How to correctly burn XGD3 games

Hello, I will be showing you how to make successful quality burns with an ihas b burner for XGD3 games. This is the safest and most secure method for playing backups/pirated games on your flashed console for Xbox Live. (but remember, nothing is 100% safe or risk free when using a flashed console on Live!)

*Note All text and pictures were created by me from scratch. If you wish to copy or use any of my TUT, you do not need my permission, but please give me credit.


Before I actually show you the steps on what to do, I believe having an understanding of what you are doing is important.

What is XGD3? It stands for Xbox Game Disc 3 which started rolling out onto retail Xbox 360 games about a year +ago. Compared to an XGD2, the game partition was increased by 1GB. This was meant to help developers with the increased memory for new games but also to combat piracy. The full iso of an XGD3 game now exceeded the 8.5GB limit on typical DVD DL discs.

This led to the truncate burning method. This involved pretty much burning the game as you would an XGD2. Only difference is that you just write till you ran out of room and then discarded the remaining data. The reason why this method would work is because the discarded data (around 200MB) did not contain any of the game data and was only just random padding and security checks.

Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how unsafe and unreliable the truncate method is. This is where the great C4E comes along and creates his awesome burner max fw for Lite-On ihas b burners. The new fw unlocks the DVD DL discs from 8.5 to 8.7GB and allowing a full burn of an XGD3 image. The only downside to this is that you are pushing the discs past their designed capacity. This then leads to worrying about getting a proper quality burn.

Correct settings for getting quality burns can vary greatly for each person. The settings I will be telling you to choose in this TUT will be ones that seem to have worked the best for most people. You can tweak them through trial and error later for better results. The reason why settings vary is because of all the variables that exist (many different computer configurations, quality of burner chipset, quality of lasers, etc.). These variables exist because we go past the design capacity of the disc.

Things you need
- Image file of game (.iso) already properly stealth patched through ABGX (make sure autofix is set to lvl 3)
- DVD+R DL disc (highly recommended to choose verbatims)
- Lite-On ihas b burner flashed with burner max fw
- Imgburn
- Kprobe2

Why verbatims? Because they are high-grade quality discs (considered the best from tests), and since you’re pushing the discs past what they were intended, you’re going to need them. Better quality burns means less chance of errors and less work for your laser. There is no real reason not to use them. So I’m going to be assuming you are using verbs for this TUT. Also if possible try and get ones that are made in Singapore (this helps ensure high-grade quality).

Alright enough reading paragraphs; let’s get burning!

1) Put your blank DVD+R DL disc (should be a verbatim) into the burner and open Imgburn (ensure you have latest version). Now choose “Write image file to disc”

2) Find out which type of verbatim disc you have by looking at the box on the right. Beside MID it will either say mkm001 or mkm003. Remember which one you have. Also ensure you flashed your ihas burner correctly by seeing that 8.7GB is free on the disc.



3) Now let’s change the settings to the default settings for burning XGD3 games (settings that people have the most successful quality burns). Click advanced settings near the lower right corner.


Next choose the Lite-On tab. Now enable all except OverSpeed and clear OPC history. Be sure to click the change button above the OK for it to take effect.


*Note you could have already chosen these settings in the EEPROM utility when you were flashing your ihas burner. It does not matter which one you use to enable them. But if you want to disable them, make sure they are both disabled in Imgburn and the EEPROM utility.

4) Now go to Tools -> Settings -> Write. Disable Burn-Proof and make sure layer break is set to Calculate Optimal. For Preform OPC, check it for mkm003 discs and uncheck it for mkm001.


5) Almost done with settings! Now click on the I/O tab -> Page 2. Set the buffer size to 512MB


6) Now it’s time to burn! Click browse file under Source and select the .dvd file. (if you do not have one for some reason, just open notepad and save as .dvd but abgx should have at least created one for you if you ran your iso through it). Also make sure the iso is in the same folder as your .dvd



7) Now select your write speed. For mkm001 choose x2.4. For mkm003 choose x4. Now before you click burn, try to minimize the use of your computer resources as much as you can (close everything that you do not need at this time, browser, Skype, anti virus, etc. You can use the task manager processes tab to help, but make sure you know exactly what processes you are ending). Do not do anything while the game burns. This will help a lot in making sure you get a good quality burn.

