How to Use Flud for Android with VPN

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Many of the Android users enjoy using their devices for torrenting. This is especially easy these days, thanks to torrent clients like Flud, which has some of the best features and is very stable and intuitive. It even has a proxy support, and that’s important and extremely needed since it allows you to use torrents anonymously, by hiding your real IP address.

For those who don’t know how to set it up and use it, but they’d like to find out, we’ve prepared this guide. In it, you’ll learn how and where to install Flud, as well as how to use it anonymously. We’ll also give you detailed instructions on how to set up a proxy, and explain the more advanced options within the Settings Menu of Flud’s app.

So let’s start.

How can you get Flud?

How to Use Flud for Android with VPN

If you want to install Flud, you can find it in your Play Store. There are 2 versions of it there, one that’s free but has ads, and the other is ad-free, but it will cost you $1.5, They have the same features, but the ad-free experience is preferred by most users.

Still, you’ll have the same experience with either of them, so it doesn’t really matter which one you choose. Perhaps you should try out Flud’s free version, and if you like it, and you decide that the ads are annoying, you can then simply upgrade it to pro version and go ad-free from there on.

How to use Flud safely and anonymously

Using BitTorrent clients hardly provides any anonymity at all, since it uses P2P file sharing protocol. Every peer that shares the file that you’re downloading can identify you and see your real IP address. Those who know how to study IP addresses can get a lot of info about you from them, including your exact location, as well as your torrent download history, and also the shared file’s size.

Torrent swarms are made of hundreds, sometimes even thousands of peers, and each of them represents a device, and behind it a person, that can see you and possibly identify you. Many people choose not to display their info like this, and that’s a good way of thinking. You can hide your real data too, through the use of VPNs or Socks5 Proxy. You won’t be breaking any laws by hiding your data, so why not do it, and increase your security? All you need to do is find the torrents on legal online sources, and you’ll be completely fine.

If you require proof that everyone could see your information, go to ‘Details’ of any torrent that’s currently active, and check out ‘Peers’ tab. There, you’ll see everyone you’re sharing a torrent with, and every one of them can see you too, including the IP address, as well as which client you’re using. This info is here for a reason, and it must be published so that your torrent client would know where to connect in order to download the file that you wish to download. Still, there’s no denying the fact that it’s a big privacy problem.

Other security issues

Not only do everyone who share the content can see you participating in its downloading as well, but your ISP can also keep track of your actions and download history. This is done by a technique called DPI, or Deep Packet Inspection. It lets ISPs check out pretty much every piece of the data that isn’t encrypted, as well as all the info about it, including where it goes, where it comes from, and even when it was downloaded. Basically, without a VPN or at least a proxy, everyone will know everything about you. Luckily, you can do several things to protect your privacy.

How to torrent anonymously

If you wish to remain hidden and anonymous while torrenting, you can use two different tools to do the job. The first one of those is a VPN, and the second is a proxy. It’s even possible to combine these two and achieve an even greater level of security. They can provide you with several layers of protection. One of those includes masking your IP address. They’ll reroute your traffic to a private, remote server, and everything you do will be assigned to some other IP address, instead of your real one.

The bad thing is that this is pretty much it when it comes to proxies. VPN, on the other hand, provides you with a strong encryption, which makes everything you do online hidden from others, including your ISP. Also, VPN tech is really easy to install on both computer and smartphone, and there are many of them that you can choose from, depending on what features you require.

Choosing a VPN/Proxy

Now that you know what proxies and VPNs can do, it’s time to choose which one you’ll use. When it comes to Android devices, many have recommended SOCKS5 proxy to be a better option, since VPNs have been known to have trouble when combined with torrenting on the smartphone. Still, it doesn’t mean that VPN wouldn’t work with you, and there’s also an option of using them together. Some of the companies can even provide the combination of the two, and even cheaper than you’d have to pay for each of them individually.

