The Best Blocklists To Use When Torrenting

A blocklist is simply a list of IP addresses to block when torrenting. Typically, these lists consist of the IP addresses of known snoopers or malware providers.

Most of the good BitTorrent clients support blocklists – for example, Transmission or uTorrent.

Where To Find Blocklists

Bitsurge Blocklist

The Bitsurge list is a list of “anti-torrent” groups. It was created for the Transmission torrent client, but it can be used with any compatible client.

I-Blocklists

I-Blocklist has a good selection of blocklists, but many are now “subscriber-only” ($10 / year).

The “dbl.oisd.nl” Blocklist

The list was found on Reddit. It is intended to block Ads, Mobile Ads, Phishing, Malvertising, Malware, Spyware, Ransomware, CryptoJacking.

It is my take on creating/maintaining “The Best Blocklist”.

You should not have to whitelist things. It’s that good.

Note: This blocklist is a domain blocklist and should never be used as the only list in an adblocker that uses Adblock rules (such as uBlock Origin).Blocks ✋

Blocklist	Description	Use with	Download
Main list	Domain name list	Pi-hole, (Blokada users; use mobile hosts version below, because of this.)	1 2 3 4 5
Main list (hosts-format)	Identical, but prefixed with “0.0.0.0” Some software needs the list to be in this “hosts-file”-format	WARNING: Using it directly as your OS’s host file might cause problems due to its size!	1 2 3 4 5
Main list (ABP format)	Identical, but in Adblock plus format	Adguard Home RECOMMENDED!	1 2 3 4 5
Mobile (wildcards)	Handpicked mobile/android/iOS lists, combined with some great other lists. This focuses primarily on mobile ads/malware.	Adguard Pro iOS, [software that also blocks all subdomains of the listed entries, hence; ‘wildcards’]	1 2 3 4 5
Mobile hosts (non-wildcards)	Identical to the previous, but in “hosts-format” and for use with software that doesn’t support wildcard blocking	Blokada, AdAway	1 2 3 4 5

1 = Main server. Mirrors; 2 & 3 by DurableNapkin, 4 & 5 by okz5289

Notes:

• The mobile lists are a subset of the main list. The main list already contains all domains the mobile list has.

1. Pi-hole users should check out Adguard Home instead. (Supports: CNAME blocking / Adblock-style blocklists and my personal reason why I switched: blocks all subdomains (to blocked domains) by default!! Pi-hole needs every damn subdomain listed separately; inefficiënt, insecure!)
2. Keep default lists enabled. If you (for whatever reason) decide you don’t like them, you can always disable them later.
3. Use the uBlock Origin browser add-on. I recommend using it next to a network-wide DNS blocker (such as Pi-hole or Adguard Home). (uBlock Origin Blocks youtube ads, hides ad placeholders, etc.)
4. Youtube app ads, you say? Mobile (Android) users: Check out Vanced or Newpipe

Using Multiple Blocklists

Adding multiple blocklists to Transmission is tricky. Here’s how to do it:

1. Copy the URL of the blocklist
2. Open transmission -> preferences -> peers
3. Paste the URL into the URL bar and click “update” (the download should be visible)
4. On the mac finder bar (no program selected) click on “go” -> “go to folder”
5. Enter ” ~/Library/Application Support/Transmission
6. Select the blocklist folder *(notice that there is only one “blocklist.bin” folder? That is the blocklist of the current URL that you pasted into Transmission. Transmission will always make this file the generic URL updated .bin file) You don’t want that unless you plan on just having one blocklist.
7. Click and drag the blocklist out of the folder and onto your desktop! Rename it “(any name) blocklist.bin”
8. Rinse and repeat for the other blocklist URLs you wish to use from the site. (i used 6) And also, whenever you finish with however many URLs you use, close Transmission before going to step 9.
9. After you have done this for your desired blocklists (making sure each has a different name before the affix “-blocklist.bin”, then go back to the blocklist folder (steps 4 & 5)
10. Click and drag each renamed ” -blocklist.bin” file (on ur desktop) back into the folder.
11. Open up Transmission, select “window” -> “message log” (click on the bottom left of that window and select “info” instead of “error” or “debug” and look at the status of your peer block list. It should say on the right-hand side: peer blacklist “level 1blocklist.bin” has 213046 inquiries (IP addresses) and so on for the other blocklists you may have added