Now click burn! Go make a snack or something while it burns.
There is no need to verify in Imgburn as it will tell you nothing useful. We will check our burn with kprobe2.


Checking Burn Quality 
Open up kprobe2. Leave all the default settings alone and only change the speed to 4x. Start the test and do what you did with Imgburn by closing all applications and not starting any new ones while the test is being done.
A good quality burn is one where PI max is less than 100 and PI avg is less than 5. PIF max less than 4 and PIF avg less than .20 (remember this is just a guideline, it is up to you to make the call if you think it is a good enough burn.)
Once test finishes, you should get something similar to this.


This is my burn with the same settings in the TUT (I can get a little better results with disabling SmartBurn and enabling BurnProof). Getting spikes at layerbreak is pretty common. As you can see my PI turned out very nice, but my PIF spiked to 5. Does this mean my burn was bad and the game will not play well? Not at all, games can still play pretty smoothly with poor quality burns(unless weak laser) but will fail any CIV (content integrity verification) checks or possibly any other hidden security checks.


In my case, this disc will most likely work fine, as it almost meets the guidelines of a good burn, and should pass any CIV or other checks.


Hopefully your burn came back with good results from the settings chosen in the TUT. Don’t freak out if it didn’t, as this is pretty common. You will have to play around with the settings to try and find what works best for you but be prepared for a lot of coasters! 


Tips and Tricks for ensuring good burns
- Make sure the iso is on your local hdd and not on some portable device.
- Reduce as many applications running on your comp. (you can use tsk mng to help with this)
- defrag hdd
- Burn in safe mode
- using a sata connection
- dont let your computer go to sleep/screensaver while waiting for burn

Tips and Tricks when getting poor burns
- Try burning mkm003 at x2.4 or mkm001 at x4
- turning on or off OPC
- clearing OPC cache
- Play around enabling and disabling force/online hypertuning, OverSpeed, and SmartBurn in imgburn and/or EEPROM utility
- Changing buffer size, en/disabling buffer recovery.
- try different media

**If you still have trouble getting good results and have tried almost all these settings to no avail then feel free to post a listing of all the settings you tried as well as roughly what the results were. More details the better. Then hopefully we can determine the problem from there.

Getting read errors with very good burn results
- Replace laser (they sell for cheap)
- Pot tweaking you xbox dvd drive (adjusting the laser) You require a multi meter and a small screwdriver. You simply measure and reduce the resistance in your laser, giving it more power to read games. There’s a good guide posted by Ubergeek on Team Xecuter you can follow, it is pretty simple.


Thanks and I hope you enjoyed my TUT.
Feel free to post questions and/or any constructive criticism about it
http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/threads/tut-how-to-correctly-burn-xgd3-games.798973/

How can I stop being prompted to unlock the 'default' keyring on boot?

henever Ubuntu boots up, a dialogue pops up asking me to unlock my default keyring.

Is there some way this can unlock automatically through PAM or some other magical way?

Be warned that this will make your keyring accessible without a password. Period. You don't have to be logged in to view it

With that being said,

I think the simplest way is to set the password for the keyring to an empty password -- you will not be prompted for a password then:

1. Open Applications -> Accessories -> Password and Encryption Keys
2. Right-click on the "login" keyring
3. Select "Change password"
4. Enter your old password and leave the new password blank
5. Press ok, read the security warning, think about it and if you still want to get rid of this dialog, choose "use unsafe storage".

Again, as the message says: This will expose all your passwords (e.g. email passwords) that you chose to save in the default keyring to anyone using your computer or having access to your files and is therefore not recommended.

