this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
204 points (95.5% liked)

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

55064 readers
137 users here now

⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.

Rules • Full Version

1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy

2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote

3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others



Loot, Pillage, & Plunder

📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):


💰 Please help cover server costs.

Ko-Fi Liberapay
Ko-fi Liberapay

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Cost, ease of use, speed, other good features, etc.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 71 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Mullvad or Proton. IVPN is also good.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 9 months ago (14 children)

Another user already said this, but just in case, Mullvad got rid of their port forwarding.

load more comments (14 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (10 children)

Note that Mullvad no longer allows port forwarding, which can make it harder to torrent effectively

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 49 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'll keep saying it.

When I browse with mullvad I constantly have to verify that I'm not a bot.

That's a good sign

Your account data is about is tangible as a fart in the wind, especially after 30 days. You can pay cash if you want.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They got rid of port forwarding unfortunately, so good luck seeding.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Do you need port forwarding for seeding?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Not strictly speaking, but it definitely speeds up seeding because without it a lot of potential connections would be closed to you.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I use ProtonVPN whenever I download a lot of Linux ISOs.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Several times a week I too download all the Linux ISOs, and I will have a look at ProtonVPN 👍

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (6 children)

ProtonVPN for port forwarding, Mullvad for easy usage (Wireguard on Linux).

I use vopono on Linux too.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

ProtonVPN works great via Wiregurd on Linux as well just not through the GUI; you can download the configs and connect through terminal or other Wireguard client

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

ProtonVPN also provides Wireguard config files if you don't want to use their shitty python based GUI. Supports port forwarding aswell, althought it sucks to set up and requires to manually disable ipv6 support

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I created a simple script to automatically request a port to ProtonVPN servers and assign it to qbittorrent:

https://github.com/giu176/ProtonVPN-auto-NATPMP

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Outtatime 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I'm using Private Internet Access. It's fast and pretty lightweight compared to the other choices. Snagged a 2 year plan on sale for like 50 bucks.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I was on PIA, but they were bought by Kape a few years ago. Kape, previously known as Crossrider. Crossrider, known primarily for developing adware and PUPs.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

I also dropped them after the acquisition

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

In addition to getting acquired by a shady group, Mark Karpeles also works at PIA. I'm all for edemption arc, but that doesn't mean I'm ok with him in charge of some security product. I dropped them for mullvad.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (7 children)

It isnt the best one, but its cheap, allows port forwarding and its not sketchy as far as we know

Air vpn

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

You may want to take a look at Italy's recent changes in legislation around VPNs tl;dr Italy's government has an anti-piracy measure called Piracy Shield which is a list that needs to be blocked by ISPs, VPN providers etc but is entirely arbitrary with no governance.

Air has stopped onboarding Italian customers but you may want to consider given they're based in Italy, if this compromises your use case/opsec

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I pay for Proton Unlimited so I use Proton VPN. Getting port forwarding to work on Linux is a bit of a hassle but they have steps on their website. It's hardly any slower than my internet connection, but that's because I'm on the paid servers. The free servers are rather slow. They have a graphical client for Windows and Linux.

Proton Unlimited is €12.99/month. The VPN has a good number of features and you get the whole Proton suite with it and 500GB of storage. You can pay for just the VPN which is cheaper if you don't want the rest of Proton.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I created a script exactly for that, I'm using it for months now and it's working fine: https://github.com/giu176/ProtonVPN-auto-NATPMP

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Whatever you do, maybe sure you network bind the vpn interface

https://protonvpn.com/support/bittorrent-vpn/

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

I went the seed box route and I'll never go back. It's faster and I don't even need a stable connection. Start the download from my phone and it's waiting for me when I get home.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

I use Windscribe because it's $1/mo and I don't care. I don't use their software, I use the vanilla Wireguard client, and have my qBittorrent connect through that interface only.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

ProtonVPN/Mullvad. This is the post number 288471 talking about this. Can we put it somewhere un wiki?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I'm using selfhosted wireguard server. Speed about 250 mbps and this VPS costs me about 3$ per month. Super easy to deploy wireguard server using this script

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Yeah, same question. I thought most of them would be super strict about torrreting.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (8 children)

No VPN, just qBittorrent and I2P = anoymous torrents

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I use Mullvad through Tailscale. If you already use Tailscale it’s a no-brainer

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

No port forwarding though.

I really really wish I could use mullvad but I had to switch to air vpn for port forwarding and then later to proton to get higher speeds (Airvpn maxes at roughly 600Mbit/s while proton can handle 2Gbit/s+) and port forwarding.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

I've been using airvpn for the last 4 or 5 years with no issue.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Do you really need a VPN? What's your country / context?

Are you aware that if you use a good private tracker (one that keeps their torrents private and has a good reputation) and configure your client to require encryption for all connections you may not need a VPN?

[–] FeatherConstrictor 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I wasn't. I haven't torrented in almost a decade and even back then was fairly naive.

Would you mind lending me a hand understanding how to do that and remain safe?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Whenever you torrent from public torrent trackers it's easy for anyone to see what torrents your IP is currently downloading / seeding. There's even a website for that https://iknowwhatyoudownload.com/

ISPs and govts may track your torrent downloads on the same way that website does. It essentially boils down to indexing the torrents from those public trackers by listening to the DHT network / PEX exchanges. When you're on a decent private tracker (and there are some free) they will disable DHT/PEX for their torrents making it so nobody can't index and they won't show up on websites like the one above.

Setting your torrent client to require encryption to all connections it will create an extra protection layer because then the ISP / govt won't be able to peek into your bittorrent traffic, they'll only see an encrypted TLS connection like the ones made to any SSL capable website. You may also add a blacklist of known entities that go after pirates so your torrent client won't ever connect to those.

If you live outside the US/Canada/AUS you most likely don't even need those measures, let alone a VPN. That entire thing about sending letters to people saying they're downloading torrents is mostly a US thing because in other countries ISPs can't even legally do it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I use Mullvad and have a qbit go through gluetun. I don't mind the lack of port forwarding, as I leave the Pi on 24/7 and I'm not under ratio constraints. Also, my system isn't secure enough for me to be messing with that stuff, next build I'll get everything off root, set proper permissions, route everything through a single port etc, then think about port forwarding. For now I'll hide behind my ISP and Mullvad's security while I learn and make mistakes.

Down is quick enough for me and Up is slow but constant.

load more comments
view more: next ›