I torrent (on the same PC that I run a Plex server from), but also auto connect on my devices whenever I’m on public wifi, so speed and avoiding blocks/captchas is also important. From what I understand having port forwarding will make a big difference in my torrent transfer speeds and ability to connect to peers.
I’m currently using Nord, but I’d like to make the switch to a company with a better privacy track record. I’m still really drawn to PIA because of the speeds and port forwarding, but I know their ownership is pretty sketchy, even if there’s nothing to point to there (yet). Mullvad dropped port forwarding, which seems to leave ProtonVPN. But now I’m hearing that the influx of Russian users post-invasion has increased the number of sites and services that block PVPN servers?
It seems like despite the huge amount of choices, nothing checks all the boxes except PIA. Am I missing something, or misinformed?
Have had no issues with Proton
Not recommending a VPN here. But there are many open-source anonymizing networks out there that need more attention. I know speed and avoiding blocks and captcha’s are important to you, so this answer is not geared toward your use case, but for those looking for a free alternatives to VPN’s and don’t care about the speed and want to help out the network, there are
lokinet: (https://github.com/oxen-io/lokinet) (Based on the LLARP, low-latency anonymizing protocol, basically tor 2.0).
(My personal favorite): i2p. A network within a network. Downsides are you can only download torrents within the network, but the upside is there is a solid community and there are more and more torrents that exist. Mental Outlaw has a great video about i2p
There are some VPN’s you can trust, but in the end of the day, I trust encryption and the decentralized network better than any centralized corp.
Can you give a little more input in i2p? Where to start and what to use? Would be nice :)
I heard about i2p during my search; I’m interested in it. Would it work with the arr suite when I get into that down the road?
I use MullvadVPN and have no issues. In fact you can even pay for it anonymously and it has a cute mole for mascot.
Doesn’t have port forwarding anymore though
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Of course it isn’t, but OP mentioned it and mullvad doesn’t support it.
Check out windscribe, they have port forwarding. Proton is great too. If you’re on windows setting up port forwarding with their app is a breeze vs Linux which they are developing better at current.
I’m currently having a dumb issue if you’d happen to have some insight. I have windscribe. I’m using linux (debian). I installed the Windscribe package from the site and I have the same GUI I’m used to from Windows.When I connect to my static IP, my ethernet IP doesn’t change.How do I ensure that I’m on my static IP in Linux so that I can actually use port-forwarding? Because at the moment I cannot turn on my VPN and have Plex, Overseer, any containers accessible outside my network. I can only see them on localhost. Eventually I’d like to get a domain redirect, but that’s a separate issue that will be easier once I have a solid answer on getting my VPN always on and split tunneling in it set up properly.I’m losing my shit here cause I can’t find anything about this dumb problem online and it’s such a simple thing that I’m used to just working lol.Leaving that for posterity. I reread your comment. Their Linux app so looks to be parity equivalent with Windows, I believe both use your account online to set up port forwarding. However CLI Windscribe I believe is missing the option. But in any case, what you said my be related to the issue I’m having.
Anyway, fully +1 on Windscribe. I’ve been using them for years and they’ve always been quite to respond, transparent with what they’ve been served, and were active online on forums. Used a +50 code for quite some time and finally wanted unlimited and port-forwarding so I bought a sub and a static IP. Seems well priced as well, I’m paying about $25/year I think.
About tour técnical problem.
Just setup staticip un /etc/network/interfaces.
Search thatpath and static there is a lot of material about it.
(:
I did do that but then my global connection to Plex stopped working entirely and localhost stopped working as well. Granted, I hadn’t set it up to the VPN’s IP yet!
I’ll keep this in mind for the next run, thank you so much!
I’d recommend deciding what you’re looking for in a VPN, then using r/VPN’s comparison guide to find which one suits your wants.
Is this the best method? Idk, but it’s what I did and I’m pretty satisfied. I decided that the most important factors to me were port-forwarding, price, speed, leak protection, and encryption - basically in that order. Using that criteria I settled on AirVPN, and I have no complaints so far (one month in).
Some people care more about ethics, or ownership, or what have you. So what you think is the best VPN will depend on your needs. There’s no perfect VPN anymore, imo
Edit: As others have pointed out, some VPNs also come in optional packages. Ones such as Proton. That’s something else to consider if you’re in the market for stuff like antivirus or secure email
I’ll check it out! I’ve used trustworthy compilation lists to pick my PSU and PDF software so I don’t see the problem hahaha
I’ve used AirVPN for years. Works great
Ive used AirVPN for months, also works great 😂
My recommendation would be to give up on the port forwarding.
If maintaining a ratio is important to you then just rent a seedbox once in a while. 1 month with a seedbox gives me enough upload credit to last me several years.
Thereafter I just download torrents, I may be unconnectable but no big deal.
Does it not impact downloading? I thought the lack of port forwarding on my VPN was what was causing me to not connect to seeders even though qBittorrent shows them
No.
My (possibly mistaken) understanding is that during the download phase your client is contacting seeds requesting parts. Although the data is going to be incoming it’s still an outbound connection because your client initiated it, so you don’t need to be connectable for that.
It’s the seeding phase which is problematic because downloaders can’t contact you to request parts. That said your client will still contact downloaders and offer parts, which again is an outbound connection so you don’t need to be contactable.
In summary download speeds are uneffected, but seeding rates will be diminished. With most private trackers you can still satisfy seeding requirements just by keeping the torrent available for however long.
As an aside I use mullvad & wireguard. I’ve found wireguard dramatically easier to configure, particularly in a docker environment.
I’ll see if I bookmarked it but there was a site with a bunch of VPNs listed with their privacy/functionality compared. Using it as a reference I ended up on Mullvad VPN. Super simple set up for the basic stuff with some more functionality under the hood if you need. iOS and windows app for quick set up too. My experience with them has been only positive so far.
I use PIA because it’s cheap as dirt. I don’t use their client and I have it setup so exclusively my torrent client uses it. It works for my use case because I’m pretty much just trying to avoid nasty letters from my ISP. I wouldn’t trust them with any of my regular traffic because they’re sketchy and there’s got to be a reason they’re so cheap.
Although I would consider what your usecase for a VPN is - ie what attack vectors are you trying to protect against when using it for regular traffic? There’s arguably very little a VPN does to protect you on public WiFi and also opens you up to new risks
Well my hope was that it would protect against things like packet sniffing and in case I connect to an evil twin (if I’m using that term correctly). But I’ll be the first to admit my knowledge there is incredibly limited, and I wasn’t aware that it would actually create new vulnerabilities. Would you be able to explain a bit?
Been using proton for torrenting and other use, it’s been great. Connect to Switzerland from USA with good speed and security. I use them for email so I got a good package deal.
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Ah damn. From what I understand, that lack of port forwarding is what’s hurting my download speeds on torrents. Windscribe wasn’t on my radar though, I’ll check it out
Windscribe is a really good all in one option with fully featured clients across several platforms.
AirVPN is great when paired with your own clients, like Wireguard or Passepartout, and you want to take advantage of its indefinite port forwarding. The clients aren’t user friendly.
What do you mean “when paired with your own clients”?
I just subscribed to AirVPN and while basic, their Eddie client is… serviceable :D
Good to know about AirVPN. I don’t have a ton of knowledge when it comes to networking, so I would appreciate something that’s simpler to configure and run