Addendum for Ubuntu 11.04:

• In the default Unity session, you can start the application by clicking on the Ubuntu logo in the top left corner, then typing Password, and selecting Password and Encryption Keysfrom the search result.
• In the classic session the path to start the application has changed to System → Preferences → Password and Encryption Keys

Addendum for Ubuntu 11.10:

• In the default Unity session, you can start the application by clicking on the Ubuntu launcher (the first item) in the Unity launcher bar on the left side, then typing Password, and selecting Password and Encryption Keys from the search result.
• In the classic session (from the gnome-session-fallback package) the path to start the application has again changed to Applications → Other → Password and Encryption Keys

Compiling and installing software from source in Linux

< The procedure >

The installation procedure for software that comes in tar.gz and tar.bz2 packages isn't always the same, but usually it's like this:

# tar xvzf package.tar.gz (or tar xvjf package.tar.bz2)
# cd package
# ./configure
# make
# make install

If you're lucky, by issuing these simple commands you unpack, configure, compile, and install the software package and you don't even have to know what you're doing. However, it's healthy to take a closer look at the installation procedure and see what these steps mean.

< Step 1. Unpacking >

Maybe you've already noticed that the package containing the source code of the program has a tar.gz or a tar.bz2 extension. This means that the package is a compressed tar archive, also known as a tarball. When making the package, the source code and the other needed files were piled together in a single tar archive, hence the tar extension. After piling them all together in the tar archive, the archive was compressed with gzip, hence the gz extension.
Some people want to compress the tar archive with bzip2 instead of gzip. In these cases the package has a tar.bz2 extension. You install these packages exactly the same way as tar.gz packages, but you use a bit different command when unpacking.
It doesn't matter where you put the tarballs you download from the internet but I suggest creating a special directory for downloaded tarballs. In this tutorial I assume you keep tarballs in a directory called dls that you've created under your home directory. However, the dls directory is just an example. You can put your downloaded tar.gz or tar.bz2 software packages into any directory you want. In this example I assume your username is me and you've downloaded a package called pkg.tar.gz into the dls directory you've created (/home/me/dls).
Ok, finally on to unpacking the tarball. After downloading the package, you unpack it with this command:

me@puter: ~/dls$ tar xvzf pkg.tar.gz

As you can see, you use the tar command with the appropriate options (xvzf) for unpacking the tarball. If you have a package withtar.bz2 extension instead, you must tell tar that this isn't a gzipped tar archive. You do so by using the j option instead of z, like this:

me@puter: ~/dls$ tar xvjf pkg.tar.bz2

What happens after unpacking, depends on the package, but in most cases a directory with the package's name is created. The newly created directory goes under the directory where you are right now. To be sure, you can give the ls command:

me@puter: ~/dls$ ls
pkg pkg.tar.gz
me@puter: ~/dls$

In our example unpacking our package pkg.tar.gz did what expected and created a directory with the package's name. Now you mustcd into that newly created directory:

me@puter: ~/dls$ cd pkg
me@puter: ~/dls/pkg$

Read any documentation you find in this directory, like README or INSTALL files, before continuing!

< Step 2. Configuring >

Now, after we've changed into the package's directory (and done a little RTFM'ing), it's time to configure the package. Usually, but not always (that's why you need to check out the README and INSTALL files) it's done by running the configure script.
You run the script with this command:

me@puter: ~/dls/pkg$ ./configure

When you run the configure script, you don't actually compile anything yet. configure just checks your system and assigns values for system-dependent variables. These values are used for generating a Makefile. The Makefile in turn is used for generating the actual binary.
When you run the configure script, you'll see a bunch of weird messages scrolling on your screen. This is normal and you shouldn't worry about it. If configure finds an error, it complains about it and exits. However, if everything works like it should, configuredoesn't complain about anything, exits, and shuts up.
If configure exited without errors, it's time to move on to the next step.

