Thread: Risk of Using SeedBox from U.S. College?

Hello all,

I currently use a seedbox and absolutely love it, mainly because I do not have to worry about getting into trouble with DMCA notices or out of court cash settlements. I know college campuses are huge targets for copyright holders to target illegal downloading.

But I was curious to know if it was possible to get in trouble by using FTP to download copyrighted content directly to my computer from my Seedbox?

The webui rutorrent interface that connects to my seedbox is not HTTPS. I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble this way, it is always using a local torrent client to download the content directly from the tracker that I know can get people into trouble.



Let me know what you guys think!

All input is greatly appreciated!

I've used several things, my college acts as basically an ISP, if they got a DCMA notice they would pass it on. They've never gotten a DCMA notice.

They did end up throttling me for using up 100Mbps of their internet bandwidth, dropped me down to about 25 Mbps(After I filled up my new TB HDD in about week...). Other than that no actions were ever taken, I'd used FTP, HTTP, SFTP, SCP, and SMB to transfer my files.

Is the FTP connection encrypted? If it were me personally I would ask for HTTPS and FTPS or SFTP on my seedbox. But otherwise you'd be fine. College may say they'll need to shape you if you transfer too much, but it won't be due to type of stuff being downloaded, more about pure volume. But I think it would have to be a pretty huge amount.

Q

I do not believe the connection to my seedbox is HTTPS because I just type "[username].[server name].[seedbox provider]". When I view my webui, that is all that shows up in the address bar. Http does not even show up before the url. Does that mean it is not HTTPS?

Also, is SFTP enough or do you think HTTPS access to view my webui is necessary as well?

Try https://username.servername.hostingprovider.com could very well already be configured for HTTPS, but just not mandatory.

Strange that http or https doesn't show up once you've hit go. Its not just crossed out is it, I think chrome puts a red strike through secure sites with self signed and expired certificates.

Q

Originally Posted by qaw

Try https://username.servername.hostingprovider.com could very well already be configured for HTTPS, but just not mandatory.

Strange that http or https doesn't show up once you've hit go. Its not just crossed out is it, I think chrome puts a red strike through secure sites with self signed and expired certificates.

Q

Google Chrome for the mac does not show the "http://" (not even crossed out) but Safari does show it. I tried typing in "https://" but the page could not be found. I contacted my seedbox provider (pulsedmedia) and they said they would be implementing https in the next couple months, I hope they do!

Is it ok to login on the private torrent sites from a proxy? Or they don't allow it? Also, can you seed as always while you are connected from a proxy?

If you can create a VPN to a computer outside the school's network and surf through that, I'd suggest it. A lot of colleges have older students who VPN to their employers, so that traffic wouldn't look suspicious. As far as downloading from the box, SFTP should be fine, the only thing they could do is throttle you for using too much bandwidth (and depending on how "hooked up" the college is, they probably won't). Since I don't live on campus anymore, I just surf my torrent sites as HTTPS and they really don't care (says my friend in the IT department). Depending on the size of the college, they typically don't care unless you give them a REASON to care (DMCA notices being the reason).

I've received 2 DMCA takedowns while I was living in the dorms, but I was using a not-so-private tracker (and both were within a month of eachother), seeding from my personal machine. Since moving to more reputable private trackers, they haven't batted an eye, even from my personal machine (I use a seedbox cause its faster now that I'm off campus, though).

I miss the 10gbit backbone :( haha

You want to use sFTP to transfer files rather than FTP whenever possible. With regard to a college network this is probably not a big risk, but the college network admins/techs could snoop on your communication to/from your seedbox if you're using FTP.

Basically, by using FTP you're sending your username and password to the FTP server in the clear, meaning that a network tech (or anyone able to sniff traffic on the network) could intercept your credentials and then use them to log into your seedbox. By using sFTP all communication is encrypted including credential passing.