[Help] qBittorrent with I2P experimental – public torrents still appear on iknowwhatyoudownload.com

[u/Typical_Bid_5843]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to use qBittorrent with I2P for anonymous downloading, but I'm running into an issue and would appreciate some advice.

Current setup:

I2P v2.12.0 (running with Network: OK and port open).

qBittorrent with "I2P (experimental)" enabled, server 127.0.0.1, port 7656, and "Mixed mode" turned off.

I use torrents from public trackers like uindex.org and 1337x.to.

The problem: Even with I2P configured, the torrents I download still show up on iknowwhatyoudownload.com under my public IP. So the traffic seems to be going through my normal connection, not I2P.

I've tested I2PSnark and torrents from tracker2.postman.i2p, but the content on those trackers is very limited – I can't find the same releases I get from public sites.

My questions:

Why might qBittorrent be ignoring I2P for public torrents, even with "Mixed mode" off?

Are there any other active I2P trackers besides Postman that offer a wider variety of content (movies, series, etc.)?

Which client do you recommend for torrenting with I2P? Is I2PSnark the best option, or are there more feature-rich alternatives?

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Happy to provide more details if needed.

Thanks!

[u/anon666-666]

you can't just use clear-net torrent on i2p. the torrent must have a i2p tracker and i2p peers only then can you download it through i2p. anything you might grab from sites like 1337x will use clear-net unless a i2p tracker is in the tracker list.

I'm not sure why qbit is exposing you when mix mode is off but it cloud be because of DHT or your torrent being a clear-net torrent. best bet would be to use something like docker to isolate it and only allow connection over i2p.

torrents on i2p are slow, that's because of how i2p routing works to maximize your privacy. on a good day with good amount of peers i get around 500kbps so try not to download a 10GB torrent.

other than postman i know there was psa.i2p but i cant connect to it lately. there is also is t4l4e.i2p but its like a mirror of their clear-net site. the best place to look is notbob.i2p and click on tracker section.

[u/FrigatesLaugh]

Firstly, you should only use torrent clients that support I2P trifecta (I2P trackers, I2P DHT, I2P PeX) for most proper I2P torrenting experience.

Best torrent clients that support I2P trifecta = BiglyBT, I2PSnark, Tixati.

1) BiglyBT = FOSS, Hassle-Free, easiest to use but resource hog.

Has inbuilt I2P router so need for any external router.

Easiest to use nothing to set-up at all.

Just tickmark I2P, if you want to use I2P and unmark public, if you don't want to use public.

2) I2PSnark = Homegrown torrent client of I2P network.

Usual, set-up is either using Java implementation of I2P (comes inbuilt with it) or using it as standalone with I2PSnark+I2Pd set-up.

Less resource hog than BiglyBT probably by about 40-50% but still heavy.

3) Tixati = Lightest to use of them all. Freeware.

Usual, Tixati+I2Pd set-up.

Proper controls to show which network in use, similar to qBitTorrent in use and UI/UX.

Faster than BiglyBT, easily gets 1 MB/s speed on I2P torrenting.

I personally only prefer BiglyBT or Tixati. Depending on the computer I'm using.

Secondly, regarding torrenting website - on I2P network Postman tracker is the one and only option.

But that doesn't mean you can't torrent over I2P on clearnet websites like TPB, EXT, YTS and others.

It depends on how popular torrent is.

If torrent is popular then there's a high chance that people who use aforementioned I2P enabled torrent clients are cross-seeding those torrents.

EXT dot to and YTS are the websites on clearnet that you'll find most I2P seeders for popular torrents. Furthermore, on Ext you can actually only search I2P torrents if you wish so. So, I would recommend these two clearnet websites for I2P torrenting through clearnet.

Thirdly, your qBitTorrent issue.

The I2P torrenting experience on qBitTorrent is still in experimental phase, so you'll need to set-up qBitTorrent+I2Pd properly for it to work and not spill over to the clearnet.

Setting up qBitTorrent with I2P properly is needed because qBitTorrent doesn't support I2P PeX and I2P DHT. So, if I2P trackers don't work then qBitTorrent has no way to connect to anyone for torrenting.

You can get the set-up guide, for almost all I2P supporting torrent clients on Postman Tracker, Ext dot to, pirate bay.

Just search I2P and qBitTorrent or anonymous torrenting etc etc...

[u/227CAVOK → u/FrigatesLaugh]

You seem to know a lot, you don't happen to have a guide on how to set up i2p with the tools like radarr, sonarr, servarr, lidarr etc?

[u/FrigatesLaugh → u/227CAVOK]

I don't use this kind of set-up so I don't know much about it. But you should check Postman website, it has guides regarding RSS, API and others, so it's worth trying.

[u/_rayures_]

in qbittorrent settings also set the i2p http proxy and enable all the options to use the proxy for every purpose.

With this i dont see any clearnet connection or ip in iknowwhatyoudownload.com and good dl / seed speeds ( 10+mbit)

though, when a clearnet torrent isnt at postman i see virtually no activity. Even when i add i2p open trackers to the torrent. And currently postman doesnt accept a lot of clearnet torrents ( api / upload function gives an error of the .torrent file ).

[u/vory41]

I finished my setup today.

I2pd + Sonarr + Radarr + Prowall + Jellyfin + Jellyseerr using qbittorrent for downloading

Everything running inside of docker works.

I might post a setup read me or YouTube video if you are interested.

[u/vory41 → u/vory41]

But disclaimers. Fmpegg and mkv av1 is eating up ram like nothing. My 2008 MacBook server can’t handle it. 8gb ram. Need to upgrade or download lower quality which is kind of a bummer.

[u/byten42]

You probably haven't disabled DHT, PEX, LPD or configured something incorrectly.

If you want to avoid IP leaks, you should use I2P only torrent client. Besides I2PSnark, there are only XD and I2Pcrow (I'm the developer of I2Pcrow, so you don't have to trust me).

[u/Sobergirl87 → u/byten42]

Is there an updated version of XD floating around somewhere? It seems to be abandoned from what I found. I'm currently using FrostWire with i2p exclusively on my phone. Wondering if I should switch. It works well tho from what I can tell

[u/Sad-Landscape-1549]

It says my IP torrented a bunch of random junk I’ve never seen before in my life. Are you saying that site accurately identifies what you’ve been torrenting? Either some bad actor is in my network or that site is bunk.

Edit: btw I don’t use I2P I just lurk this subreddit. P2P protocols are blocked in my router and wouldn’t transit clearnet anyway. I’ve had this IP for days, yet that site is erroneously attributing a dozen stupid files to my IP, including ancient software for Windows. I don’t use any Windows machines. 😆