Download clients
Usenet, BitTorrent or both. CloudZH installs the clients with safe defaults and connects them to Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr and Prowlarr. The sources are yours to choose.
Clients in the App Store
App Store → Downloads has the sections Usenet, Torrent, Debrid and Tools. Apps without an official image carry a Community image badge.
| App | What it is for |
|---|---|
| SABnzbd | Usenet. The install form asks for your Usenet server. |
| qBittorrent ★ | BitTorrent, recommended. Official image. |
| Transmission | BitTorrent, light on resources, good for a Raspberry Pi. |
| Deluge | BitTorrent with plugins and labels. |
| rTorrent + Flood | BitTorrent for thousands of torrents, with the Flood web interface. |
| rdtclient, Decypharr | Debrid: downloads through a debrid account of your own. Sonarr and Radarr see them like qBittorrent. |
| Gluetun | A VPN tunnel to your own VPN provider, see Route through VPN below. |
| Tools | FlareSolverr, Unpackerr, Cleanuparr, qbit_manage, cross-seed, autobrr, Jackett and Bitmagnet. CloudZH fills in their connections where it can; each app card lists what is left for you. |
Safe defaults
- The web interface is only reachable through your dashboard sign-in, for admins. The client also gets a generated password of its own, shown under Security → Credentials.
- A random listening port for other peers (TCP and UDP). UPnP and NAT-PMP stay off; forward the port in your router if you want better speeds.
- Anonymous mode on in qBittorrent.
- Seeding until ratio 1.0 or 7 days, then the torrent is paused. You can change the limit in the client.
- The folders the TRaSH Guides recommend:
/data/torrents/movies,tv,music,booksandprowlarr, on the same disk as your media. Sonarr and Radarr import by hard link, so a file that keeps seeding takes no extra space. - The categories
radarr,tv-sonarr,lidarrandprowlarr.
CloudZH only writes these defaults while the client has no settings of its own. Your changes stay.
Wiring
After every installation, in any order, Sonarr, Radarr and Lidarr get the torrent client as a download client with their category, and Prowlarr gets it with the category prowlarr. Run it again with Apps → Connect apps or zh apps wire.
- One torrent client at a time. With two installed, CloudZH asks which one to connect. Switching removes the entry CloudZH added for the other one.
- Usenet first. With SABnzbd and a torrent client, a delay profile prefers Usenet: Usenet releases start right away, torrents after 60 minutes. CloudZH only sets it while the profile still has its factory values.
- Debrid clients are connected once you entered your own debrid key: Connect as download client in the app card.
Route through VPN
Install Gluetun and enter the details of your own VPN subscription, for WireGuard or OpenVPN. Then turn on Route through VPN in the app details of a torrent client: all of its traffic goes through the tunnel.
- Kill switch: if the tunnel drops, the client stops instead of using your normal connection.
- Port forwarding works where your provider offers it. qBittorrent takes the forwarded port as its listening port.
- The app details show the VPN address, country and status. System Health and a notification tell you when the VPN is down.
- The web interface stays reachable through the dashboard. Available in every plan.
CloudZH recommends no VPN provider and has no affiliate links.
Before the first peer-to-peer app
Before you install the first peer-to-peer or debrid app, CloudZH shows a notice: these apps share files with other people while they download, and you alone are responsible for what you download and share and for complying with copyright and the other laws of your country. Tick I understand to continue. The notice comes once per server, and the confirmation is logged with your user name and the time. See section 8 of the Terms.
Downloads tab
Media library → Downloads shows Usenet and torrent downloads in one list, each with a protocol badge. Torrents also show seeds and peers, ratio and upload. Admins can pause, resume and remove a torrent, with or without its files. Friends never see the torrent client.
What CloudZH does not do
No trackers, no indexers, no lists or feeds, no provider recommendations and no affiliate links, neither for VPN nor for debrid. You choose everything yourself, and you use the apps for Linux ISOs and other content you're allowed to share.