5 Ways To Bypass Torrent Connection Blocking | Torrent Technology

-Jeffry Thurana |makeuseof

Since its first arrival, the torrent protocol has evolved into one of the most powerful P2P methods available. But due to many reasons such as copyright infringement or bandwidth abuse, not everyone embraces this convenient way of sharing files.
Many admins block connections to torrent networks preventing the users from acquiring the torrents and/or the files.
But there are ways for the less fortunate to bypass torrent blocking – and here they are :

TXTor

Let us start with the simplest. Sometimes all the lazy network administrators do is filter the “.torrent” file. Their logic says that if you can’t get the torrent, you won’t be able to get the shared file. Well, yes – and no.

If your problem is only this shallow, you can use TXTor. Basically, the service works like this:

• you tell TXTor the link to a “.torrent” file.
• they will download it and rename the extension to .txt
• then they will give your browser the link to the renamed file.
• you download the file, rename it back to “.torrent”.
• open the file using a torrent client and start downloading.

Unfortunately, TXTor can’t help you if your admin blocsk/filters the torrent traffic. The TXTor site suggests users to try to use different ports in the client or encrypt the traffic. But don’t fret. If meddling with ports and encryptions is too much for you, there are other easier online solutions to try.

BitLet

 A pure online torrent client and behaves exactly like a desktop one:

• users put the torrent link in the box (or uses an existing torrent file) then click “Download Torrent”.
• BitLet will ask where to save the shared file.
• after users give the location, the download process will start.

But being a torrent client, it’s still possible that the traffic gets blocked by the admin. It might work on your connection, it might not. My tests on several different networks gave me more failures than successes. It’s worth trying, though.

Torrent Relay

We can say that this is an online torrent client with a twist; accessible via normal browser, iPhone and iPod Touch, Play Station 3, and many other mobile devices.

Here’s the overview about how the service works:

• users provide Torrent Relay with a torrent link.
• the shared file will be downloaded to Torrent Relay’s server.
• users will get a HTTP address to download the file from their server.

The good thing is, this service makes the process of downloading torrents accessible to everyone, everywhere. The bad things are, due to the heavy traffic (as expected from this kind of service) sometimes the process becomes unavailable, and unless you are their “Prime Users” (read: paid members) the HTTP file download is non-resumeable.

I found no problem using Torrent Relay for small files, but if you are downloading large files with an unstable connection, you might consider paying them or the process will become extremely annoying.

If there’s a web service which allows users to download a file from a HTTP address to a resumeable online server, the combination with Torrent Relay would be a perfect option. (anybody know any?)

ImageShack

One of my friends tipped me off about this service. I was not aware that other than image hosting, ImageShack also give users the ability to download torrents. You only need to open a free account with their service.

At first glance, this one looks like a perfect one: users download torrents and save the shared files into their ImageShack storage and the shared files can be downloaded from anywhere, and by anyone the users share their files with. The limitation for free users is also generous (considering you can apply for more than one account): 5 GB of storage and 10 GB of bandwidth usage.

But I still haven’t been successful in my trials of using their service. I’ve always been presented with a “try again” screen and options to upgrade to one of their paid subscription options, with more storage and bandwidth, and “prioritized bandwidth allocation”.

But then again, maybe it’s just me. Maybe you will have better luck using this service.

Instant Torrents

Another would-be winner, Instant Torrents was a perfect service. Users sign up, login and put in the torrent file address (or uses an existing torrent file). Then they will download and save the shared file to their server under their user’s account, keep the file(s) for 20 days, and they even seed the file(s) until the ratio reaches 1.0. But as I’ve said before, this kind of service will attract overflooded traffic and strain the servers.

So, Instant Torrents changes the rules. Users have to be connected first to Ivacy Network(a paid VPN service which gives 1 GB free traffic) then go to Instant Torrents dot site version to add torrent files. A bit of a complicated process if you ask me, but users can utilize their private tracker inside Ivacy VPN which provides no real IP address – total anonymity.

As an option, users can search completed torrents in the Instant Torrents site or browse their “Ratings” tab for popular files and download them instead.

So, all in all, I still haven’t found the perfect service along these lines. But if you know other good alternatives that lets you bypass torrent blocking, or just want to share your experiences, please use the comments below.