When it comes to our recommendation on which one to use, we’ve found that TorGuard, IPVanish, and PIA are the best options.

These three are alike in many things. Sure, they have their differences, but they’re the same when it comes to things that are important for those who wish to use them in combination with Flud. All of them have a no-logging policy, they’re torrent-friendly, and the privacy that they provide you with is obsolete.

They’re relatively cheap, with the most expensive being around $10 per month. But for that, or less, you’ll have unlimited speed, support for pretty much any device and platform, the option to combine them with SOCKS5 proxy, an app for your Android, strong encryption, money return policy and more.

How to set up Proxy on Flud

You’re now probably wondering how you can configure your Flud, so that it would use the proxy, which is something we’re going to explain right now. We’ve decided to use Private Internet Access as an example for this. And as we already said, using proxies is very useful, since it hides your IP address, so that you cannot be traced. We’ll even explain to you how to include encryption into the equation, whether you decided to use a VPN with your proxy or not.

Just follow these basic steps:

  1. Create a profile on a proxy service that supports torrenting
  2. Get the username and password for your new proxy
  3. Add proxy to your Flud
  4. Add the encryption (manually for those who don’t use VPN)

So let’s start.

  1. Get a proxy that doesn’t log and supports torrenting

The services we’ve mentioned aren’t the only ones with SOCKS5 proxy included in the package but are the best according to the most experienced users, which is why we’ve decided to go with those. As we already mentioned, it’s up to you which one you’ll use, but we’ve chosen PIA for this guide. PIA is a good, powerful option, with a bare interface, but it still does the job as good as any other provider. Plus, it’s very cheap, with around $3.33 per month.

  1. Get the new username and password

Most services will probably provide you with the same login credentials for both their VPN and proxy. However, PIA uses separate username and password for each service, as an extra security. After you’ve made your VPN account, a proxy will come along, and then you can simply generate a new username/password on the PIA’s website.

  1. Setting up proxy with Flud

This might sound complicated at first, but it’s really not, and all you need to do is go to Menu, and then continue to Settings. Once you’ve entered the Settings, choose Network, and from there go to Proxy Settings.

Then, you’ll need to enter your credentials in the next order:

  1. For ‘Proxy Type’, enter ‘SOCKS5’
  2. Under ‘Host’, enter ‘proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com’
  3. Choose Port number 1080
  4. Choose ‘Yes’ when asked if the proxy should be also used for peer connections
  5. Also choose ‘Yes’ at ‘Requires Authentication’
  6. In the field for Username simply enter your generated username
  7. Same goes for password, just enter the generated one from the website

After that, just press Apply Proxy, restart Flud and that’s it for this part.

  1. Add encryption (optional, and for those who don’t use VPN)

Encryption is useful, since it’ll scramble the traffic on your torrent, and nobody, including your ISP, won’t be able to tell what you downloaded, nor will they influence your actions in any way. The best and strongest encryption comes with a VPN. However, if you don’t wish to use VPN for some reason, Flud has its own, but be warned, it’s not as good and it’ll only be useful with Flud itself. Encryption that VPN provides you with will cover your entire device’s connection at the same time. Also, Flud’s encryption might reduce the number of peers that you can access, while VPN’s won’t do so.

This can be done by going to Menu, proceed to Settings, then to Network, and finally to Encryption.

You can choose one of two setups:

  • Encryption enabled – Uses encryption only when it’s available, and the number of peers won’t be reduced
  • Forced encryption – Your encryption works full-time, but the number of peers will go down significantly since only those that work under encryption will appear

Learn about Flud

Now that we’re done with explaining how to combine your Flud with a proxy, we’ve decided to insert a guide on how to use this app in general. If you’re an experienced user, you might find it basic and unnecessary, but if you’re new, we recommend checking it out.

