Hello all!
I have been out of the piracy game since a little before mullvad lost port-forwarding; I know these things are ever changing, and to my understanding ivpn is a good bet at this moment in time.
I was wondering what everyone else has been using. As well as if anyone has tried the gui client for ivpn either built from source or the AUR build(I do use arch btw).
I am open to any vpn client that has a good reputation in the community, and build-able from a repository; A gui is preferred but not necessary, and absolutely NO account creation (Except for generic account numbers of course).
Thanks in advance for anyone who takes the time to answer.
The same 3 VPNs get recommended each time this question is asked:
- Mullvad
- Proton
- IVPN
+1 for Mullvad
+2
Sorry to spam the instance with a FAQ. I may of been misinformed, I was under the impression it was difficult to seed easily with Mullvad now. Also I was curious if anyone had recommendations with good Linux clients, not just the service itself; It seems IVPN or Mullvad will be the best all around option for me, if I do go the VPN route.
I can confirm that seeding with mullvad is painfully slow, if you do torrent locally get a VPN with port forwarding.
What does port forwarding do in this case? A lot of ppl are mentioning it… “And at this point I’m too afraid to ask”
Honestly same, I just know that the speeds were better when the port forwarding worked.
I think it just makes the service visible to devices from outside the network which helps them form a more direct connection. (That’s just an educated guess though)
I only read the title and love Mullvad but for torrenting I’d absolutely recommend a seedbox instead. Some ones I can recommend are Whatbox.ca if you’re in North America or Seedhost if you’re in the EU. Feralhosting isn’t bad either specially for the price.
I started with Feralhosting but decided I wanted to try racing and bought a custom tuned server. Then I realized I didn’t want to pay $100 a month and switched to Chmuranet (sp?) and didn’t like how they treated their customers. Then I tried Seedhost which was great but the peering to North America wasn’t ideal. Finally I ended up with Whatbox and I’ve been happy with them ever since.
Thanks for the information, I will definitely look into those! I used to use Mullvad for torrenting for a number of years, the Linux client worked very well, no leaks, and the Killswitch was effective through manual testing.
What would stop one of these sites from removing copywrited content and / or informing the owner?
Seems risky putting seeding in someone else’s hands
They ignore complaints, just like trustworthy VPN do.
IVPN and mullvad are recommended but since they no longer allow port forwarding they are slow. There’s Private Internet Access which is no logs provider too
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Use real debrid to download torrents.
Mullvad doesn’t have port forwarding anymore. As long as you don’t want to leech top secret dark net torrents that only 3 people have in the world, you’re absolutely fine.
or use any private trackers at all lol
If you’re on a VPN, why would it matter, genuinely curious?
Private trackers are based on seeding back what you leech, and if you can’t port forward it is far far harder to do that, and so you may get banned of your ratio of downloaded to uploaded gets too low.
No more port forwarding though
Only Proton should be recommended for torrenting since it has port-forwarding. I don’t know why people love suggesting these even without port-forwarding.
Because most people aren’t tech savvy enough or have the need for port forwarding.
What is the advantage of port-forwarding? I use Mullvad and don’t know if I’m missing some critical feature
Port-forwarding isn’t essential for torrenting. It really depends on the user as to whether that’s an important feature.
So two that don’t offer port forwarding and one that only does on Windows? Wow what a great recommendation…
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If only there was a way to make wireguard or openvpn work with linux…
Damn you windows!
Mullvad. The others have horrible apps on Linux.
Mullvad doesn’t support port forwarding anymore. I use airvpn and you can just use the native WireGuard (or OpenVPN if you’r crazy) apps on different platforms if you want.
I use Wireguard on Mullvad. I don’t know what you’re talking about 🤷♂️
he is saying mullvad doesn’t support port forwarding anymore, which is true. As a long time mullvad customer, I’m now looking for alternatives
Is that a deal breaker? Why not just tunnel through if you need
Wait why “if you’re crazy”? I know wireguard is faster but is there something I’m missing?
No, you are not missing anything. Wireguard is just much better.
I have heard that it is impossible to have no logs with wireguard because the configuration requires an static IP log and public key or something similar which normal openVPN doesn’t, so it breaks the “no log” policy.
I am not suse how correct that is, but that was a discussion earlier.
Here is what Mullvad has to say about that: https://mullvad.net/en/help/why-wireguard/
#Is it true that a user’s public IP must be logged in order for WireGuard to work?
No. When using WireGuard, your public WireGuard IP address is temporarily left in memory (RAM) during connection. By default, WireGuard deletes this information if this server has been rebooted or if the WireGuard interface has restarted.
For us this wasn’t enough, so we added our own solution in that if no handshake has occurred within 600 seconds, the peer is removed and reapplied. Doing so removes the public IP address and any info about when it last performed a handshake.
If you want to hide your public IP even more, use multihopping.
#Is logging of any user activity required in order for WireGuard to work?
