With BTGuard downloading through BitTorrent becomes 100% anonymous & safe. You ca read BTGuard reviews below.
Your downloads will be routed through Canada which enforces some of the strictest privacy laws in the world, ensuring the protection of your identity, even from your own ISP!
BTGuard is simple to install and use – just download and install. For more advanced users, you can also configure your own BitTorrent client.
BTGuard features:
- Simple download & install
- No records of usage stored
- Optional 256-bit AES encryption
- Unlimited download speeds
BTGuard Services
- NameProduct TypePrice
- BitTorrent ProxyProxy$6.95/mo
- VPNOpenVPN, PPTP$9.95/mo
On April 16, 2010 A wrote:
Just FYI, BTGuard is NOT a VPN, just a slow Canadian proxy only for Bittorrent traffic.
On May 19, 2010 Some Joe wrote:
Just signed up last night. On Windows 7 had some quirkiness with their easy install client, which is uTorrent, but a couple versions behind. Did the advanced install (just changing some config options) in a standard uTorrent install and it worked fine.
Initial check of new torrents and acqusition of seeds is a bit slower than normal, but afterwards the transfer speeds match watch I was getting before without a proxy.
On August 31, 2010 Johnny wrote:
There support is terrible and I don’t think they understand english.
On September 29, 2010 Dee Petite wrote:
They advertise that you are completely anonymous…. even to your ISP. WRONG…we received TWO emails from our ISP about downloading copyrighted material. I HONESTLY think these guys are a BAIT company who send your info directly to your ISP. They are a TOTAL rip off!! NOT to be trusted! Getting the warning out there for all the people who need or want to know. Thanks for reading.
On October 4, 2010 Terry C wrote:
I agree with some of the other reviews. Although they now do offer a VPN service it is just as unreliable as the proxy service. Under Windows 7 I kept getting disconnected every 2 hours. I contacted their support 10 days ago but still have received no response.
Their proxy is only secure when you use the optional Encryption package. I found that the encryption package kept closing all the time with out me knowing it leaving me unprotected.
I switched to a VPN service out of Sweden that encrypts all ports, including those used by Bit Torrent, and am glad I did.
On November 11, 2010 jimm c wrote:
Im using the bittorrent proxy for months now. and not one problem. Love it. works perfect. as for VPN, dont know! but going on the bittorrent proxy, im sure it must be as good?
On November 13, 2010 Jake F wrote:
SLOW SLOW SLOW. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME
On November 23, 2010 miketrek wrote:
Haven’t had a single problem since signing up. Just downloaded a 75mb MP3 collection in less than two minutes. I’m thinking of adding their VPN service, since the torrent proxy works perfectly.
On November 27, 2010 Vicky W wrote:
I have signed up for the premium VPN service and the speeds are not too bad, but it only runs for 1 hour and disconnects so I have to log back in again. This is unacceptable for my use so will not renew next month.
On November 29, 2010 isepiq wrote:
Been using their proxy service for a few weeks now with uTorrent, & noticed no difference in speed etc. Everything is working normally. If you go to a site that checks uTorrent while it is running, it will show Canada or some Scandinavian IP instead of yours. You can check that it is working. Also, you can pay with Paypal, so you are pretty anonymous.
On December 19, 2010 jan wrote:
I have use BTgaurd for about 6 months now…..It started out with slow downloading. But their speeds have really picked up. It usually only takes me about 30 minutes to download. I have never gotten any emails while using this service. I had gotten an email before this service from a movie company. SInce using this service I redownloaded the same move to see if I would get an email and didnt. You do have to make sure you enable it everytime you start downloading, it doesnt start up immediately. I do occasionally have a problem with my speed and have found that if I simply uninstall and then go to the website and reinstall (and make sure I re-enable the client) there is no problem. It only takes about 3 minutes to do this. And then I go back to downloading movies in about 30 minutes again. This is a great service for $6.95 a month and I have told many friends about it!
On December 20, 2010 isepiq wrote:
uTorrent DID have some leaking on older clients. You need to use the NEWEST verstion of uTorrent 2.2 & set it up correctly. BTGuard now has a page that shows how to set it up with the new improved uTorrent for its socks 5 Proxy service. Files with few shares are still slow, files with LOTS of shares are still fast using their Proxy Service. I also use Bluetack’s Blocklist Manager along with uTorrent built in Encryption (Foreced, & NO legacy connections). So, Proxy, IP Blocking, & Encryption. So far so good.