< Step 3. Building >

It's finally time to actually build the binary, the executable program, from the source code. This is done by running the makecommand:

me@puter: ~/dls/pkg$ make

Note that make needs the Makefile for building the program. Otherwise it doesn't know what to do. This is why it's so important to run the configure script successfully, or generate the Makefile some other way.
When you run make, you'll see again a bunch of strange messages filling your screen. This is also perfectly normal and nothing you should worry about. This step may take some time, depending on how big the program is and how fast your computer is. If you're doing this on an old dementic rig with a snail processor, go grab yourself some coffee. At this point I usually lose my patience completely.
If all goes as it should, your executable is finished and ready to run after make has done its job. Now, the final step is to install the program.

< Step 4. Installing >

Now it's finally time to install the program. When doing this you must be root. If you've done things as a normal user, you can become root with the su command. It'll ask you the root password and then you're ready for the final step!

me@puter: ~/dls/pkg$ su
Password:
root@puter: /home/me/dls/pkg#

Now when you're root, you can install the program with the make install command:

root@puter: /home/me/dls/pkg# make install

Again, you'll get some weird messages scrolling on the screen. After it's stopped, congrats: you've installed the software and you're ready to run it!
Because in this example we didn't change the behavior of the configure script, the program was installed in the default place. In many cases it's /usr/local/bin. If /usr/local/bin (or whatever place your program was installed in) is already in your PATH, you can just run the program by typing its name.
And one more thing: if you became root with su, you'd better get back your normal user privileges before you do something stupid. Type exit to become a normal user again:

root@puter: /home/me/dls/pkg# exit
exit
me@puter: ~/dls/pkg$

< Cleaning up the mess >

I bet you want to save some disk space. If this is the case, you'll want to get rid of some files you don't need. When you ran make it created all sorts of files that were needed during the build process but are useless now and are just taking up disk space. This is why you'll want to make clean:

me@puter: ~/dls/pkg$ make clean

However, make sure you keep your Makefile. It's needed if you later decide to uninstall the program and want to do it as painlessly as possible!

< Uninstalling >

So, you decided you didn't like the program after all? Uninstalling the programs you've compiled yourself isn't as easy as uninstalling programs you've installed with a package manager, like rpm.
If you want to uninstall the software you've compiled yourself, do the obvious: do some old-fashioned RTFM'ig. Read the documentation that came with your software package and see if it says anything about uninstalling. If it doesn't, you can start pulling your hair out.
If you didn't delete your Makefile, you may be able to remove the program by doing a make uninstall:

root@puter: /home/me/dls/pkg# make uninstall

If you see weird text scrolling on your screen (but at this point you've probably got used to weird text filling the screen? :-) that's a good sign. If make starts complaining at you, that's a bad sign. Then you'll have to remove the program files manually.
If you know where the program was installed, you'll have to manually delete the installed files or the directory where your program is. If you have no idea where all the files are, you'll have to read the Makefile and see where all the files got installed, and then delete them.

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/softinstall.html

Free .DAA to .ISO Converter GUI daa2iso

I Tried to figure out how to mount a .DAA file. I was pointed to a free DAA-to-ISO converter by Luigi Auriemna. It’s a nice tool, and has its own GUI that replaces its previous command-line only exe.

Features

Converter Features (by Luigi Auriemna)

• Converts DAA archives to ISO files. You can then burn the ISO file to a CD or DVD with one of the many freeware tools (e.g. ImgBurn) or whatever. Nearly 100% of CD/DVD software support the ISO format.
• Supports multipart DAA files.

• Takes care of all the command-line stuff.
• Simple Windows interface 
• Doesn’t require installation – just extract the .zip file somewhere and run daa2iso.exe

Download DAA to ISO converter

Download :  daa2iso.zip from this page.

