Cost, ease of use, speed, other good features, etc.
Mullvad or Proton. IVPN is also good.
Another user already said this, but just in case, Mullvad got rid of their port forwarding.
Can still seed with upnp forwarding
Not only is UPnP a security risk, it’ll work only if a user has an IP that can expose ports. IPv4 addresses are becoming rarer on home networks and CGNAT connections can’t expose ports even if one turns on UPnP.
what is upnp forwarding?
Universal plug and play You can enable it in Qbittorrent’s settings
Something you shouldn’t use. UPnP means programs can open ports automatically without your input which is a big security risk.
UPnP is widely considered to be a significant security risk, just FYI. Because it allows any random device on your network to poke holes in your firewall whenever they want. You should go disable it on your router.
Plus UPnP doesn’t work in a lot of configurations. CGNAT, for instance, blocks UPnP.
I lnow. But its the only way to get port forwarding with mullvad
I don’t know what that is. Sorry.
I forget about port forwarding because I never get to seed because of my abysmal upload speed.
I understand completely. I believe my speed is 175/10, so although the download is great, the upload is rather pitiful. Even with PF, I still get maybe a total upload of anywhere from 500 KiB/s–1 MiB/s according to qBittorrent.
Why does everyone talk about port forwarding when it comes to Mullvad and seeding? When I tried out Mullvad and torrenting last month I was able to seed just fine. Is there something I’m missing?
You can seed, but you’re depending on other people opening their ports to seed and download.
Mullvad got rid of their port forwarding.
So did IVPN. Use Proton VPN now.
I have been for years.
Mullvad
They got rid of port forwarding unfortunately, so good luck seeding.
Do you need port forwarding for seeding?
Not strictly speaking, but it definitely speeds up seeding because without it a lot of potential connections would be closed to you.
No
One side of the exchange always needs to have a reachable port so by not having one you’re limiting the peers you can seed to and also the peers you can download from.
/thread
If you’re looking for a VPN and to de-google proton is the way to go
Mullvad or Proton
Note that Mullvad no longer allows port forwarding, which can make it harder to torrent effectively
Is it really that bad? I haven’t had any issues torrenting stuff with Mullvad, although I usually don’t torrent files above like 20GB
It reduces your available peers. You can’t connect to other people with closed ports, one side needs to be open.
It isn’t a huge deal with popular torrents, but it can cause problems with unpopular/old stuff.
It’s non issue, even with +80 gb files.
The size of the file doesn’t matter. Without port forwarding you won’t be able to use things like private trackers without running the risk of getting banned. There’s no reason to use a VPN without it if your goal is torrenting.
I haven’t got any private trackers and I want a cheap setup. The only thing I’m paying for is the vpn.
Is the difference really that big and worth it?
I use AirVPN and it’s cheap with port forwarding. Without it, trackers will show you as unconnectable and nobody will be able to download from you unless they’ve set up port forwarding.
Thanks, I’ll take a look once mine expires.
I am seeding 70 torrents on a private tracker, most of it some niche stuff. It’s getting downloaded, but I have 0.00 seeded across all 70 torrents. I have no port forwarding. 1 + 1 = you need proton / airvpn.
At least one side needs an open port in able to connect. So if your ports are closed, you can only connect to seeds/peers who have an open port. Opening your port ensures you can connect to anyone.
Then, Proton it is
I use ProtonVPN whenever I download a lot of Linux ISOs.
Several times a week I too download all the Linux ISOs, and I will have a look at ProtonVPN 👍
Just curious, why do you download so many ISOs?
Whatever else does one download with a torrent app? I mean, I hear there are illegal uses but YOU WOULDNT STEAL A CAR
It’s code.
I’m using Private Internet Access. It’s fast and pretty lightweight compared to the other choices. Snagged a 2 year plan on sale for like 50 bucks.
I was on PIA, but they were bought by Kape a few years ago. Kape, previously known as Crossrider. Crossrider, known primarily for developing adware and PUPs.
I also dropped them after the acquisition
thanks for this info, I was wondering why PIA isn’t recommended anymore
In addition to getting acquired by a shady group, Mark Karpeles also works at PIA. I’m all for edemption arc, but that doesn’t mean I’m ok with him in charge of some security product. I dropped them for mullvad.
I use PIA as well but I have never seen good upload speeds through them, which is a shame.
I’ve been happy with AirVPN for the last year or so
The way they handle port forwarding is particulalry good, as compared with pia, that assigns a random port every time you bring up a connection, so you have to have a script to update your port in your client.
