Try changing the encryption settings in your torrent software. Usually there are three: required, try/attempt, and none.

Sometimes you have to wait 15 or more minutes to get fast speeds. Generally the first few attempts at connecting will be blocked.

I use ExpressVPN, but usually don't require it for torrents. Sometimes for less popular torrents, such as Linux distros in beta, I will connect to VPN for five minutes and then disconnect the VPN.

As for VPN connection issues, I find rotating between four or five countries works best. I try not to connect to the same country more than once within one day.

Maybe is the VPN service that you're using. Checkout this website to know more about other VPN services: Anonymweb.co.uk.

For torrents, you can use the vpn to load the initial seeders into your client. Then simply log out of the vpn once the respective files show non-zero seeders, and allow your client to connect to the seeders through your normal internet connection.

Michael2015 is right. Torrent traffic passes the GFW fine. Major seed indexes are blocked by GFW but they are only used to download the initial torrent file.

You can either (A) log out of your VPN after downloading the torrent. (B) Configure your VPN to only cover web traffic (eg. use a proxy setting in your browser).

The encryption settings in your torrent client are a different setting and effect the individual seeder connections. Torrents should work fine regardless of whether these are turned on or off.

I usually get faster download speeds with the VPN on, but sometimes it's the other way around. I suppose it depends on where the other end of the transaction is located.

Now I'm wondering why a thread last accessed 6 months ago came up 3rd on the list this morning.

I think if a new post (that brings a thread to the top) is deleted (SPAM etc.), the thread remains in its new position.

@tigertiger Smart thinking! I wondered about that but came up with nothing.

Thanks Tiger,
And speaking of SPAM, whatever happened to the contact us link that used to be at the top of the page? There's no way to report anything now.

Contact Us link - bottom left of the home page (on my browser).

Thanks Michael.

It's a long way to the bottom. It was so much easier when there was a link at the top of the comments page, which is the only place I ever used it.