Scrap.tf - Automated TF2 bots that scrap bank and trade items

Scrap.tf is a website that you can log in with steam to scrap bank items quickly through the many trade bots that the site offers. You can get in a queue to scrap-bank your weapons and it doesn't matter what class each weapon is, just how many you trade. You can trade up to 200 items at once, giving you about 8 refined metal for all of those items. It is a good resource for idlers with TF2idle accounts to scrap all of their dropped weapons for a given week, or weeks if necessary.



Scrap.tf also has other trade bots that can bank items or even sell you items. There are hat trading bots, item trading bots, and even key trading bots. Keys can be bought for 4.44 refined as of right now. You could then use those keys to buy items from the item banking bot, which offers earbuds (buds), max's severed heads, and bills, among other things.

Good luck fellow TF2ers.

Kill a Process by Process Name from Ubuntu Command Line

There are a number of ways to kill a process if you know the name of the process. Here’s a couple different ways you can accomplish this. We are going to assume that the process we are trying to kill is named irssi

kill $(pgrep irssi)

killall -v irssi

pkill irssi

kill `ps -ef | grep irssi | grep -v grep | awk ‘{print $2}’`

These techniques can be useful in shell scripts, where you wouldn't know the process ID and would need to restart or kill a process.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/kill-a-process-by-process-name-from-ubuntu-command-line/

RPi VNC Server

What does it do?

Sometimes it is not convenient to work directly on the Raspberry Pi. Maybe you would like to work on it but from another computer by remote control. You can do this and the remote computer can even be anywhere in the world over the internet. This tutorial shows how you can view and control the raspberry pi desktop from your computer's desktop by using special software.

What do you need?

• A Raspberry Pi
• A boot SD card for the Raspberry Pi
• A network connection (Ethernet or WiFi)
• Special software on both the Raspberry Pi and the remote, controlling computer

What skill level is required?

This project does not require any coding or compilation. Very basic Linux and networking knowledge would be useful, but not essential.

You need to...

• Install software
• Enter basic Linux commands
• Use standard software tools (Windows/Linux/Mac) to add software to your PC
• Connect computers using ethernet cables

How does it work?

The commands described below start a "virtual" graphical session. Instead of using a hardware framebuffer, this uses RAM for a framebuffer. It also opens a network channel or port that allows programs on other computers (if they provide the password) to show the framebuffer and provide mouse and keyboard events.

This way you can run a desktop session on the raspberry pi, but display and control it elsewhere.

Because the framebuffer isn't the real framebuffer you cannot take advantage of the GPU to accelerate operations on the screen.

Overview of this project

You need to

• Install VNC (Virtual Network Computing) server software on the Raspberry Pi
• Start the VNC server software
• Install a VNC client on another computer
• Connect over a network from your computer to the Raspberry Pi

Instructions

Log in to your Pi and install the Tight VNC Package

$ sudo apt-get install tightvncserver

Next Run TightVNC Server which will prompt you to enter a Password and an optional View Only Password

$ tightvncserver

Once that is done you can start a VNC server from the shell prompt. This example starts a session on VNC display zero (:0) with full HD resolution:

$ vncserver :0 -geometry 1920x1080 -depth 24

(If fonts appear the wrong size, add '-dpi 96' to the end.) Or you could create a script to save typing in the whole thing.

$ nano svnc.sh (call the file whatever you like)

Add the lines:

#!/bin/sh
vncserver :0 -geometry 1920x1080 -depth 24 -dpi 96

Ctrl-x y <return> (To Exit Nano and Save)

Set the file to Execute

$ chmod +x svnc.sh

then to run

$ ./svnc.sh

Run at boot.

Start a root session

sudo bash

Create a file in /etc/init.d with a suitable name such as vncboot with the following content.

