submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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I'm posting here because I assume a lot of you use vpns and this sub seems to have the most users to ask.

I was thinking about getting a VPN but was wondering about port forwarding.

I'm a Linux head so I would be downloading distros via torrent. If the VPN does not support port forwarding is it still possible to use for Linux torrents? I'm not going to be "seeding" media and extreme amounts of data, but the device would always be on and torrenting. In this case does port forwarding matter?

I guess I don't really understand dynamic and static port forwarding.

For my use case would mullvad or protonvon work even though they both use dynamic port forwarding? Or do I have to find one with static ports...?

This VPN would be used on a server with docker...

The other one I was looking at was airvpn, which is static, but I also read it might become more popular for people that use it for... Whatever... since mullvad stopped static ports.

Are there work around for dynamic ports? In case I ever want to host a website in the future?

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[-] stifle867@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago

I don't understand it either as all the support pages indicate that you would need port forwarding in order to torrent but I've found this not to be the case. For reference I'm on Linux too using Proton VPN without port forwarding.

[-] PeachMan@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Torrents still work, they'll just be a little slower and you won't be able to seed much at all. If you're using public trackers it works fine. But if you want to use a private tracker that forces you to maintain a ratio, you'll run into problems.

[-] matey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago

One person in the torrenting connection has to have port forwarding in order for the connection to occur. When you aren't forwarding a port, you're downloading from / uploading to only people who are. If someone has something you want but neither of you are port forwarding, you won't be able to connect to them.

[-] glad_cat 1 points 10 months ago

Same. With UPnP, muTP, and stuff, the downloads with a VPN are not slowed down in any way. Also my ports seem to be "blocked" right now but I still download.