How to Hide your Android Torrent via SOCKS Proxy

If you are looking for a way to use torrent on your Android device safely, then you have come to the right place. Proxies are very helpful when it comes to this. They are fast, and they will hide your Android’s IP address. SOCKS5 Proxy is especially good, and it even allows you to send your torrent traffic and your regular traffic separately.

In this guide, we will concentrate on explaining several things, which include:

• Which proxy to use?
• How to configure the torrent client on your Android with said proxy?
• How to make sure that the proxy works properly, and actually protects your IP

One thing worth noting is that there are only two torrent clients for Android that have proxy support built into them. Those are tTorrent, and Flud, and we will provide instructions for both of them. So, let’s start.

How to choose the best proxy service?

If you wish to use a proxy in order to hide your torrenting traffic, you must be thorough. Do not settle for any proxy, but instead, go for the best ones, that with the best quality of service. Of course, this includes the no logging policy. Basically, you have to make sure that the service you will use keeps zero logs concerning your activities online. Not all of them offer such feature, so you should keep that in mind.

Anonymity is important because otherwise, the entire point in setting up a proxy is lost. As far as our recommendation goes, we would suggest using TorGuard. It offers both a Proxy, as well as a VPN service, and most importantly, it offers them separately, and with a significant difference in price. TorGuard won’t log any of your activity, and you will get access to servers in multiple countries for your proxy. VPN will, of course, have access to a lot more servers in a lot more countries. Still, for a proxy, even a small number of servers should suffice.

Another thing that makes TorGuard’s proxy the best choice is the fact that it has an easy proxy installer. It will make the entire process a lot faster and easier by configuring automatically a torrent client from your desktop. All of the proxy settings will be implemented, and you will be good to go.

Choose a torrent app to go with your proxy

For now, there are only two torrent clients that you can find in the Play Store that can work properly with SOCKS5 proxy service. We have mentioned them earlier, and those are tTorrent, and Flud. They both have great reviews and many users. Both of these apps come in both free and premium versions. Despite the fact that premium version obviously has more options and benefits, both apps are perfectly functional even if you use only free versions.

You can compare them yourself, and download them for free on your Android. Check out the software and design of both apps, and decide for yourself which one is better for you. After making a decision, delete the other app, so that the proxy wouldn’t get confused after finding two torrent apps on your Android.

Gather all the necessary info

Now is the time to collect all the information that you will require in order to make this combo work. By now, you should already have a torrent client of your choice, and a proxy service as well. We will use TorGuard’s proxy, since it is the best option, and we recommend using it.

The information that you need include:

• Username and Password (TorGuard will provide them after you purchase the proxy package)
• The Type of Proxy (SOCKS5)
• The address of your proxy (proxy.torguard.org for those who use TorGuard’s proxy. Addresses for specific servers can be found within your account on TorGuard as well)
• Port number (1085/1090. Try both of them, since it is possible that one might not work since ISPs often block ports)

Configure your proxy

As promised, we will provide instructions on how to configure proxy on both torrent clients for Android that we mentioned.

Flud

1. Start by opening Flud on your Android
2. Tap on the Menu, and then go to Settings. Proceed to Network, and finally to Proxy Settings
3. Enter the information that we gathered in the previous step, and make sure to check the boxes that say ‘Also use for peer connections’ and ‘Requires authentication’.
4. When you have entered all the info in the proper boxes, hit Apply proxy.
5. And that is it for Flud. Your proxy is now set.

tTorrent

1. Start your tTorrent, and open the Menu
2. Proceed to Settings, and then to Network Settings. Finally, tap on Proxy Settings
3. You will find a ‘Use Proxy’ box. Check it, and go to Proxy Settings under it.
4. Enter the information gathered in the previous step, and click on ‘Proxy Peer Connections’
5. For Proxy type choose ‘SOCKS5 with authentication’
6. Enter your username and password
7. And you are done with tTorrent as well.

Make sure that you are anonymous

By now, you should have a working proxy protecting your torrenting traffic. But, you shouldn’t leave it to chance and hope that everything works out as it should. Instead, we are going to show you how you can check if the process was completed successfully.

For this demonstration, we will use Flud, although the method is pretty much the same for tTorrent as well.

So, basically, our goal here is to make sure that you don’t have the same IP address for your regular traffic and your torrent traffic. TorGuard provides a very handy tool for checking this. The tool will download a small torrent file in order to check the IP that will be displayed to those who might be watching.

So, in order to see whether the addresses are different, you should first find out what your regular IP address is. You can do this by typing this link into the web browser of your Android: www.vpnlinx.com/ipbrowser

On top of your phone, you will see your location and IP address. Write it down, or take a screenshot so that you can compare it with the torrenting address.

Now, it is time to see what address will your torrent client display. You can start by downloading the Torrent IP check tool from TorGuard. It is a small tool, and you can get it here.

Simply click on the Download Now button, and the process will start.

After you click on the button, you will get the option to Add Torrent in your Flud. Once again, you should only have one torrent client, so that there is no confusion about which one should the tool aim at. If you do have several of them, you will have to specify which one you wish to check.

On the top-right corner, you will find a ‘+’ symbol, which you should click in order to add a new torrent. After doing so, the download will start. If you click on the name of the torrent file, you will see the details of the download, as well as of the torrent link.

Find the window named Trackers, and tap on it. There, you will find the IP address of your torrent client.

Understand the results

Now that all that is done, there are three possible situations that you might be in:

• The IP addresses are different, in which case congratulations! You did everything right, and you can now safely use your torrent client.
• The IP addresses are the same. This might mean that there is an error in proxy configuration. Try going back to the proxy settings within your torrent client, and make sure that you entered all the information correctly.
• A Proxy connect error appeared.

If this happens to you, try exiting the torrent app, restart your phone, and check the IP address again. This will often fix the issue.

If the problem doesn’t go away, try checking the configuration settings, like in situation #2. Make sure that all the data is correct, and that you didn’t mistype your login credentials. When you are sure that your data is correct, try restarting your phone again, and then check the IP once more. You should have it working by now, but if there is still a problem, you might want to try contacting TorGuard’s customer support.

Conclusion

Using a torrent on your Android is both practical and faster than downloading something on your computer, and then transferring it on the phone. However, remember that torrenting is still frowned upon by many, and you should take proper precautions.

Make both your device and your private data safe by employing a proxy that will help you achieve anonymity. By following this guide, you should easily protect your IP address. That way, you will know that you are safe, and you can enjoy downloading whatever you wish on your Android device.