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Is it necessary to forward the listening port in Bittorent?

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I am a new user of AirVPN.  I am using the Bittorent client.  I have established a VPN connection and the client works fine.  Files download, upload and the incoming connections token is green.  

 

I check my IP with a Google search for the whole computer and it reports the AirVPN exit point ip.  I check the ip of the torrent client with both checkmytorrentip and ipleak and they both report the AirVPN exit point ip.  ipleak also correctly reports the listening port from my torrent client, even though I did not specifically forward it.

 

I have the option to "automatically map listening port via NAT and UPnP" unchecked in the torrent client to prevent it from trying to map the port forward.

 

Question:

 

Is it necessary to specifically forward the listening port to a port in AirVPN?  The whole system seems to work fine without it.  Am I missing something?

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Yes, disable auto port mapping in utorrent because you don't want to have the port forwarded on your router. Manually configure a port in utorrent and then configure the same port in the client area here

 

https://airvpn.org/faq/p2p/

 

 

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*bump*

 

I have the same question. Torrents seem to work fine without port forwarding, so what are the reasons for using it?

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Nissemus, torrent speed is all about how many seeding peers there are and how many of them you can see. There are two major ways to discover peers:
- centralized torrent trackers
- decentralized DHT

VPN users often find themselves blocked from torrent tracker servers, which makes it even more important to ensure that DHT works well. I haven't done any speed tests myself, but it makes sense that you may get better speeds by being a reachable DHT node instead of a passive one. Some other P2P networks even require you to be reachable. I usually don't forward ports for torrenting myself, but poorly seeded torrents definitely seem to perform worse than on port-forwarded machines.


all of my content is released under CC-BY-SA 2.0

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*bump*

 

I have the same question. Torrents seem to work fine without port forwarding, so what are the reasons for using it?

If no one is connectable, then P2P stops. No one can connect to anyone else. That would be the overriding reason. And there is no risk seeding through AirVPN.

 

If you are not connectable, then the only tine you will connect to other peers (assuming they are connectable) is at the time your client announces to the tracker. This can be quite a number of minutes. Close to an hour on some private trackers. If you are connectable, then when other peers announce to the tracker, they will learn about you and may connect to you. More connections are good for both downloading faster and uploading more.

 

On many private trackers, you must be connectable to avoid a "hit and run" warning. And you may have to meet ratio requirements. So being connectable by peers who want to download from you is important.

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Sorry, I am bumping this again to ask how I can do this with Transmission on Ubuntu. I did not know it was necessary to do this - I guess it enhances P2P connections?

 

Here is what I have done so far:

 

I added a port forwarding rule in AirVPN client area, then changed my listening port to that same port. Then I unchecked "Use UPnP or NAT-PMP port forwarding from my router" in Transmission. 

 

Are there any other options in Transmission that I need to tweak to optimize my speed and connection, as well as privacy?

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I've had this setup for an hour or two now and it appears to have slowed down my speed - some torrents have 0 peers when they have quite a lot of seeders.

 

I have removed the port forwarding rule in AirVPN and changed my listening port to a random port, as well as checked the "Use UPnP or NAT-PMP port forwarding from my router" box again, and my download speed is wayy up and I have lots of peers on my downloads. So I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. The weird thing is - when I go to my router there are no port forwarding rules there, so I'm not sure where the rules are being added when I check that box.

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checked the "Use UPnP or NAT-PMP port forwarding from my router" box again, and my download speed is wayy up and I have lots of peers on my downloads. So I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. The weird thing is - when I go to my router there are no port forwarding rules there, so I'm not sure where the rules are being added when I check that box.

 

 

1. Don't check the uPnP box if you use a VPN and want to achieve about torrenting privacy.

 

As to why it's significantly faster than VPN portforwarding, I can think of two potential reasons:

- has VPN portforwarding been set up correctly? Does Transmission's "Test Port" feature yield "Port is open" or "Port is closed"?

- maybe peers find your real IP more attractive than your VPN IP. Some peers use extensive IP blocklists, often banning whole IP blocks associated with businesses, with the goal of only allowing residential providers. I guess VPN IPs may fall victim to some of those lists.

 

2. UPnP is meant to be dynamic, automatic and temporary. I guess that explains why some routers may not list UPnP-forwarded ports together with manually forwarded ports. Maybe check some other areas of your router's webinterface.


all of my content is released under CC-BY-SA 2.0

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Thank you so much for responding.

 

1. Why does this reduce my privacy? I'm guessing this uPnP box just adds a port forwarding rule to forward the listening port through my router - but how does this reduce my privacy? I don't fully understand.

 

Does Transmission's "Test Port" feature yield "Port is open" or "Port is closed"?

 

It shows port open as soon as I add the rule in AirVPN.

 

maybe peers find your real IP more attractive than your VPN IP.