No. There is never a need to log user activity no matter if you’re using OpenVPN or WireGuard.
#What are your thoughts on the internal WireGuard IP address being static?
We acknowledge that keeping a static IP for each device, even internally, is not ideal.
Why? Because if a user experiences WebRTC leaks, that static internal IP address could leak externally. As another example, applications running on your device can find out your internal IP, and if you’ve installed software that is malicious, it can also leak that information.
And theoretically, a static internal IP that is leaked, together with obtaining a payment record, could help to identify a user. (Dive into the payment info we handle for a fascinating read.)
Having said that, we still believe that WireGuard overall is in a better state than OpenVPN.
##Solutions to the problem
You as a user can mitigate this issue in two ways:
- When connected to Mullvad, perform a Connection check. If you’re not safe from WebRTC leaks, take necessary action.
- Never download and install applications that you don’t trust.
The Mullvad VPN app automatically replaces the WireGuard keys once a week.
We also want to see the WireGuard protocol itself improved, which is why we’re taking part in the development of WG-dynamic. This implementation will give the ability to dynamically assign a new internal IP every time a connection is made.
Ah, nice. No issue for mullvad then. I wonder if other VPNs do something similar. Otherwise they.could be stored for multiple months.
Tbf, you don’t really need any app. With Mullvad I just download configuration files and import them in KDE. It really is dead simple. Now enabling VPN at will is just two clicks with the possibility do make it automatic with three to four clicks.
you should use openvpn in difficult network configurations such as college dorm blocking everything except tcp 443 and tcp 80 or with old clients that don’t support wireguard
Tbf, you don’t really need any app. With Mullvad I just download configuration files and import them in KDE. It really is dead simple. Now enabling VPN at will is just two clicks with the possibility do make it automatic with three to four clicks.
ProtonVPN’s interface is fine
Is it? I couldn’t get it to auto connect at start. Which makes the all idea of having a VPN senseless IMHO.
It integrates like a normal VPN in GNOME, you get a button in the quick settings tray.
Could not get it to work on Mint. Support could not as well.
I’m on Fedora GNOME, so YMMV. Might be a GNOME-centric software.
Maybe.
I’ve been a ProtonVPN user for years and they have been rock solid since day one. It’s also convenient for me as I have moved away from Google services and replaced them with Proton’s other applications.
I just decided to make the switch to protons services last week, so far it’s working well enough. I haven’t found a good way to automatically backup photos from my phone to my proton drive in an organized way though…
Proton Drive is beta at best… i works, just not how normie end user would expect. there work orders. But I am too lazy to set it up
I use syncthing on my phone to backup photos to a drive on my homelab.
Yeah that’s the method i keep hearing about. Just to lazy to set it up lol
Syncthing is great, it’s so simple you almost can’t call it setup but I kind of miss the homelab part so I used my computer, now I miss that too but I will get it repaied very soon (hopefully)
Proton as a package is nice. If you immerse yourself into their ecosystem (email, drive, pass, vpn) you can get a lot of value from that $10/mo.
I had to unsubscribe from them after using them for some years because they just won’t bring feature parity to the Linux VPN client. I know they don’t have permanent, fixed port forwarding on the Windows client, but the fact that they still haven’t brought that feature to Linux is a big 🙄 for me.
The other thing is I’d be cautious about being dependent on any service where if you decide it isn’t bringing you as much value as you pay for, but you invested in certain extra features that are paid-only. In my case I had a secondary email handle (one that didn’t just have my full name in it, so I can sign up for stuff anonymously). Well, after coming to grips with the fact that I don’t want the VPN anymore, and that I don’t want to pay $4/mo just to send one email a week and receive a few that are only confirmations, that second address can no longer send/receive. I had to move every account into secondary free proton email before my term ended.
I’m not saying there’s anything nefarious about using a paid feature and then losing it. I am just saying be cautious about it and understand what you get yourself info when starting a subscription that you may depend on.
edit: this is advice directed generally, not specifically to the person I’m responding to who merely inspired me to comment
I will be cancelling my Proton Plus subscription due to the lack of feature parity on their Linux apps. For a privacy-respecting service provider, it’s a shame Linux is so low on their priorities and so far behind in development. If you’re on Linux, I would advise to steer clear until they actually focus on the quality of their services they have established instead of pushing out half-baked products.
I think using proton service is more for privacy. Nothing is free anyway. If you use Google or anything else that’s free, you are paying them with your data, and proton they don’t make money from ads, nor do they have them and those servers won’t pay itself, but yea their ecosystem is pretty good, I mainly use email and VPN but there is a service called SimpleLogin that basically makes alias for your email, which you can send and receive from, and I believe proton own them now (dont have to pay for it), I basically use that with browser extension that generates random email each time, and we can deactivate the email so no need to bother with unsubscribing from promotional email and all.
