Torrenting, or peer-to-peer sharing, is a great way to get the games, movies and TV shows that you want for free. However, downloading copyrighted material is also usually illegal, meaning you’re going to have to somehow hide your IP address when doing so. That’s where NordVPN comes in, and in this piece we’re going to show you how to use NordVPN for torrenting.

In case you’re not exactly sure what all the above means, we have a handy guide on what torrenting is, as well as one about the ins and outs of virtual private networks. Also, for more general information on NordVPN, we have an in-depth review of it that you can check out.

Alright, with the foundations laid, let’s have a look at how to torrent using NordVPN.

Why Is NordVPN Good for Torrenting?

There are several reasons why NordVPN is one of the best VPNs for torrenting, though it doesn’t beat our overall favorite VPN service, ExpressVPN. Both services offer the standard features that make a VPN safe for torrenting, like a kill switch and a fully encrypted tunnel, but there are a few things that set NordVPN apart.

We first need to talk about NordVPN’s dedicated P2P servers and why you need to use them. In our testing, NordVPN’s regular servers showed unstable speeds when downloading torrents, and at one point, our download speed came to a grind.

On the other hand, the P2P servers pretty much guarantee a fast and smooth torrenting experience. They should improve speeds not only for torrenting, but for regular downloads, as well.

However, despite NordVPN being the fastest VPN for most use cases, it didn’t manage to beat ExpressVPN. That’s not to say it was slow; in fact, when downloading our 2GB test file, the difference was only around 30 seconds. You can see the detailed results of our torrenting speed tests in our NordVPN vs ExpressVPN comparison, under the “torrenting” section.

How to Use NordVPN for Torrenting

With the theory out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff: how to torrent using NordVPN. First up, you need to go to the NordVPN.com website and sign up to the service. Right now the best deals are the two- and three-year plans, which offer some serious savings, so if you plan on torrenting a lot, this may be the way to go.

Next, you need to click the button to start the NordVPN download. Once that’s on your hard disk, follow the instructions till you’re ready to go.

With that done, you can start the program. You’ll be presented with a big world map, where you can pick a specific server, but that’s not what we’re going to do today. Instead, pick the “speciality servers” option from the menu, and choose “P2P” as your server type.

That gives you a list of P2P server locations. Pick the closest location to you, wait for it to connect and you’re good to go. If you want to make superduperextra sure all is well, hit up ipleak.org (offered by VPNArea) and check that you’re presented with an IP address and location different from your own.

With your digital guard up, you’re ready to roll. Go to your browser, pick a good torrent site and search for whatever TV show, movie or game you want — though having a pop-up blocker installed is a good idea before hitting up any of these sites.

Once you’ve found what you need, all that remains is to download the tracker or magnet link and have your torrent client do the rest of the work while you wait. After that, just open up the file and you’re good to go. Enjoy!

Final Thoughts

That really is all there is to it. Torrenting is pretty easy; the only real trouble is that you may run into legal issues for doing it. By downloading with a VPN engaged, you’re making sure you’ll avoid any negative attention, and by doing it with NordVPN you’re making sure you’re using the best in the business. It’s also great for getting past the Netflix VPN ban, so it’s a double whammy.

What do you think of torrenting with NordVPN? Easy as pie or more trouble than it’s worth? Let us know in the comments below and, as always, thank you for reading.