I already had a cyberghost sub, but decided to try to switch to something better for seeding.
I have tested ProtonVPN and PIA, but ended up refunding PIA as the port forwarding didn’t work once. ProtonVPN has worked maybe 5% of the time, and will likely be refunded as well.
Is there such a thing as a VPN that can consistently forward ports? I’m considering trying AirVPN next, but am hoping someone could confirm whether it works or not first. I’m also open to any other recommendations.
Thank you!
I will sing the praises of Windscribe until the day I die. Privacy respecting, affordable and great customer service. And yes, they offer port forwarding as well.
For some old customers they currently offer a $10 annual subscription including port forwarding, that’s just insanely cheap.
Yep, been using them for ~8 years. Never had a reason to use anything else.
their free tier is really nice too, if you’re ok with a monthly usage limit
I found out about njal.la about 2 weeks ago, they give you one ipv4 and one ipv6 for €5 monthly, with all ports open.
No GUI though, they provide OpenVPN and Wireguard configs, which works fine for my server.
I think they only have their servers on Sweden IIRC, but at least in my experience the speeds with the Wireguard config have been great.
So far I don’t have any complains about them. Having all ports open makes setting it up on the torrent client really easy.
vouch for njalla. their blog is amazing
IveI’ve recently moved to AirVPN and can confirm that port forwarding works nicely. Their UX is terrible, though, but the service so far seems good.
I ended up giving AirVPN a shot - seems like the best option I think. Easy to get openvpn or wireguard set up, and it works great with qbit. Having 5 ports is awesome, have 2 on each of my PCs and one on my phone.
My only issue is I can’t seem to get the port forwarding working with Nicotine+, for some reason it just won’t open the port like qbittorrent does. Downloading works fine, I just doubt anyone can see what I’m sharing
I had trouble using the default port assigned in Nicotine+ too. Try changing the port range to something different if you haven’t already, that’s what got my client working.
Exactly the same here. I needed some help in setting up gluetun and support was sweet and fast
AirVPN, for over a decade and they’ve kept my ports the whole time
UI? Horrendous.
VPN? Terrific.Yeah I never used their UI I just add the ones I use to networkmanager so its a little more integrated to my OS
Airvpn has been flawless for me even if they aren’t the fastest. Wireguard has been very stable with them, and they are very configurable on their web interface. Plus the staff is very very helpful if you need it. My Seedboxes are on 24/7 and I am not racing with them, everything is long term. I can still hit 50mbps upload but it is rare.
Edit: I use to espouse PIA but they mad a bunch of changes and I couldn’t script requesting a port any more. With airvpn you choose what ports you want on the website, assign them to a profile, and when you connect with that profile the port is automatically forwarded to your IP… no need to request a port and your selectes ports never change which makes configuring your app a lot simpler.
I would wait a bit on Proton. They are working on port forwarding on their Linux app. They have it working on their windows app.
You can also download their OpenVPN configs that include port forwarding:
https://protonvpn.com/support/port-forwarding-manual-setup/I’ve been using this method for a while and it’s flawless. It doesn’t require their app at all.
maybe i’ll give this a shot before i cancel
There’s a few manual steps you have to take each time you connect the vpn, so it’s a touch annoying, but it does work.
I’m on windows, it is very unreliable
Oh is it? Hmm they are active on Reddit. You might as well post a comment there. I’m sure they will sorry it out.
my ability to post on reddit died with my account
Hold my beer:
Mastodon them from here at @protonvpn@mastodon.social
Absolute madman, they probably didn’t realize people use VPNs for piracy until now
I’ve been using airvpn for 5 years or so and can confirm the port forwarding works for me.
I had trouble with their vpn client app (eddy or Eddie I think it’s called) so I just switched to the OpenVPN client and have had zero problems since then.
is OpenVPN the only reliable way? WireGuard seems like a better choice
I tried a couple of others and they both worked fine, I just stuck with openvpn. Eddie was the only one I had trouble with.
Haven’t tried wireguard so can’t comment on that but I suspect it will work just fine.
Think wireguard and openVPN are two opposing protocols, wireguard being newer, faster, and apparently less reliable
I’m using AirVPN with wireguard since a few months now and everything works perfectly, including port forwarding. Can 100% recommend!
How did PIA fail? It showed a forwarded port but didn’t work, or it wouldn’t show a port?
If the latter, I had the same problem at first but it was a simple matter of changing servers. Not all their servers support it. After changing it appeared to have no issues and showed a forwarded port that I then used in qbittorrent.
I thought PIA was bought by Kape and therefore no longer trustworthy
as far as I could tell/search in 15 minutes, everyone was mad when they got bought by kape, but not seeing any evidence of decline in services by PIA. I have been using them for 4 years without a single issue.
that said - I am going to buy into the Proton package for drive & email, which gives me VPN “for free”. meaning I was going to switch to ProtonVPN anyway, but from a consolidation/cost savings standpoint.
It’s not just about seeing a decline in service. It’s about the potential for the owners to betray your privacy for the highest bidder at any given point
Torguard. Great Linux client, great speeds, great port forwarding support.
What’s your use case? Maybe you would be better off with Tailscale or something like that
I will be using qBittorrent and Nicotine+ i think.
What does Tailscale do? Seems like just another VPN at first glance
It creates a flat network between all of your devices anywhere, so if you have a home server that you want to connect to from elsewhere you can do that without port forwards.
Maybe I’m being a total noob, but I thought Proton’s P2P servers were enough? Is port-forwarding on Proton or others different from that?
The P2P servers on protonvpn are good for downloading but seeding doesn’t really work for whatever reason
Interesting, I’ve been seeding with no problems
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TorGuard
I’ve had a great experience with ovpn after Mullvad shut down port forwarding. You get 7 ports per account and the server I use is very fast. You can also purchase a public IPv4 with all ports open if you like.
Before ovpn I tried AirVPN. It’s a great service, but their servers are too busy/slow if you need a lot of bandwidth.
Try torguard.
https://www.azirevpn.com/ seems like a decent candidate. Haven’t tried it myself yet