On January 2, 2011 Riao wrote:
The service itself is great. I have been using it since the company started a couple of years ago. When they started out they had some problems. Lots of disconnects and unexplainable slowdowns, but they have really gotten their act together with the service and it now works flawlessly.
HOWEVER their support is and always has been absolutely horrible. If you have any problems you will have to sort them out for yourself. I have sent them 2 or 3 emails in the past asking questions and I think they only responded once. And then they simply referred me to the install instructions posted on the website.
On January 5, 2011 EP wrote:
Strange that people are singing the praises of BTGuard using a Scandinavian server, or people switching to Scandinavian providers. Actually Scandinavia is at the fore-front of data snooping. Anything that goes in and out of Sweden for example is open to being sniffed by the internet police.
Privacy laws in Scandinavia do not exist.
On January 25, 2011 John wrote:
I bought a 3 months package a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, it was a big mistake. Here’s why:
1. There’s absolutely no support whatsoever. They admit it themselves! On their “support” page it says clearly “Support is available for issues regarding account activation and billing.
We do not support personal computer problems.” (yeah, great freaking idea when you’re selling a program!).
2. The speeds are not “unlimited” but VERY limited. I usually get 15mbps in speedtest.net. If I’m using BTGuard it goes down to, at best, 4mbps and, on average, to 2.5mbps.
True, your IP doesn’t reveal your location, but for this speed you might as well just use a PC at your local public library.
On February 7, 2011 appugno wrote:
it seems like a scam, I do not even know if it works or not (i.e. provides privacy).
I know that I have been charged USD9 twice in the last two month, yet my account status is still – Awaiting 1st payment, and VPN won’t connect.
Wrote them twice, asking for clarification, no response.
On February 14, 2011 lorenzo wrote:
the service is well worth the piece of mind protection. I’ve been using their proxy service for over 6 months with few complaints. I agree, lots of seeds allows a fast download, but few seeds means a slow download. reliability is ok on windows 2000 and xp. one big problem is incoming connections aren’t supported. I’m about to try their vpn service. not sure if that allows port forwarding, but hoping so.
On April 9, 2011 Clint wrote:
I’m glad I only paid for one month at $6.95. I’ve wasted more on a bad cheeseburger. Without this ‘service’ i have multiple files download at 200-300k and that’s over WiFi.
With this turned on the exact same files are 3k. If I reduce to only 2 files downloading at time I am up to 15-20k.
Slow does not begin to describe the company.
If someone knows a way to change settings to speed things up I’d love to see ya post ‘em.
On April 10, 2011 Dave wrote:
**SCAM**A few days ago, I downloaded movie using bittorent (deluge) configured to use the BTGuard proxy.
I just received an email from my ISP stating that there was illicit activity on my account using bittorrent for movie on the specified date. How is it that my ISP and the representatives of movie managed to know what I was doing if BTGuard is securely encrypted? It’s also supposed to be anonymous. How did they know the activity came from my IP address? Needless to say, I just canceled my BTGuard subscription. Hope non of you get caught.
On April 15, 2011 null wrote:
I’ve been using the service for a long while now. I haven’t gotten any notices because my software is properly configured. be absolutely sure yours is properly configured before using it, or labelling it a scam.
speed can be good at times, 400kbs+, but remember, you’re not paying for speed, you’re paying to be anonymous. beggers can’t be choosers. set it to run over-night, check it in the morning.
on the down side, their support is almost non-existent.
On April 15, 2011 more null wrote:
Slow, unreliable, and bad customer service. Use a seedbox instead
On August 6, 2011 Alis wrote:
I guess it doesn’t surprise me that when something goes wrong it’s the company’s fault. For $6.95 a month what do you expect? If you got caught you didn’t configure you settings correctly. If you can’t figure out your settings maybe you shouldn’t be downloading illegal material. I’ve been using BTGaurd for months now. Sometimes the speeds are slower but it’s a small price to pay. $6.95 or $2,000 or so for the letter from the movie industry. It isn’t a scam. Lifehacker has covered this many times, so has torrentfreak.
On August 10, 2011 Figmo wrote:
Add me to the list of people who got letters from their ISP while using BTGaurd. Have emailed their support 3 times in the past 3 months asking if there is some setting I might be missing. Not a single response.
To the reviewers who post “your settings must be wrong” I say — *if* that is true then why doesn’t BTGuard just post better instructions? Or answer support emails telling me what setting to check? I’m paying them every month. I think a little help making their service work is not asking too much.
My settings match exactly what is posted on their web site. The test to check my IP shows their IP address like it should. But still I get threatening letters from my ISP.
