Vertor: a site for “verified” torrents
Vertor is a torrent listings site with a simple premise: only display torrents that are checked to be free of viruses and malware and have been verified to contain the content that they claim. Offers media “previews” on the site such as 20-seconds snippets from audio files and thumbnails from videos.
The concept for this website is so simple I am surprised it hasn’t been done before: check torrents listings for malware, and check that torrents are not fakes. This is the kind of torrent site that you can confidently recommend to friends and family without worrying about them downloading harmful things, being exposed to scams that mis-represent the content being offered, and indeed without them being assaulted with popups and porn ads.
Some observations.
Previews: displays thumbnails from video torrents and 20-second sound snippets from audio files (that can serve the dual purpose of demonstrating that the torrent is real, on the one hand, and providing a preview of the music before you download on the other).- No 100% guarantee: Vertor checks for malware using some sort of virus scanning engine, and although they do not suggest 100% verified and virus free torrents, they are working on it and ask for user feedback. I’ve downloaded a number of things off the site (just to test, you see) and all were good.
- New listings: seem to be somewhat delayed compared to other sites. I am assuming that this is because of the need to check them out and verify them? I know this because on Saturday mornings I am usually able to find and download the torrent for a show that airs the previous night at 8 EST. However, my torrent did NOT get listed on Vertor for a good 24 hours after it showed up elsewhere.
The verdict: I love it. Keeping my fingers crossed that these guys succeed (and stick around).
Visit Vertor.
One thing I’ve notice for a while now is this note on the page:
” We have discovered our anti-virus software was not dependable enough, so we’re changing it to a more reliable one on 30.12.2008. Therefore we can not give you a 100% guarantee that all torrents are virus-free. ”
That has been there for a while now. I still like the idea of this site and have used it…so far so good
All torrent sites of this kind try to be clean and honest at the beggining, it will not take them long to change their good intensions to common state of affairs on this field.
I tried this site a couple of weeks ago. Three out of three torrents I downloaded required a password to open. Needless to say, I deleted the downloads and deleted this site from my bookmarks.
@rrodh: When you say password protected, do you mean in an encrypted archive (like zip or rar)? I try to avoid downloading zips/rars for that very reason (you can see a file listing before downloading).
I downloaded a torrent from this site yesterday, and there was a virus in it. It’s the first time it has happened!.i’ve been downloading from Vertor for quite some time now, but had never met with a malicious torrent
@Dibyajyoti Deb: Did you actually have a virus, or did your AV report one? If you’ve downloaded something like a software patcher, a lot of AV will report that it contains a trojan. This is due to the fact that the patchers contain a lot of the same code as trojans because that’s what they do: they patch legitimate software to spread. If what you downloaded contains a crack, and the crack is what’s being reported as a virus it’s a good chance it’s not a virus. What I do is I have a VM setup with just a pristine instance of XP on it. I install the software there and THEN check it for viruses (after cracking, of course).
In my experience any site that requires membership is usually a way to guarantee that the torrents are clean and what they claim to be. All this site is doing is slapping this on the front page as a ’sales’ gimmick.
Viruses and fake files are mainly found on public sites like PirateBay, Demonoid and Mininova because if you upload fakes to a members only site your account is closed quickly.
I think some of you guys miss the point …
The idea is not that this site can guarantee 100% password and malware free torrents, but that it actively STRIVES to achieve this.
This means that while there is ALWAYS a risk involved in downloading torrents, the liklihood of this happening with this site is lower (in terms of sheer numerical probability).
@Carbonize: this is a public site. I have been using it for a while without any registration whatsoever.
@Samer – Ok I didn’t check to see if it was public or not. To be honest I can’t remember the last time I downloaded a fake but then I tend to stick with trusted uploaders on Demonoid and Mininova.
The last two private trackers (EliteTorrents and AradiTracker) I was a member of were excellent sites but both got shut down in the end.
@all : Here the same fact arises that most of the torrents are user created and the database is so huge that guaranteeing clean downloads is next to impossible because most of the torrent getting downloaded belongs to patch,cracks etc. category.
Vertor moved a step ahead to manually check them and upload,they should be appreciated.Every site indexes such torrents that proved to be fake or virus loaded.Little glimpse of comment section in torrent site will help you to judge the authenticity of torrent.To get all clean downloads what site needs is “TIME”.
it’s been a long time not downloading torrent.. i’d rather download from rapid*hare