No disagreement about the privacy of services and getting what you paid for. But I’d like to pay commensurate to the use of the service. I was ABOUT TO say Tutanota can get you secure email for $1/mo (which fits much better with how much I actually use email), but I double checked and apparently they had a recent price hike. That’s just how it goes, I suppose.
Ahh, yea fair do be like that. I haven’t heard of Tutanota. I will definitely check them out.
P.S. $1/mo is a really great deal. I wish I had known about them earlier.
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Another mullvad recommendation usually don’t trust any provider if they can afford and want to do advertisement all over the place. Mullvad let’s you pay in coins if you want to be super ghost
Oh yeah. I’ve used them for a couple years, I’ve just been out of the circle for 4-5 months. I also know things can change in the snap of a finger, so I figured I’d ask around. Good to see mullvad is still so highly recommended.
Mullvad!
What about the removal of port forwarding?
Airvpn. I’ve been using it for years with no problem.
Same here. They have an open source graphical client you can use or they can generate an OpenVPN profile for you. Easy to use, high speeds, good price and they support port forwarding.
Same here but do find they are blocked a bit more than other vpn providers. But will keep using them due to good speeds and easy config.
Windscribe works for me. You can either use their software which is open source or create personal VPN configs on their site to use it with your distros network manager.
They’re the best!
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Holy shit, thank you for that information; I will definitely ensure I use a client with those vulnerabilities patched!
+1 to Mullvad. I only switched to NordVPN because I wanted to use an IP address from a country they have servers on.
Ivpn would be your best choice I think. I’m using proton VPN after mullvad abandoned port forwarding (why oh why did they do that!), but their client for Linux is basic but they are developing a new one at the moment. So port forwarding is a bit difficult to setup (but they do have it).
Sorry but your wording is a bit confusing. Are you saying that Proton have port forwarding but it’s difficult to set up? And is Mullvad developing a new client or is it Proton? And how does IVPN fit into the picture, do they not have any of these limitations as Proton/Mullvad?
Sorry haven’t had coffee yet. So in short:
Proton has port forwarding but difficult to setup on Linux. They are developing a Linux client more feature rich where hopefully oort forwarding will be an ease just like the windows client they have. Ipvns client for linux I think has this feature but needs verification since last time I looked was more than I months ago.
Thanks for the information; I already use proton mail plus to have all of my email domains under one, easy to sort inbox. However, I don’t wish to perform illicit activities on something with my legal name attached!
Well they claim they don’t have a logs policy plus they don’t monitor traffic… I stopped caring about this some time ago haha.
Then your only option is ivpn I guess.
Yeah, still I can only take the company’s word to any of these claims. After further research it looks like IVPN doesn’t have port forwarding anymore either; If I do go the VPN route, I may still test my seeding speed with Mullvad as I’ve used them for a number of years.
Oh they don’t support port forwarding? Hmm I couldn’t find this but , too bad. I guess I have to wait and see the Proton’s implementation.
i’ve been using mullvad for almost a year with zero issues. fast, cheap and reliable.
ProtonVPN came with my Proton plan so I decided to try it. Works great on all my Linux distros, haven’t had any problems. Kill switch works too, bind your torrent software of choice to the VPN device and you should be good to go.
Make suse to use one of the P2P specific servers for best performance.
No nasty letters from my ISP yet!
Have you been able to get ProtonVPN to work with WireGuard on Linux? I believe their VPN client on Linux only uses OpenVPN and I’ve tried to pull a WireGuard config file for a P2P server but every time I try to use it, I get no connection.
I haven’ tried that naw, sorry :/
Airvpn with wireguard client prolly. I would just get a seedbox tbh roughly the same price but with more features
Thanks for the suggestion! This may actually be the route I may go, as I can seed MUCH higher than a 1.0 without affecting my home connection speeds.
Exactly.
You also get wireguard vpn free with seedbox. Albeit the location will be limited to Netherlands.
Is setup similar to a VPS where I can just connect from the command line and set everything up on the remote box?
yes same. but unlike VPSs you get more (but shared) resources but no root access.
Thanks for the info!
I was using mullvad for a few months and noticed that a lot of websites I wanted to use were not working for me. Plus they removed port forwarding.
Since then I have been looking for alternatives.
Currently I’m considering -
- Airvpn
- Azirevpn
- PIA
Pia seems to have a really good deal for the 3 year plan. This particular plan is so cheap that other providers prices seem ridiculously high. I have not heard much good things about PIA, so I still havent bought it.
I have generally heard a positive response on Airvpn.
Don’t know much about Azirevpn.
Are there any cheap yet “not shitty” vpn providers that you guys suggest ?
PIA is not good. It’s owned by Kape Technologies which has done sketchy things in the past.
I switched to airvpn. It gets the job done.
- Not as fast as mullvad on gigabit but it’s good enough
- the app doesn’t look great, but yeah.
- In general cheaper than mullvad.
- I have no idea if they are blocked from streaming sites, I only use VPN for torrents.
