I’m considering ProtonVPN to replace mullvad as they do have port forwarding for torrenting. I also did a quick search for VPN communities, but didn’t find any. Maybe just not from my instance.

Just wondering if they’ll end up axing port forwarding, if I pay for a extended length plan and then they axe the feature, I will have wasted quite a bit of money. At least with mullvad, it was monthly anyway, so not much to lose.

  • Choc Mint Combo!@lemmynsfw.comOPEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    No it doesn’t stop it, just seed torrenting as you say. Makes it harder for others to download from you if they too do not have open ports. Got to facilitate sharing is caring.

    A VPN acts like a NAT layer, so you basically have to open a port forward in order for traffic to dial your number, so to speak.

    It may be in your case that you have UPnP or similar set up, so that your router automatically picks up your open port. Not viable for VPNs which tend to service enough clients to qualify as CGNAT, so we set up fixed ports.

    Edit: Looks like I was wrong about not viable, seems like ProtonVPN has a NAT-PMP switch in their config

    • Matth78@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I believe if no one is having port forwarding (for instance for torrent where there is only a few people) it’s not possible for peers to connect between themselves?

    • ubergeek77@lemmy.ubergeek77.chatEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Ah, I see. It’s probably likely that these changes will affect ProtonVPN at some point (probably not for another year), but if their track record is any indication, they’ll probably only disable it for VPN servers hosted in copyright-hostile jurisdictions, and leave some VPN servers open for torrenting in countries that don’t care. Hopefully, anyway…

      • Choc Mint Combo!@lemmynsfw.comOPEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, they had authorities at their door, because it sounds like some bastards were using port forwards to serve CP. Dickheads ruining it for the rest of us is how it’s been described. It may well become a lot more common as providers try to shield themselves from discovery (which they can’t provide for with no log policies), authorities being frustrated and then compelling them to do more.

        • ubergeek77@lemmy.ubergeek77.chatEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          Oh right… it’s about more than free games these days :/

          It may be in your case that you have UPnP or similar set up, so that your router automatically picks up your open port. Not viable for VPNs which tend to service enough clients to qualify as CGNAT, so we set up fixed ports.

          Torrenting is entirely blocked by my router, both via all known ports and through deep packet inspection (but very basic DPI, it can’t detect it through a VPN).

          So I’ve got a box with an always-on VPN and I’ve never needed to forward any ports. As far as my router is concerned, this box is only communicating with the VPN server over a single port that isn’t forwarded, just your standard UDP-to-UDP ephemeral port. So if there is any UPnP or fancy NATing being done, I guess it’s automatic on the VPN server 🤔