Seconded.
Something cheap with port forwarding. I personally use Proton VPN but that’s because I use my VPN for more than just torrenting.
It isnt the best one, but its cheap, allows port forwarding and its not sketchy as far as we know
Air vpn
You may want to take a look at Italy’s recent changes in legislation around VPNs tl;dr Italy’s government has an anti-piracy measure called Piracy Shield which is a list that needs to be blocked by ISPs, VPN providers etc but is entirely arbitrary with no governance.
Air has stopped onboarding Italian customers but you may want to consider given they’re based in Italy, if this compromises your use case/opsec
+1 for airvpn. I’ve never had any issues, port forwarding works flawlessly, and you can get some incredible deals if you buy 3 years at a time during a sale.
I’ve been using it for probably 5+ years and it’s been great. I wish I could port forward to incoming 80 in my server so I could run a site while it’s up, but at the end of the day I can always run a site elsewhere.
That aside, it’s never gone down on me, the speeds are fast, it auto-connects to the best server available, and they run lots of promos.
I’m wondering, is there any anonymous VPN that supports port forwarding to port 80? I’m thinking about self-hosting a website from my server at home under a VPN.
I haven’t looked thoroughly because at the end of the day I have like …another 2 years of airvpn credit and I’m happy enough with them that I could make a separate server for a website…maybe with the rock pi 5a I bought that I haven’t touched. My current server is mostly for media and…uhh…sailing, as well as syncing devices (sync thing), running a telegram bot, etc. I could use the pi for more public stuff. And not use a VPN.
If you find a solution though, let me know!
You can port forward to another port without issue, then just route through to it from your server. Domain name lookups support explicit port lists. Although I’d suggest just buying a domain name, setting up dynamic dns through a raspberry pi and forward from your router to port 80. I use porkbun for the latter.
Proton VPN has been working pretty well for me. Includes port forwarding and a lot of servers.
I’m all in on proton. VPN, email, calendar, and cloud storage. Unlimited is $10/mo and while it’s a little deceptive as a name it’s still great. The simple login alias feature if fantastic.
Same.
Whatever you do, maybe sure you network bind the vpn interface
No VPN, just qBittorrent and I2P = anoymous torrents
If I turn off mixed mode in qbittorrent i2p settings, it should only use i2p, right?
If “mixed mode” is enabled I2P torrents are allowed to also get peers from other sources than the tracker, and connect to regular IPs, not providing any anonymization. This may be useful if the user is not interested in the anonymization of I2P, but still wants to be able to connect to I2P peers
That’s what the description says.
So then, with mixed mode disabled, I’ll be fully anonymous?
If you use only I2P torrents, yes 👍
I2P?
An alternative to TOR that’s better for P2P.
does it still require port forwarding for seeding ? (yeah, I know port forwarding isn’t required for torrenting)
As in I2P itself or bittorrent? In order for I2P to access the network it needs to be able to access the internet. If you’re behind a router, that does mean either enabling universal plug and play (UPnP) or manually opening a port for it that forwards traffic to the port on the I2P machine. UPnP is obviously the easiest (if you’re behind a router).
ProtonVPN/Mullvad. This is the post number 288471 talking about this. Can we put it somewhere un wiki?
I went the seed box route and I’ll never go back. It’s faster and I don’t even need a stable connection. Start the download from my phone and it’s waiting for me when I get home.
I pay for Proton Unlimited so I use Proton VPN. Getting port forwarding to work on Linux is a bit of a hassle but they have steps on their website. It’s hardly any slower than my internet connection, but that’s because I’m on the paid servers. The free servers are rather slow. They have a graphical client for Windows and Linux.
Proton Unlimited is €12.99/month. The VPN has a good number of features and you get the whole Proton suite with it and 500GB of storage. You can pay for just the VPN which is cheaper if you don’t want the rest of Proton.
I created a script exactly for that, I’m using it for months now and it’s working fine: https://github.com/giu176/ProtonVPN-auto-NATPMP
Yo!! Thanks for sharing. The qbittorrent-nox integration is just what I need!
I use Mullvad through Tailscale. If you already use Tailscale it’s a no-brainer
No port forwarding though.
I really really wish I could use mullvad but I had to switch to air vpn for port forwarding and then later to proton to get higher speeds (Airvpn maxes at roughly 600Mbit/s while proton can handle 2Gbit/s+) and port forwarding.