 

But why would they even see my real IP? I was connected to the AirVPN client with network lock on. I had the port forwarding box checked off in transmission - so maybe there was a rule forwarding the listening port, but I don't see how that would expose my real IP to the peers. Shouldn't they still be only seeing my AirVPN IP? No matter if I port forward through AirVPN or not?

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I'm guessing this uPnP box just adds a port forwarding rule to forward the listening port through my router - but how does this reduce my privacy?

 

Well if you expose a torrenting port on your router, through UPnP or manually, you allow peers to connect through your router, obviously exposing your router's IP.

Now, if you keep Network Lock enabled, that should prevent actual incoming connections reaching your torrenting app, but then there's also no reason to have any sort of forwarding on your router in the first place.

 

Also remember that UPnP does allow for way more than just port forwarding, it's a whole set of features and protocols. zhang888 claims that one way for WebRTC to get your router's WAN IP is actually UPnP. This answer on superuser suggests that you can in fact do that with UPnP.

I don't think UPnP should be enabled on any router.

 

 

why would they even see my real IP?

 

You stated that you enabled UPnP and saw an instant increase in peers and speed. If that increase is in fact related to you enabling uPnP (and not just random), it means that UPnP worked and peers successfully connected through your router (= your real IP).


all of my content is released under CC-BY-SA 2.0

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I'm guessing this uPnP box just adds a port forwarding rule to forward the listening port through my router - but how does this reduce my privacy?

 

Well if you expose a torrenting port on your router, through UPnP or manually, you allow peers to connect through your router, obviously exposing your router's IP.

Now, if you keep Network Lock enabled, that should prevent actual incoming connections reaching your torrenting app, but then there's also no reason to have any sort of forwarding on your router in the first place.

 

Also remember that UPnP does allow for way more than just port forwarding, it's a whole set of features and protocols. zhang888 claims that one way for WebRTC to get your router's WAN IP is actually UPnP. This answer on superuser suggests that you can in fact do that with UPnP.

I don't think UPnP should be enabled on any router.

 

 

>>>why would they even see my real IP?

 

You stated that you enabled UPnP and saw an instant increase in peers and speed. If that increase is in fact related to you enabling uPnP (and not just random), it means that UPnP worked and peers successfully connected through your router (= your real IP).

 

 

Hmm, okay - so I do always have network lock enabled when I am on AirVPN - so it is odd that peers would be connecting through my router. Could I use something like ipleak to confirm if peers are connecting through my router?

 

Edit: Okay so I found something odd. I am running DD-WRT on my router and I did find a separate section for uPnP and uPnP forwarding - but the uPnP service is disabled and there are no port forwarding rules... so how the hell does that work. I also noticed that when I do check the uPnP box in Transmission, remove the airvpn port forwarding rule and change to a random port in Transmission - the port stays closed, it never opens - yet I get a better speed and more peers. That doesn't make any sense does it?

 

One more thing I am wondering - is this necessary if I have network lock enabled all the time: https://airvpn.org/topic/9139-prevent-leaks-with-linux-iptables/

 

Also, if I have two devices torrenting on the same network - can they both use the same listening port and have the same port forwarded through AirVPN?

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Bumping this, this doesn't make any sense and I'm having trouble solving the issue.

 

With my port forwarding through AirVPN I have insanely slower speeds/less peers that when my listening port is closed completely. I don't see the issue with just leaving the port closed. I have uPnP disabled on my router, so there should be no way that peers are getting my real IP. Ever since I've added this port forwarding rule in AirVPN and disabled NAT/uPnP mapping on my router, my internet has just been crawling. Just unbearable. I have a feeling that my ISP may be throttling my speeds due to the use of VPN, but that is just a suspicion and not really related - since I can prove taht my speeds are faster without the port forwarding rule in AirVPN.

 

For now I am going to remove the port forwarding rule and leave my listening port closed in Transmission, since my speeds are way higher. Please let me know if I am compromising my privacy in any way by doing this.

 

Thank you.

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Cannot reproduce your problem, sorry.

As to why you're experiencing "crawling internet speeds", I don't know, my first guess would be too many concurrent connections.

I do not use the BitTorrent protocol much myself, neither with or without VPNs, so anyone else's input would be highly appreciated.

 

You're certainly not compromising privacy by "leaving the listening port closed in Transmission". Just leave it at that especially if speeds are already satisfactory.

 

EDIT:

 

is this necessary if I have network lock enabled all the time: https://airvpn.org/t...linux-iptables/

 

No, it's meant as an alternative for non-Eddie users who use OpenVPN directly.


all of my content is released under CC-BY-SA 2.0

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Thank you for your response. I think there may be other variables at play here because what I have experienced during my testing does not make any sense.

 

I will do some more testing and hopefully I can work it out.

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