Torrenters are a group of individuals who wish to keep their identity and online activities private, and this is why our Peerblock Review may be just the ticket.
Many individuals who participate in this activity are inclined towards a free, open-source application called PeerBlock.
This works as a personal firewall application that can be adapted using IP (Internet Protocol), where users can assign blacklists, blocking IP addresses on these lists from connecting to your computer.
Individuals use PeerBlock to assign these blacklists and deny access to any agencies or copyright trolls, which monitor torrent activity and downloads.
In practice, the application should hide the IP address of users when they are part of a torrent swarm.
Our PeerBlocker review looks in-depth at what the application offers and how it compares to a VPN that can also hide your identity.
What is PeerBlock?
PeerBlock is a personal firewall free to use, although you can subscribe to update your IP list as often as you wish. The free version allows you to do this once per week.
The application is light on features as it was designed with one purpose and one purpose only.
You will also find it can only run on Windows, and there are no available apps for mobile devices or platforms.
While you can easily configure the lists of IP addresses, you can select from included ones such as
- Education
- Ads
- Spyware
- Anti-torrenting P2P organizations
When running, the app sits in the system tray, where you can easily access basic features. Here you can disable PeerBlock or enable or disable HTTP connections.
Does PeerBlock Work
In operation, you need to look at various areas to see how well the app can work. You have to look at it with the view you are torrenting and how it affects your downloads.
Here, we look at each area to see how PeerBlock performs.
Blocking too many peers: Without checking, you have no way of knowing which peers are on the barred lists.
However, if you take the top three, this can prevent access by over 25% of every IPv4 IP’s from around the globe. Downloading torrents can slow down as you end up blocking peers that are a part of or from a particular region where torrents are located.
Encryption: Even with the blocking of unwanted IP’s, PeerBlock doesn’t encrypt your connection.
Your ISP can see all your network activity and retain this data depending on the region. Besides, once there is a swarm, your real IP address is still visible to anyone who wishes to look and can do so.
While the app does perform a particular function, PeerBlock vs. VPN is no comparison. If you check how it works compared to a popular VPN, Private Internet Access, you can see it lacks considerable benefits.
You will also find out that PeerBlock doesn’t help bypass any geo-restrictions or accessing blocked content. It can’t help access Netflix, BBC iPlayer, or any other streaming service you can think of.
Pros
- Free
- Easy to use
- Can update IP blocklists
- Can block ads
Cons
- Can block too many useful IP’s
- No good for bypassing geo-restrictions
- There is no encryption
PeerBlock Alternatives
A virtual private network (VPN) is the top alternative to PeerBlock by far. They hide your IP from your device, encrypt it and send it along the encrypted tunnel. By doing so, even your internet service provider cannot see what you are doing while online.
It is easy to see the difference because PeerBlock is a firewall and nothing more. A premium VPN service will make sure all their users maintain their privacy and stay out of sight.
They also come with many additional features, such as a kill switch. Once you enable this, all your internet traffic stops until your connection is established if you lose a VPN connection. Such a feature is ideal for torrenting because the VPN is blocking IP leaks onto the internet.
Also, once the VPN service is running, any copyright trolls or agencies will only see the IP is given from the VPN and not your real one.
The most significant difference between the two is the encryption levels—the best VPN’s in the world use military-grade encryption and the most secure protocols.
PeerBlock offers nothing in the form of encryption, so it does not matter what your activity is. Everyone can see what you are doing.
When you begin finding the benefits of VPN’s, you may consider a free VPN; however, these don’t protect users as much as they tend to think.
Harvesting data for targeting ads are often how they pay for their services, and they offer slow speeds because they have small networks.
In some ways, PeerBlock can function better than a free VPN.
Once you begin using a VPN as a PeerBlock alternative, you find nearly every area they perform better. You can adjust the level of encryption and thus gain an increase in speed.
DNS leak protection from all devices the apps run on, which can include Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, routers, and many more.
Besides this, your ISP won’t see what you are doing, so it doesn’t matter if you are torrenting or streaming. They won’t throttle or slow down your connection.
You can retain full download speeds for all your activities. Add in split tunnelling, and you have the choice of encrypting your torrents and going about your other activities through the regular ISP connection.
Peerblock Review Conclusion
PeerBlock can be a way to enhance any user’s online identity, and Even if you only use the list for blocking ads, it can cut down on lots of unwanted intrusions. However, in no way should you use it to keep your identity anonymous. (Learn How To Bypass Data Throttling)
There is nothing wrong with using it alongside a VPN such as ExpressVPN. Even without PeerBlock, you will find this happens to be the best VPN for torrents.