I was ever to use p2p, and this is purely theoretical, I would find a public (or open private) wifi, use an external wifi adapter and a virtual machine that doesn’t contain any personal information.
Seeding is different than downloading though and the seed box service is in another jurisdiction doing that where it is legal. I only connect to a proxy up with ssh and download data to my actual home, never upload. As far as my jurisdiction is concerned I haven’t seeded anything, just downloaded encrypted data from a datacenter ip.
I live in latam so my government isn’t enforcing pretty much anything though.
Welcome back 🏴☠️❕
if you’re in Australia ignore all VPN advice. Companies can only come after you for the cost of a single copy of whatever you pirate making it functionally legal here.
Torrents are your best bet for now because they are super easy.
Usenet is a paid service, absolutely worth it but you’re paying for at least 2 different services to make it work and setting up a whole bunch of software. Just steer clear of the Arr suite until torrents fail you (and they will)
Torrents and newsgroups are still a thing, vpn up
“VPN up” depends on the country. Some countries don’t give a flying fuck, don’t waste money on a VPN if you live in such countries.
What countries?
Italy, Bulgaria, Spain for example. They usually couldn’t care less (unless it’s football/soccer piracy).
Germany, on the other hand, cares a lot. Use a VPN for sure there.
Anything LATAM
“Why do you need so many flash drives for your trip to South America?”
Flash drives are a waste unless you are snowden.
128 password Encrypted hardrives should do it
The strong bias seems to be toward Torrents instead of USENET? Why? Cost of providers with decent retention?
I always assume that Usenet (with anonymous payment and a separate VPN) is a safer option than torrenting since I’m not the one publishing / sharing content. A copyright holder would have to go after that Usenet host (with a general court order), extract logs from them (if they exist), figure out who was actually infringing on copyright, then go after the VPN provider, to deanonymize me.
Usenet is great, but it’s a client-server model, and things can be deleted from the servers (e.g. due to DMCA requests). The copyright agencies for very popular content automatically send DMCA and NTD takedowns for them.
On the other hand, torrents are peer-to-peer. They’re practically impossible to shut down since there’s no central server in control of everything. You don’t even need a torrent file, just a magnet URI, which can be generated by anyone that already has the torrent.
Usenet is much better for rare/unpopular/uncommon content, since good providers have thousands of days of retention, whereas an unpopular torrent from 5 years ago would likely have 0 seeds left.
Why pay someone else to run a service that you’d have been paying Netflix for.
That’s how I feel about Usenet tbh. If you’re going to pay, actually pay to support the shows you’re watching. IMO.
Otherwise you build a server PC and set it up for the *arr suite, Radarr, Sonarr and the rest. It’s the cost of your internet and your electricity after the upfront cost of your server.
Bonus: you have it when your internet is down, since they’re downloaded to the hard drive.
I’m of a similar opinion but really it depends on the user’s wants.
I personally don’t care for an easy app like interface. My set up is literally just wireless keyboard and mouse in the living room and a pc hooked up to my TV. I just stream stuff from ‘free’ sites online. It’s not much effort really. I’m not usually interested in checking out movies and shows the moment they release, I can wait a couple weeks or months for them to pop up in good quality on those sites.