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: vncboot
# Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start VNC Server at boot time
# Description: Start VNC Server at boot time.
### END INIT INFO

#! /bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/vncboot

USER=root
HOME=/root

export USER HOME

case "$1" in
 start)
   echo "Starting VNC Server"
   #Insert your favoured settings for a VNC session
   /usr/bin/vncserver :0 -geometry 1280x800 -depth 16 -pixelformat rgb565
   ;;

 stop)
   echo "Stopping VNC Server"
   /usr/bin/vncserver -kill :0
   ;;

 *)
   echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/vncboot {start|stop}"
   exit 1
   ;;
esac

exit 0

Modify the file permissions so it can be executed

chmod 755 /etc/init.d/vncboot

Enable dependency based boot sequencing

update-rc.d /etc/init.d/vncboot defaults

If enabling dependency based boot sequencing was successful, it says

 update-rc.d: using dependency based boot sequencing

But if it says

update-rc.d: error: unable to read /etc/init.d//etc/init.d/vncboot

then try the following command

update-rc.d vncboot defaults

Reboot your Raspberry PI and you should find a vncserver already started.

Install Tight VNC on your desktop from the link below or most VNC clients work I believe.

http://www.tightvnc.com/download.php

Or install it using your package manager. The following works on my ubuntu 11.10 workstation

sudo apt-get install xtightvncviewer

Then use <Your Pi IP>:1 (e.g. 192.168.1.2:1) as the host name when connecting.^[1]

Works Great, select full screen from the tool bar and a full 1080p 24bit desktop is yours from anywhere.

1. ↑ You can put your raspberry pi in /etc/hosts on Linux systems. I think you can make such a file on windows too. Then you can refer to your raspberry pi as "rpi" or whatever you called it.

Getting VNC Server to Work on a Specific User

Instead of using the script in the Raspberry Pi wiki, use this one provided by "PenguinTutor":

#!/bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/tightvncserver
# Customised by Stewart Watkiss
#http://www.penguintutor.com/linux/tightvnc
# Set the VNCUSER variable to the name of the user to start tightvncserver under
VNCUSER='pi'
eval cd ~$VNCUSER
case "$1" in
 start)
   su $VNCUSER -c '/usr/bin/tightvncserver :1'
   echo "Starting TightVNC server for $VNCUSER "
   ;;
 stop)
   pkill Xtightvnc
   echo "Tightvncserver stopped"
   ;;
 *)
   echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/tightvncserver {start|stop}"
   exit 1
   ;;
esac
exit 0

Now, change the VNCUSER=pi to your desired username, so for example: VNCUSER=jsmith

That'll make it boot on the username of which you want it to boot on... but I then received the grey screen error when remotely accessing the Pi from my computer, now the way you fix this is, open up the xstartup file that was created when VNCSERVER executes on your desired username. Now the way you access it and edit it is by:

sudo nano .vnc/xstartup 

.vnc is usually in the home directory.

Delete everything that is in xstartup (or not in as mine was), and add this:

!/bin/sh
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid black
/usr/bin/lxsession -s LXDE &

Now it should work.

Does Your Openbox Configuration Settings Not Start on VNC?

You'll often find yourself in a position where VNC will start, but you'll get things such as multiple virtual desktops appearing, and you try to save it in the "Openbox Configuration Manager," and they go away for a second, but then you find you'll restart the Pi and then they appear again. Here's how to fix it:

Create, or edit the current autostart.sh file which is located in:

.config/openbox/autostart.sh

Edit using "Nano" or any other text editor, I use Nano as it is the most comfortable for me, so do:

sudo nano .config/openbox/autostart.sh/

Add the line: exec openbox-session

Now add the line exec openbox-session again in .vnc/xstartup and now it should work.

But you can't really save the setting in Openbox Configuration Manager on VNC, but you have to do it manually; so you open this file:

nano .config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml

Scroll down to: <desktops>

You should see a bunch of stuff there, but only focus on this: <number>6</number> or something similar.

Change the number of desktops you want within the <number></number> bit.

I changed mine to 1, because that's all I want.

It should now work!