If there is some secret setting that only a few uber elite internet brainiacs know about – who cares!! You and the 20 or 30 hackers who know the secret can pay them the $7 a month and be happy. I just cancelled my subscription. The service isn’t worth paying for if the company is unwilling to show us the secret setting to make it work.
On August 10, 2011 lorenzo wrote:
yes, agreed, their tech support is pretty much non-existent. I guess they believe the community can help fix any problems that come up. the software should be made better so that it cannot connect to the internet except via the proxy. a custom firewall maybe.
the service has always worked well for me. I’ve never expected torrents to have great speed. I just let things download in the background while I do other things. we pay btguard to be the middle man to make our lives easier.
On August 14, 2011 Phil wrote:
Agreed…..technical support is non-existent. Quote the email from them when I asked about BitTorrent settings screen:
“http://btguard.com/utorrent.php these are the correct settings. Why would we have incorrect ones on our own site?? This isn’t aol.”
Really professional. Bunch of ******’s.
Anyway – if it works, then it’s cheap, and speeds are up and down.
Perhaps the people above have “incoming connections” working in uTorrent (for me, that means having ports forwarded correctly, but not sure – I changed my port in uTorrent so it would no longer work…..might be affecting speeds. Not sure….)
If I get a notice, I’ll dump them and move onto a Seedbox.
On August 14, 2011 lorenzo wrote:
actually, I don’t think incoming connections are supported by this service. it wouldn’t be a port forward in your router because that would give away your ip address in order to work. kinda kills the reason for using a proxy. a port forward over the proxy is possible, but each user would need their own port number. they aren’t able to do this with their software yet.
just look for torrents with the most seeds. on the bandwidth page of the preferences window, global maximum number of connections, and maximum number of connected peers per torrent can both be increased. I have a dedicated computer just for this one program, and 2000/200 works well for me atm. you might want to try something like 1400/150, but I wouldn’t go more then 2000 on windows. I’ve also seen a router crash from the global max being set to high.
On August 26, 2011 Slim McLean wrote:
i was happy with BTGuard for about 30 minutes. then i was enraged. i went from 700kbps to 25 kbps. no change in download speed my ass! If one were to be using this program to hide from getting busted for filesharing copyrighted material, what’s the point, if it takes a week to download? complete bullshit, they offer no customer service whatsoever.
On October 15, 2011 JamesBTGuy wrote:
Works great!
The privacy problem is getting WAY out of hand in the United States.
Thank God for the Canadian privacy laws!
Sorry to the guys who cant figure out how to set this up. It may require you to have a brain.
On November 8, 2011 Rawr wrote:
I got the VPN service from BTGuard (not socks5 proxy). Price seems decent and I’m actually close to the server. So, I thought I’d get decent speeds… I was very very wrong…
Speeds are terrible and extremely unstable. It’s hard to get past 1mbps regardless of location option…
On November 9, 2011 Rob R wrote:
I installed BTGuard 2.3 and the number of users out there dropped from over 1 million down to several hundred on a good day and ~60 on a not-so-good day. Successfully uninstalled BT Guard Encryption, but unable to uninstall via Windows Add/Remove Programs AND via the uninstaller that is installed with BTGuard. Also unable to uninstall uTorrent. Have spent several hours Googling for answers, but no joy.
Does anyone have experience successfully removing BTGuard-installed components from a PC on Windows 7 x64?
Many thanks,
Rob
On December 10, 2011 Doug H wrote:
I’d just like to say, don’t waste your money. It didn’t work initially on their suggested settings, and when it did the speed dropped so drastically that it was like using a dial-up service again.
I have contacted them 3 times for support, and gotten no decent response other than “go to the website”
I have asked for a refund twice now, and gotten no reply. This is the 3rd time. If I don’t get a reply this time, I’mma set my fax machine to dial their office number from now until the end of time.
On December 21, 2011 Chase wrote:
Signed up for the VPN service and I don’t regret it. The speeds can be a bit slow at night, but that is more than likely also the prime time for people to be using the service. I do most of my downloading during the day and find that the speeds stay pretty close to my ISP provided speeds.
Haven’t used the proxy because I wanted a complete package. Have also not had any negative experiences with support. They’ve gone out of their way to help me a few times already.
On January 4, 2012 kidbuck wrote:
I tried the VPN for $9.95. My download speeds were instantly cut to 10% of previous speeds. Verified this through several testing web sites and my own observations. As soon as I disconnected from the BTGuard VPN, speeds went right back to normal. Cancelled account after 2 weeks.