We’re going to cover how to:

  • Attach magnet links
  • Schedule downloads
  • Find torrents
  • Force the download of files
  • Change the download location
  • Access the list of peers
  • And more

All of this will be divided into three main sections that include:

  1. Flud’s Interface
  2. Flud’s Settings
  3. More advanced options and torrent details

Flud’s Interface

Application’s Main Screen:

The interface is very easy to use, no matter if you’re new or experienced when it comes to torrenting. Adding or deleting torrents is simple, and so is starting or pausing of the downloads. There are also options like adding magnet links, you can search for torrents via Google, and also access your settings menu.

There are three tabs used to group torrents, named All, Queued, and Finished.

The touchpoints on your screen while using Flud include:

  1. Search icon, used for finding new torrents, which will launch a browser window
  2. Magnet icon, that allows you to attach a magnet link earlier copied from your browser
  3. Three dots that open the app’s menu
  4. A button used for starting or pausing the download
  5. A ‘+’ option that allows you to manually add torrents

Torrent details:

What’s good about torrent clients, and Flud especially, is that you get a lot of control over every torrent file, including a very detailed statistics. You can both see as well as edit information like trackers, bandwidth, download location, and peers. And the best thing is that you can access all of these details simply by tapping on the torrent you’re interested of. Doing so will take you to its details right away, and you’ll see other tabs that include status, trackers, files, pieces, and peers.

Settings Menu

Flud gives you a lot of freedom and control, especially when it comes to the advanced options. You can get to them by selecting the three dot icon that we mentioned before, which is located in an upper right corner of your screen.

After tapping the dots, choose the Settings option, and you’ll get these sections:

  1. Storage – where you can choose download location
  2. Bandwidth – where you can determine the speed and number of connections
  3. Queue – where you can set the number of active torrents
  4. Interface – where you can set your app’s appearance
  5. Network – where you can set up proxy, VPN, control peer exchange and more
  6. Power Management – where you can change settings to save battery power
  7. Scheduling – where you can determine the best time for downloading

So let’s check out these options closely.

  1. Storage

Here, you’ll be able to control where you download the files, as well and also move them after they’re downloaded. You can even choose if you want to save the link to the device when you’re using magnets, although most users don’t do this.

There’s also a ‘Watch incoming directory’ option, which is used in case of syncing torrented content from some other source.

  1. Bandwidth

Here, you can set your download and upload speed. It’s useful to set this up because if you don’t watch out, torrent might make the internet really slow or all the rest of your apps. Setting the max speed to ‘0’ will make speeds unlimited. There’s also a maximum number of allowed connections, which is the maximum amount of different peers that you can connect at one time. If you make a lot of connections, it can overwhelm your device, and in that case, we recommend reducing the number by 50-100 and check if that helped.

  1. Queue

This option allows you the control over the total amount of active torrents. For example, if you set the maximum number of allowed downloads to 3, and then add 5 torrents, 2 of them will wait until one of the 3 spots opens up.

  1. Interface

Interface offers a lot of different options about the cosmetic control. Basically, it’s used for the appearance of the Flud. The options available are:

  • Theme – allows you to change your app’s color
  • Add to downloads – the torrents that you’ve downloaded will appear in the ‘Downloads’ folder
  • Show hidden files/folders – Flud gets access even to your device’s hidden files
  • Clear search history – it deletes all of your torrent searches in Flud
  • Notification settings – you can choose whether or not to get notifications when the torrents are downloaded. You can even turn on sound here
  1. Network Settings

This is probably the most important part of the settings, and here you can control peer exchange, proxy settings, port mapping, as well as encryption. Settings for encryption and proxy have already been explained, though,

Enable Peer Exchange/LSD/DHT/

This allows you to find even more peers from the so-called ‘trackerless’ DHT. LSD discovers peers on your local network, whether at home or in school. Both can be left out, and can also pose a danger if you’re not using proxy or VPN. Lastly, there’s peer exchange. This let’s the already existing peers notify you about potential new ones, which can also boost speeds.