Limitations and Alternatives

In this example TightVNC has been used. This is a popular and relatively friendly program that uses the VNC protocols and is included in most GNU/Linux distributions. However it does have it's limitations. The biggest of these is that it creates new desktops for each connection. It may be that what you want to do though is view and control the same desktop that shows on the monitor/TV plugged into the Raspberry Pi. To do this a better tool to use is x11vnc. This is more powerful but less easy to use. However if you already have a desktop running it will latch on to it and share it as a default. This too is fairly popular and included in many GNU/Linux distribution repositories such as Raspbian.

Security Considerations

Be aware that basic VNC is not secure. It is not encrypted unless you are advanced in setting it up. If you use it over the internet it can result in criminals "bouncing" you off your connection and taking over. There are even computer robot tools that try to do this. You must set a password but even then it is sometimes possible to take over someone's connection after they have entered it. A good tip is to set the server to shift from the default port 5900 to something else chosen randomly as long as it is spare.

http://elinux.org/RPi_VNC_Server

Outputting a directory listing (ls) in Linux to a text file

So i needed to make a listing of files that were in a folder on my *Nix box. This command couldn't be any simpler.

ls > listing.txt

I tried to figure this out on windows and it was giving me a headache. Here's to the power of Linux!

Raspberry PI as a seedbox alternative storage with openVPN

1. Believe it or not, seed box users are notorious about hit & running. They stick around for the initial swarm, and then seed for less than a month on that connection because hdd space is limited. This is where long seeding comes in for 'natural' seeders. The longest seeds are generally non box users. They may be a seed box user seeding from his home connection, but generally old seeds are natural.
   
   Seed for ages and upload fresh content.

You are right, we seed box users have to manage the HD space and that usually means having to delete older stuff to make room. This is the reason I added a raspberry pi at home with a 2TB drive for the sole purpose of long term seeding.

I use the the PI to augment my seedbox. My seedbox provider (Feral) offers openvpn as part of the service. By using the VPN both my seedbox and my PI have the same IP address so security is the same. The difference is, as others have already stated, speed. My home speed is nowhere near what my seedbox provides but it provides a lot more HD space for long term seeding. This is really handy on trackers that offer seeding bonuses.

ESET SMART SECURITY : How do I exclude certain files or folders from real-time scanning?

KB Solution ID: SOLN560|Last Revised: September 20, 2012

File-level scanning of some email servers, backup software, gaming applications, etc. can occasionally cause abnormal system behavior. To exclude specific applications or folders from the real-time scanner, follow the step-by-step instructions below:

1. Open ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus. How do I open my ESET product?
    
2. Press the F5 key to display the Advanced Setup window.
    
3. From the Advanced Setup tree, click Antivirus and antispyware  Exclusions and then click the Add... button.
    
    
   
   Figure 1-1
4. The Add exclusion window will be displayed. Using the directory tree, browse for the folder or file you wish to exclude. The directory path will automatically display In the Exclusion: field. Click OK to save the exclusion.
   
   
   
   

   NOTE:

   To exclude the contents of an entire drive, the * symbol can be used as a wildcard. For example, to exclude scanning of the entire C:\ drive, you would enter C:\* in the Exclusion: field. To exclude all .doc files from scanning, you would enter C:\*.doc in the Exclusion: field. For additional information on the use of wildcards to exclude file/folder scanning, press F1 from the Add exclusion window.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Figure 1-2
5. Click OK again and close the main program window. Restart your computer.

NOTE:

If the application you are excluding communicates using a network protocol (HTTP, FTP, etc.) you must also follow the steps below:

  

1. From the Advanced Setup tree, click Antivirus and antispyware  Web access protection  HTTP  Web browsers.
    
2. If the application you wish to exclude is listed, double-click the corresponding check box. A red 'X' will appear. ClickOK to save changes—you are finished. If you do not see the application you are trying to exclude, proceed to step 3.
    
    
   
   Figure 1-3
3. Click the Add button to browse and select the .exe file of the desired application. The application will appear in the list of applications to exclude. Double-click the corresponding check box until you see a red 'X'. Click OK to save changes.