Anonymous BitTorrent

Millions of people around the globe share files and most do so without a second thought for privacy issues. A lot don?t know that it?s possible for people to monitor their online activities and equally, many will know that they can be monitored but chance their hand that they are one in millions and will probably slip under the radar.


For an increasing number of net users, privacy and a level of anonymity is becoming a requirement, especially for those in locales where ridiculous fines and prison sentences are becoming more prevalent. Those faced with the menace of P2P meddling ISPs or those hassled by the nuisance of sites being blocked can solve all of these problems with a VPN - a Virtual Private Network service.

When Relakks burst on to the scene in late 2006 it was heralded as the ?world?s first commercial darknet?, promising to hide your online identity in exchange for a small fee.


Although great for web browsing and running one or two torrents at a time, ask it to handle more than a handful of torrents and the whole connection simply stops responding. I?ve seen many other Relakks users with this same problem and to come home from many hours out, eager to sample what you downloaded today only to find a dead connection, it?s an annoyance. When you were supposed to be seeding a friend?s Hip-Hop album all night and it died after 6mb uploaded and no-one got anything, it?s a major hassle and time to complain to Relakks.

Any member of Relakks will tell you - their customer support is VERY ?relaxed?. Send them a complaint or a query - it takes at least 3 days to get a response. My multiple questions about the ?dropped connection? issue always resulted in ?you have a firewall issue? response and this is a standard response to people complaining about this. The Relakks ?News/Status? page is never updated, it?s useless.


Relakks Alternatives.......... VPNTunnel .

Relakks (Sweden) do not reveal what information they hold on their customers but say they won?t give it up unless ordered to in a criminal case carrying a penalty of 2 years in jail. VPNTunnel (based in Scotland) obviously keep your payment data but only carry log in information (your real IP address) for 30 days and there are signs this may decrease further to 21 days. Any potential legal action would need to move at an unprecedented speed to have even a small chance of identifying someone.

File-sharers are notoriously difficult to please - they get everything for free and still expect customer service from torrent sites and the like. So when a file-sharer actually puts his hand in his pocket to pay for a service, he expects to be treated well.

You weren?t all bad Relakks, you just took peoples for granted and although you?ll end up paying more with VPNTunnel, it?s worth it, if only to get stability and that ?wanted? feeling.