There are new words and expressions showing up in the tech-world every single day. A few years ago, nobody spoke or wrote about a Seedbox, but in 2019, this is a very popular service and word online. But, what is a seedbox, and do you need a VPN when using one?
According to the Wikipedia definition, a Seedbox is “is a remote server hosted in a high-bandwidth data center used for the safe uploading and downloading of digital files. These bandwidths range from 100Mbit/s to 10Gbit/s. After the seedbox has acquired a file from a P2P network, persons with access to the seedbox can download the file to their personal computers anonymously. “
Often Encyclopedia explanations can be hard to understand for the man in the street, so let me explain to you a bit easier what a Seedbox really is.
What is a Seedbox?
Imagine that you want to grab some groceries from the local grocery store. You have no trouble doing so, and you feel happy doing it. Everyone visiting the grocery store can see who you are and they can easily track you down based on your appearance.
The problem is, however, that you are afraid that someone will hunt you down as they see all the groceries you buy in the store. You need the groceries, but what can you do to protect yourself?
You hire a person who will do the shopping for you. He goes to the store, purchase the goods, and then takes them back to his own place (and you are the only one to have the key to this place). Now you can go to this place and pick them up, and nobody will know that the groceries were originally bought for you.
That was a lame explanation of what a Seedbox is…
Didn’t you like the explanation I just made? Maybe you didn’t, but it explains a little bit of what a Seedbox is all about. It is about letting a third-part take care of the your torrenting files, both uploading and downloading them. Later, you can pick up the content from the third-party whenever you feel like, and you will in no way be connected directly to the download itself.
You get the point, don’t you?
How much does a Seedbox cost?
There are all sorts of Seedbox services available online, and you can pick and select from a wide specter. Here you can find an example of the prices available at seedbox.io, one of the most famous and popular Seedbox services online.
Here you can see the prices available at their service right now. The cheapest package will cost you 5 Euro per month. This will give you access to a 100Mbit Internet connection, a maximum of 8 users per drive (which means that others will use the same server connection), and you can also see that you will have access to both Torrent usage and FTP and Web Access. But, the most important about this package is that it supports 300 GB of data. That might sound like a lot, but if you plan on doing a lot of uploading and downloading, this will quite easily be used. However, if you just want to download a movie or two, this will be more than enough.
The most important things to pay attention to when signing up for a Seedbox is account is the amount of bandwidth you can use, the max users per drive, and also the speed of the connection you will have. If it is important for you to be 100% private and have your own IP address (not shared with anyone else); and just a crazy amount of bandwidth available, you will have to go for the most expensive package.
Do I need a VPN when using Seedbox?
You have heard that it is recommended to use a VPN when doing Torrent activity online. But, if you use a Seedbox, will you no longer be in need of a VPN subscription? I cannot give a 100% answer, but you are for sure much better out using a Sandbox than nothing at all. Your traffic cannot be directly traced back to you as you use a Seedbox, and what you do online will not be registered as Torrent activity, after all, you only download and upload files to the server (which does all the Torrent activity instead of you). For that reason, you will not raise suspicion among your ISP and other people spying on you.
But, if it is really important that nobody gets to know about what you are doing online, you better use a VPN still. After all, if you download something from the server that you do not want the ISP to know anything about, a VPN will help you stay safe. They might not know that the file you just downloaded came from a Torrent site somewhere, but they are still interesting in finding out if what you are downloading is something illegal. In other words, a VPN might still be useful! But, do not download illegal stuff that you would get in jail for! 🙂
Can I use a VPN instead of Seedbox?
If you plan on downloading Torrent files, you might wonder if you need to use a Seedbox if you have a VPN subscription in the first place. That is yet another brilliant question, and for most people, the answer would be NO! If you have a VPN, simply activate it, and you can easily and safely download and upload Torrent content throughout the day. You still need to be careful with what you actually download, because it might be infected and add malware and Trojan horses on your system, but the VPN will help you hide your activities from your ISP and other curious organs.
When you use a VPN, all they will see is that encrypted traffic is happening, but they have no way of actually reading and seeing what you are doing.
In other words, if you have a VPN already, you will most likely not need to use a Seedbox service. If you have a Seedbox service, you might still want to use a VPN if you want to be 100% safe, even though it is most likely not needed.
Are you using a Seedbox service? Are you satisfied?
I would love to hear your thoughts about different Seedbox services. If you want to read more about different VPN services, make sure to read our VPN reviews here in the IP Address Guide.