Enable NAT-PMP/ UPnP

This option will allow your client to map the ports of the network automatically, all for the purpose of easier and faster port forwarding. It’s not needed if you use a proxy of VPN. If you have a problem with your speeds, and you don’t know why, you might fix the issue by enabling these options. You’ll also need to enable them on the router as well.

Enable uTP

This is also called a micro transport protocol, and it’s a special protocol that’s made in order to allow throttling of your speeds when the network volume is higher than usual. It’s expected that the ISP will provide you with max speeds during the slower speed times in return. That’s how it should work in theory, but since your ISP will probably just use it to throttle your speeds all the time, you’re better off if this isn’t enabled.

Encryption Settings

As we said, here you can enable encryption for your torrent. It’ll hide all of your activities, and it’s a good idea to use it if you’re only using a proxy. It’s not as good as the one provided by your VPN, but it’ll mostly do the job. It prevents slow speeds, but it also reduces the number of peers if you use the forced version. We still advise using VPN for encryption, since it’s a better option, and it also covers your entire network and not just torrenting.

Proxy settings

Combine a proxy with your Flud so that your IP address would be hidden, and your identity safe.

IP Filtering

You can use this option to ship in IP blocklist from other tools, like peerguard. It’ll reduce the number of peers, even more than it would be reduced by the forced encryption, but your safety and privacy won’t be increased at all. We advise against this since it doesn’t exactly help. It’s way better to simply use a VPN or proxy instead.

Power Management

These settings aren’t complicated, and everything is explained pretty well in the interface itself.

  • Wifi Only – you’ll download your torrents only if connected to a WiFi, which will save you the mobile data
  • Shutdown when the download is complete – a pretty much self-explanatory option, it’ll shut down Flud after downloads are done, so that your battery power wouldn’t be wasted
  • Keep CPU Awake – check this only if the downloads would stop when you turn off the screen. Having it enabled will drain battery, and fast
  • Download/Upload only when charging – another option that speaks for itself. Your torrents will be downloaded and uploaded only while your phone is attached to a charger. This saves battery power.
  • Enable battery limit – this is used for setting a battery limit. Basically, you decide at what point will torrenting stop, in order to save your battery from getting completely drained by downloads.

Scheduling

Flud gives you this option so that you could schedule the activity of your torrent for a time your choice. You can use it to schedule torrent downloading for when you’re sleeping, with your phone on the charger. You can set when it will start or end, and even whether to do this only once or on daily basis. You can resume all of the paused downloads and even set the options like turning the WiFi on before the downloading starts, and off after it ends.

Advanced Options And Details

There are even more options for each torrent you’re downloading, and these are considered to be advanced. You can access these by tapping the torrent in question, and you’ll get several tabs, including details, pieces, status, peers, files, and trackers.

You can use these settings to rename files, change the downloading directory, force downloads, allocate bandwidth, and even choose specific files within the torrent that you’d wish to download. Let’s see these options up close as well:

  • Details – here you can edit a few settings, and do things like changing the name of the file, or the directory in which you download torrents. You can force downloads, or cap the speeds for download and upload.
  • Status – you won’t be able to edit anything here, but you can see the stats. This includes the progress of the download, number of seeders and leechers, your own share ratio, and even the time which your torrent has spent actively
  • Files – here you can see all of the files that your torrent contains. You also get to choose which one of them you wish to download.
  • Trackers – used for viewing the state of LSD, DHT, Peer Exchange, or even some other trackers
  • Peers – shows you the list of connected peers, their torrent client, and even their IP address

Conclusion

You should now be pretty familiar with Flud, and you should know pretty much everything that you need to professionally torrent via this client. We recommend that you take our advice, and use either SOCKS5 proxy or a VPN. It would be the best if you combined the two, but using even one of those is better than using none at all, and for your safety, we hope that this guide has been helpful to you.

Passion for Cyber Security and Technology.

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