Tixati p2p - anything need configuring to make it properly private?

[BeepBeep 1]

Hello everyone!

 

This is my very first time trying AirVPN and I'm very pleased to have found it, it seems immensely better than my previous VPN! (not sure if I can name competitors here so I won't for now).

 

 

Anyway...

 

With my existing VPN, even when it was switched on, if I was using p2p, (initially utorrent, now Tixati) there were always discussions in the forums, backed up by staff members sometimes, of extra security you had to implement to make sure your connection was secure and private, even though it's already connecting through a VPN.

 

 

Can anyone tell me what the situation is with AirVPN? Does anything else need configuring in the Tixati software to make sure it's secure and doesn't leak any sensitive information?

 

Without wanting to sound pushy I could really do with an answer asap as I'm on the last day of my three day trial, hoping to take out a years subscription if this is an easy thing to sort out!  

 

 

Thank you in advance for any replies. 

[vangosh 3]

This was addressed in the Tixati forum: http://forum.tixati.com/support/2159/

 

TLDR; Change the Network Adapter to TAP in Settings. 

[Khariz 109]

For whatever reason Tixati worked properly right out of the box for me.  Even if I don't put that option on in the settings, I can check and everything is going through the tunnel anyway.  The easiest way to check is to go to ipleak.net and use the torrent option in the lower left.  You click the magnet link and you can see if you are downloading torrents from your own IP or from the VPN IP.  With AirVPN and Tixati, I've never leaked. (I of course enabled the TAP option anyway, after I found out about it, just in case).

[BeepBeep 1]

Ahhh I see, thank you both for your very useful posts!

 

usagi0 - I have found that setting and changed it for IP4 and IP6 as I wasn't sure what was being used....it's amazing, if I switch the VPN off Tixati stops immediately! Incredible! (yeah, I didn't know about those settings before)

 

 

Khariz - thanks for that link, I'll certainly put that to the test at the IPleak website! Can I just ask, how can you check "everything is going through the tunnel", I understand what you mean by that phrase, but I have no understanding of how to check that, can you enlighten me?

 

 

Thanks again guys! Last day of the trial now but AirVPN certainly seems like the way to go for me!

[Zaroad 26]

You also have the Network Lock function on Eddie client that applies for all system, not only Tixati

[BeepBeep 1]

You also have the Network Lock function on Eddie client that applies for all system, not only Tixati

 

 

That's true, that's what locks out the internet if the VPN drops? 

 

I have heard about that before, and noticed the button. It would be very useful for leaving the computer on overnight if I was trying to get something, but for day to day use, I do like being able to drop on and off the VPN when I need to.

 

I am slightly concerned that if it locks the network I won't be able to get back on, I have read about that elsewhere where users can't reconnect because of some fault with it. Not necessarily with AirVPN, but in general.

 

 

Btw, apologies for the delayed replies, all my posts are still being moderated as I'm new, two more to post until that restriction is removed I think!

[Khariz 109]

Network lock isn't necessary for Tixati. For whatever reason, Tixati plays really nice with VPN services. I've tried 6 different ones and the data always goes through the tunnel without even enabling the TAP adapter in the settings. It's not finicky like utorrent.

 

As you observed, with the TAP option enabled, the traffic stops if the VPN disconnects, so the network lock would just be a second layer of redundancy. I don't know about you, but I'm not THAT worried that I might accidentally torrent for a few hours over my ISP in the event of a catastrophic failure.

 

As to how to observe whether the Tixati data is going through the tunnel. It's all at ipleak.net (which is a AirVPN site, by the way). It continuously monitors whether your torrent data is going through the VPN or not and you can watch it in real time.

[zhang888 1066]

Sorry if this is a little off-topic, but wouldn't it be better for you to throw closed source apps to the spyware repository junkyard where they belong to?

Nothing against this Tixati thing, just thinking you might find yourself much more comfortable with truly free, open source software, with no hidden terms.

 

qBittorrent is a great open source GUI torrent client, almost second to none (since it was built around the highly efficient libTorrent library).

The software is well audited and is time-proven to be vulnerability free. Also, it supports any x86/amd64 OS in the world. You should consider giving it a try.

 

The best part for you is that it allows binding itself to pre-defined network adapters, unlike the majority of torrent clients that leak data all over your network interfaces.

So just bind it to your tun0 interface (or the corresponding one in other configuration type) and you will make sure Torrent traffic is routed only via the VPN interface.

 

 

http://www.qbittorrent.org/download.php

[Khariz 109]

I know you mean well, Zhang888, but perhaps take a few minutes to take a look at Tixati? It's trash just because it has a developer that doesn't share every byte of their code with the entire internet? I don't support that line of thought. Tixati is such a slimmed down, bare-bones program that it takes only a short while to reverse engineer and see what it does. It has no spyware, and no reporting home functions whatsoever other than an optional "check to see if this is the most current version", which can be easily disabled.

 

Tixati also allows binding directly to the TAP/TUN, as mentioned in this thread, and it works without fail in my testing. Using any leak tool I can find available on the Internet, and by all objective and subjective evidence available, there are no leaks or malicious code in Tiaxti. I grant you that it has not been as heavily tested by the "community" as qBitTorrent and utorrent have.

 

Personally, I think more people should look into this client. It is relatively unknown, it's a fraction of the size of many torrent clients, and it uses a fraction of the system resources. Ever since I first got it and started breaking it apart, it quickly became my favorite client. There are quite a few options for how small the footprint of the program is. I've never had a single issue with it.

 

My last comment is anecdotal evidence only, but I've been using Tixati for about 4 years now, I've never once received a DCMA notice from my ISP (always in conjunction with a good VPN like AirVPN). That, combined with the leak tools, and some of the reversing that has been performed on this client...I'm comfortable with it and I love the efficiency.