I don’t know enough to have an opinion about the security/privacy issues. Much thanks to everyone else for sharing your experiences.
On January 9, 2012 Oz Ethanos wrote:
I signed up for this service with the one year prepay. The big problem with this service are the torrent speeds. Despite the fact that their sample torrent downloads quickly all my other downloads were cut down in speed drastically more often than not. I’ve got my money bank and am now looking for a different provider. Speeds went back to normal after. Also, read in the reviews that users still get threatening letters from their providers.
On February 9, 2012 cei wrote:
HI, i`m an It programmer and checked this product out for a friend, who doubted it was doing what it claimed. IT`S USELESS. Don`t waste your cash
On February 9, 2012 TER wrote:
There is craziness abound. Some of the reviews here are idiotic.
You – you are STEALING from the movie/publishing industry. The maximum fine, PER OFFENSE, is $150,000. So how many movies do you have? Multiply the number by $150,000. What do you owe?
BTGuard is a thing of beauty. I personally download stuff, watch it and delete it. I can continue to do this using BTGuard and if the download speed sucks sometimes what do I care? I am downloading great movies for practically nothing. I can wait all day because I don’t sit watching it tick over, I go and do stuff and when I come back it’s done.
$6.95 is your get out of jail free card. If used properly (and some obviously have problems with this) you can continue to download practically anything without the fear of the nasty letters or worse. You’re paying the price of a pack of smokes each month for access to **-everything and anything-** and if can still find reason to bitch about your inadequacy with setting up your proxy settings correctly or having to wait while your stuff downloads then you don’t deserve to use this service. Cancel it, download stuff to your IP and come back and tell us about it in a month or so.
On February 9, 2012 lorenzo wrote:
cei, maybe you’re useless. this company delivers what they say, and not more or less. I mean, it’s a shared server, so why do people expect to get dedicated speed at this price? if you want speed, pay for it. this service has worked fine for me for over a year, and have not gotten a single notice of any sort.
if you want a service where a company stands in the way of those who wish to know who you are, this is what you want. protected anonymous browsing of the internet.
On February 11, 2012 nikki wrote:
WHY BTGUARD IS RUBBISH!
http://www.cometforums.com/topic/12794868-btguard/
On February 12, 2012 lorenzo wrote:
I don’t see anything in that article I don’t already know. anyone who uses btguard should be familiar with this information, and understand how it all works. instead of bashing btguard, how about you post a similar but better service in this same price range. btguard is far from a perfect service, but it is the solution available to us. I suspect there will be a better solution eventually, but until then, this is the service I recommend, if you care to be anonymous.
btw, yes, your isp can see all the data that goes over your line, but what do they really care? you’re a paying customer. they’re trying to pass laws in the US to force isp’s to log your transferred information right this moment, but they currently aren’t required to. isp’s only respond the way they’re required to by law, when they’re contacted by one of these scamming law firms. they forward the threatening letter and/or terminate your account. it’s not in their best interest to lose that income each month.
On March 20, 2012 Unamused wrote:
got an email from my isp saying i was torrenting, signed up for this service, and keeping watch for emails. I didn’t mess around with advanced setup and just used their pre configured easy install.
The only downside is how damn slow it is, I haven’t got more than 400kBs and I pay for 35mbps sequential at my house, and have been use to 5Mbs before the service. Its not really a problem when i leave it at home while im at work, but if I find a movie i want to watch that night, it takes an couple hours to get it compared to 15 minutes.
On April 12, 2012 Wow wrote:
Guys, regardless of where this routes through, they DO NOT KEEP LOGS of source and destination IP addresses. This is the key. The only way something could get traced back is if it was monitored by law enforcement during your connection–which they say has never happened. Also, your content is encrypted from source to their server, so your ISP cannot know what is being communicated. If you are getting letters, you are not configured properly. I know, for example, if you run Open VPN client without running as ADMIN, it appears to work properly but still maintains your original IP–you must run as ADMIN or configure without using Open VPN client.
On April 15, 2012 CyberSurfer wrote:
I have received TWO, read ‘em TWO, copyright infringement notices while allegedly being protected by BTGuard. BTGuard Support’s first response to problems was a circular argument merely directing me back to their website for answers. They have failed to respond to any other communication since then. Protection for all intents and purposes is non-existent; it frequently disconnected without notice; internet access speed dropped to a crawl; as mentioned, Support SUCKS Bigtime; and charging for protection they fail to provide is asinine. If I could give them less then 1 Star they would get it. I wouldn’t recommend this service to anyone.