this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023
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So IVPN is also removing port forward. Who's next?

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[–] Toothpickjim@lemmy.fmhy.ml 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I moved from mullvad when they dropped port forwarding and moved to ivpn only now to find they have dropped it to.

I think I will hang fire a little while now and see how things play out before having the rug pulled again. Is there going to come a time when none them offer port forwarding?

[–] SmallAlmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

What about i2p torrenting?

[–] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yup, AFAIK you do not need a port forward to torrent within the I2P network. And in addition you wouldn't even need a VPN. The main downside is that I2P needs more people torrenting so that it'll go faster.

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[–] Toothpickjim@lemmy.fmhy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I know nothing about i2p isn't it going to depend on everyone using i2p?

[–] SmallAlmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are i2p trackers and the only way for torrents to get there is by crosseeding them (from clearweb), qbitorrent on the v6.0 release will make this easier.

And you can also just upload to i2p trackers directly.

[–] rlhe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago

I think this is definitely the way to go! Just waiting on qbit now. VPNs are starting to feel dated (to me) for torrent use, but still great for privacy.

[–] rlhe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago

I'm seeing more people move that direction. It's worth keeping an eye on it.

[–] ShadowCat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

is there a guide for torrenting with i2p ?

[–] Pulp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SmallAlmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago

It is slower, but since it is a p2p network the more people that use it the faster it gets. (in theory) (sort of like seeding the network)

[–] crewman_princess@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a feeling that this will happen to the "good" ones. I wish there was another way to seed properly without portforward.

[–] Toothpickjim@lemmy.fmhy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you might be right. I may just end up getting a seed box of some description

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The problem with seedboxes is that you're severely limited on storage space. If more VPN providers remove port forwarding and more people move to seedboxes, we'll see every old torrent die off as people are only going go seed the newest content. You definitely need a balance of seedboxes and people like me with a 6TB HDD used solely for permaseeding on my home connection for both fast downloads and torrent longevity.

I've already made a comment ITT but I'd like to agree with you here and add on -

The problem with seedboxes is that you’re severely limited on storage space

Not only this, but a lot of seedbox providers either restrict or outright disallow the use of public trackers on their services, both for DMCA-avoidance and also for fair usage policy compliance since slots are often shared (depending on provider & plan). Dedicated servers/slots that can mitigate the latter reason are more expensive and probably out of budget for a lot of torrenters (including myself).

I can see an increasing shift in seedbox usage if more VPNs remove port-forwarding (which I can also see happening - look at how fast IVPN removed it after Mullvad. If you'd allow me a doomer moment, we could be looking at zero good options for VPNs with port forwarding by the end of the year or next). What I can't predict is how badly or how quickly losing these options will actually affect public tracker usage/torrent availability. I'm not sure if there are any numbers out there estimating how many people utilize VPNs and port forwarding with public torrents versus those who do not.

Regardless, these VPN changes aren't good news for us... between this and RARBG going down, it's been a disappointing last few months. I have found my home in a few private trackers and am focusing my efforts there to upload content that I care about, but that content will not reach the masses like the public torrents I soon may not be able to seed efficiently can.

[–] Pulp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

At least the upside is that generally content still available will be faster to download with people using seedboxes

[–] factionparadoxes@lemmy.fmhy.ml 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I hoped this wouldn't happen but saw it coming from a mile away, honestly. I think, as OP said in another comment, we're going to see the rest of the better VPNs (an already short list - what is it now, just AirVPN and maybe Proton?) slowly take away this feature as well.

My Mullvad subscription runs out in a few days. Think I'll be using the extra monthly $5 to upgrade my seedbox plan and ditch home seeding entirely.

[–] TornadoValley@lemmy.fmhy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Seems like another blow and a step closer to the death of public trackers for many. For us hardcore pirates we don’t give a shit but the big corps are gonna be very happy. Many people should probably just move on to Usenet

[–] narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't even know what I'd use a VPN service without port forwarding for.

[–] ShadowCat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

useful to bypass geoblocks

[–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 4 points 1 year ago

Except that most services have started blocking VPN IP addresses.

[–] lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The paid ProtonVPN has port-forwarding for its Windows app, not for Linux yet though.

[–] Pulp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Proton has its issues. Cant use killswitch together with split tunneling and not all servers have port forwarding enabled

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is fine with me. Kill switches aren't perfect so I just have QBit bound to the VPN so it won't run without it.

[–] Pulp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Of course not a problem for qbit but its a problem for browsers.

As of today (29 June 2023), Port forwarding is not offered for new customers as part of the Pro plan. Further, existing IVPN Pro customers cannot reserve new ports. Existing reservations will stay in place, and can be disabled by manual action.

We are disabling all reserved ports and completely remove this feature from our service on 30 September 2023.

[–] mrh@mander.xyz 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Damn IVPN has always been a solid provider. No public missteps and supported XMR earlier than all (reputable) others including mullvad.

Time to switch to i2p and usenet at least until the next p2p protocol comes about.

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