Ahoy! I know this has been asked a lot already, I’ve been following up and doing some research online but I’m still confused. Sorry.
1-I’m not exactly tech savvy. (Ok. I’m thick as a brick)
2-I’m a very casual BitTorrent user. I’ll go months without torrenting.
3-I do stream more frequently.
4-I travel often, meaning I don’t often have admin access to the networks I connect to
I currently have Nord. I heard it’s no longer as trusted as it used to, and since my subscription is ending I’m wondering if I should jump ship.
I read I should be using Port Forwarding, and I get the concept of it somewhat but I’m still not sure if I need it (considering my casual torrent use, so far… I’ve been ok?), and also, I have no idea how to set that up. (would #4 be a problem?).
Now, VPN: Mullvad, AirVPN, and Proton seem to be the most reliable ones. Is that right?
Air has good pricing atm, and port forwarding. I heard it’s not too user friendly though? (#1)
Mullvad seems to have a solid rep. but no port forwarding (It used to? Their website doesn’t say much unless I create an account?)
Proton: has PF, seems good too
Or should I just stick with Nord?
TLDR which VPN should I go for considering 1,2,3,4, and should I consider port forwarding in my decision?
Setting up port forwarding can be a little tricky, but lots of good sites to explain. Search for Port forwarding AND your torrent client. Spoiler - it’s done through your router.
You will get better performance. AirVPN way to go for best results right now and it’s not that bad to setup.
I use Tixati for torrents, and their DHT support is robust. Even without forwarding I can get pretty good torrenting results.
I see. So if I don’t own the router and I change location every two weeks, port forwarding is probably going to be more a hassle if not impossible for someone like me.
The info given above is incorrect. Normally, you’d need to forward ports on your router, but if you’re on a VPN your router doesn’t come into play. The VPN creates a tunnel directly from your PC to the VPN provider’s server, and whatever ports are open from that server are then forwarded to you, assuming they’re allowing port forwarding.
I used Nord a couple years ago and didn’t renew after they were breached and failed to disclose it to their users. I then tried Mozilla, but it regularly crashed when torrenting too fast. Slowing my torrents down to under 100mbit worked but sucked when I have a gbit connection. Then a family member passed away with an active expressvpn account so I used it and it was pretty fast for normal browsing, and just as good as Nord and better than Mozilla for torrents.
Now that ExpressVPN is expired, I just switched to proton and HOLY COW it is so much faster for torrents. Just check the button for port forwarding, and you’ll be assigned a random port. Plug that into qBittorrent and you’ll connect and start downloading so much faster it’s insane. Also go into the advanced setting in qBittorrent and you can set it to only use the ProtonVPN network connection, then if proton disconnects, qBittorrent won’t keep downloading on your normal ISP connection.
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Setting up port forwarding can be a little tricky, but lots of good sites to explain. Search for Port forwarding AND your torrent client. Spoiler - it’s done through your router.
You will get better performance. AirVPN way to go for best results right now and it’s not that bad to setup. I use Tixati for torrents, and their DHT support is robust. Even without forwarding I can get pretty good torrenting results.
I see. So if I don’t own the router and I change location every two weeks, port forwarding is probably going to be more a hassle if not impossible for someone like me.
The info given above is incorrect. Normally, you’d need to forward ports on your router, but if you’re on a VPN your router doesn’t come into play. The VPN creates a tunnel directly from your PC to the VPN provider’s server, and whatever ports are open from that server are then forwarded to you, assuming they’re allowing port forwarding.
I used Nord a couple years ago and didn’t renew after they were breached and failed to disclose it to their users. I then tried Mozilla, but it regularly crashed when torrenting too fast. Slowing my torrents down to under 100mbit worked but sucked when I have a gbit connection. Then a family member passed away with an active expressvpn account so I used it and it was pretty fast for normal browsing, and just as good as Nord and better than Mozilla for torrents.
Now that ExpressVPN is expired, I just switched to proton and HOLY COW it is so much faster for torrents. Just check the button for port forwarding, and you’ll be assigned a random port. Plug that into qBittorrent and you’ll connect and start downloading so much faster it’s insane. Also go into the advanced setting in qBittorrent and you can set it to only use the ProtonVPN network connection, then if proton disconnects, qBittorrent won’t keep downloading on your normal ISP connection.
Thanks for clarifying!