Software Plus

The Pirate Bay is back online after it was knocked offline as the result of a massive police raid. In its two-month break it is reported that key staff have left to set up a rival site, however. You should also note that there are growing suspicions that The Pirate Bay is back online as an 'FBI Honeypot' in an effort to catch out those who use it. 
How to use a VPN to access blocked torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay. How to access The Pirate Bay in the UK. How to use a torrent site. (See also: Why you need a VPN: here's what a VPN can do for your online security.)
Well this is awkward. Here at PC Advisor we genuinely don't advocate the use of torrent sites to download and share copyright content. In fact, as the owner and producer of digital magazines  that are regularly ripped off and shared via such sites, we actively disagree with such activity. But we also believe in the freedom of the internet, we're here to provide independent and objective information and, well, you're grown ups. You can make your own decisions as to the legality and morality of your actions, as well as the inherent security risks. And there are legitimate uses of torrent sites anyway.
So here's how to access torrent sites in the UK, even now that your ISP has in all likelihood blocked you from doing so.

How to use a torrent site in the UK. How to access The Pirate Bay in the UK

The principle is simple: you need to create a virtual private network. A VPN enables a computer to send and receive data across shared or public networks like the internet as if it were directly connected to a private network. You get the functionality, security and management policies of a private network via a virtual point-to-point connection. Most importantly in this case, a VPN creates a virtual tunnel between you and the sites and services you need to access, which means the ISP doesn't know who or indeed where you are, so you won't be blocked off from sites you wish to access.

Access blocked The Pirate Bay - access torrent sites: with Opera

The simplest way of doing this is to use Opera's Turbo mode. This is intended to speed up your browsing, but it does so by re-routing all your web pages through Oper's own speedy servers. In effect this creates a VPN. We've heard that it helps bypass the ISP blocking for some torrent sites.
Simply install the Opera web browser from PC Advisor. Find the Opera Turbo icon on the lower left of the screen, on the left side of the status bar. Hover this icon, and it says "Opera Turbo Off". Click on it, and Opera Turbo is enabled. The icon turns blue, and each time a page is loaded, information is displayed about the network savings.

Access blocked The Pirate Bay - access torrent sites: with PirateBrowser

Another simple way of using a VPN is to install the PirateBrowser from The Pirate Bay. It's just a modified version of Firefox, and it works in a similar way to Opera Turbo. Just be careful from where you download PirateBrowser.

Access blocked The Pirate Bay - access torrent sites: use a VPN service

Finally, if these options don't work you need to take the marginally more complicated approach of using a VPN service. We explain how to do so in this article: How to use a VPN service to surf the web anonymously.