Safety of Peer Guardian

[Thrust]

Anyone use Peer Guardian to blocked "unwanted" IPs from snooping your P2P downloads? For those of you who download how effective do you think programs, such as these, are at protecting your anonimity? Also, anyone use newsgroups for d/l's? I'm thinking of signing up to giganews so I can d/l direct and avoid the hassle (?).

Mods...If there is anything wrong with discussion of this topic please delete. I checked the rules and saw nothing where this type of general discussion would be in violation.

[audiophile]

I use both Giganews and PG.

I would think peer guardian is quite effective cause you can even have it block banner ad IPs, such that when you browse the web, all ads on pages come up as blank spots. So it definitely works.

But that also requires unwanted IPs be known, and no reason that snooping could not be done from an unknown IP threat range.

Giganews/etc (the Usenet) is ideal. Altho you have MB limit and monthly cost. Lack of search/indexing and needing more manual effort. Usenet has much more variety too. Instant top speed, no slow start, needing seeds, no uploading etc. Plus much more including discussion boards for every topic one can imagine. More viral opportunities as well I would say hehe downsides...

I'm a gambling man, been at it for 10 yrs+ no issue, yet lol
Best opinion is to consider torrents a gamble, like any drug user/consumer they may make effort to be 100% safe, but not immune given the right alignment of planets.

I haven't even been using my usenet access lately cause im lazy and click the torrent. If you choose to use gignews, feel free to sign up under referral so i can score a free month lol http://www.giganews.com/?c=gn68360

[Thrust]

Yeah, that's the only problem w/ PG ("known" IPs). I'm a bit of a newb on Usenet stuff. Do you have to have a seperate program installed to act as a "reader" or is it similar to bulletin boards such as this one?

Regarding binaries, how do you search for them? Or, are they posted in specific areas you access?

I'll definetly use your referal if I decide to sign up.

I use both Giganews and PG.

I would think peer guardian is quite effective cause you can even have it block banner ad IPs, such that when you browse the web, all ads on pages come up as blank spots. So it definitely works.

But that also requires unwanted IPs be known, and no reason that snooping could not be done from an unknown IP threat range.

Giganews/etc (the Usenet) is ideal. Altho you have MB limit and monthly cost. Lack of search/indexing and needing more manual effort. Usenet has much more variety too. Instant top speed, no slow start, needing seeds, no uploading etc. Plus much more including discussion boards for every topic one can imagine. More viral opportunities as well I would say hehe downsides...

I'm a gambling man, been at it for 10 yrs+ no issue, yet lol
Best opinion is to consider torrents a gamble, like any drug user/consumer they may make effort to be 100% safe, but not immune given the right alignment of planets.

I haven't even been using my usenet access lately cause im lazy and click the torrent. If you choose to use gignews, feel free to sign up under referral so i can score a free month lol http://www.giganews.com/?c=gn68360