Using an old laptop for piracy
Hello people I recently acquired an old(er) laptop through my workplace. I was initially planning on running a Pi-hole on it but after installing it I noticed that my router is causing issues with the Pi-hole so I gave up on that idea.
Now if I were to decide on dedicating it for piracy, would I be able to do anything that isn't viable on a general use PC that would make it less likely for these piracy activities to have legal and/or financial ramifications on me? Or would it be no different than using the PC I use for my everyday stuff?
Dedicating a separate machine to piracy is a good idea.
For one, it can be always on and get you much better seed ratios.
It is also much more malware secure. As long as you back up any content on it regularly you can open everything you download on that pc first to see if it's legit. If it ends up infecting it badly you can just wipe the OS and start over without worrying about losing your main pc.
Also, legally, it is much easier to set up a VPN for the entire PC that ensures your ISP can't see your "gray" traffic, without impacting your normal computer experience (vpn's have bad latency) or having any accidental leaks (turn off vpn to play a game, forget torrent client open, bam you have 5 new DMCA cease and desist letters in your mailbox). It's just generally safer to compartmentalize.
I was wondering about something similar, like setting up a VM for it. Doesn't really fulfill the "always on" thingy, but regarding malware etc. this should be safe, no?
Yeah. As long as you don't make any alterations to the VM like sharing drives for example. If you had enough storage you could also make snapshots on occasion so you have a back up in the event of malware but you wouldn't likely get malware unless you are opening the files on that VM
Yes, a VM is good for sandboxing too. It's still not perfectly safe as an airgapped separate machine, things can leak out of memory/network adapters, and depending on the specs of your main PC it could lead to some performance issues. But it's a literally free first step and a great improvement.
My suggestion would be to install Ubuntu server (or another distro) and use it for sonarr, radarr and other *arr apps. I do the same with a old laptop connected to a nas for storage
Edit: look for the trash guides for more information and help setting it all up
Hey, thanks for the answer! Could you explain briefly what sonarr or radarr does? Also if you don't mind it, could you tell me which programs/practices I should be following if I were to go through with this plan no matter how obvious it is. I am no stranger to this stuff but I can't really say I have a broad understanding of it.
Sonarr will monitor a tv show for you, then automatically download it (through linked torrent or Usenet) once available.
Radarr is the same for movie, Lidarr for music, and other arr for other media.
Basically it removes the need for the user to watch for when downloads are ready and click them.
As mentioned, you need to pair your Arrs with a downloader, then optionally with a media server, like Plex, jellyfin, or Emby. The servers function like any streaming services front-end for your client. These media servers can also be paired with overseerr/jellyseerr to help you find new shows/movies to watch based or your history.
Power consumption wise wouldn't a laptop be expensive to run as a server compared to other options?
Compared to what options options?
PC desktop? Usually about 25% less power.
Commercial equipment? Home users are normally using older equipment that sucks a lot of power.
NUC? Laptop is probably more power.
Generally speaking the "newness" of any given hardware is the key factor in power to performance ratios (such to say a newer chip will generally be more energy efficient than and older one, per calculation performed)
The main benefits is that is a separate pc that you can keep always online downloading/seeding or whatever completely independent of your main one.
Plus since is a laptop it has a battery and if electricity goes down will keep working for a while without needing an UPS. And maybe since it's a laptop it might be more efficient so energy saving, although probably less performance.
The legal stuff not much a difference, well you can destroy it without destroying the main one if the need arises, or encrypt it if your main one isn't but... I am not a lawyer neither HackerMan. But in any case it wouldn't effect much on the piracy case... specially if you are on the downloading side, if you are going to upload lot of content (not just deeding, but like the main uploader) that's another story....