Looking for a new vpn

[NoiselessOwl 26]

@soupy

Network Lock won't kill the application itself, such as qBittorent, if the connection drops. But it will kill the connection and thus stop qBittorent from both up and downloading, if that's what you mean. Which is just as good. Just make sure to bind qBittorent to the VPN interface in question, in the advanced settings ^^. Remember to sort your servers based on "Speed" or "Latency" in the Eddie client, depending on what you need and increase the send & receive buffers to 256kb each.

You may like this guide:

https://airvpn.org/topic/9491-guide-to-setting-up-vpn-just-for-torrenting-on-windows/

 

Wow look like a lot of work to set it up simply for torrenting. I just set up Tixati and disabled DHT, PEX and Peer Discovery Also NAT-PMP and UPNP with Randomize port disabled. Then I set the port forwarding from AirVPN to my Tixati. and match that TCP and UDP port to that. I assumed I am all set and secured. Also I did increase the buffer size. 

 

Do I need to follow that guide to get more out of it for paranoid users or it just simply a suggestion?

[NoiselessOwl 26]

 

@Owl

I get what you mean. However I believe that it has been shown that the speed differences between some of the best forms of encryption and some of the worse ones, are pretty negligible. I see what you mean about options and that's fair. However if protecting beginners was the objective, then in my mind, the best form of encryption should be the default, so that you can let the users "mess it up" individually, instead of messing it up for everyone and then hoping a few savvy users will notice and then correct it. I'm talking about stuff like AES 128-bit being the default (I believe), instead of AES 256. Because really, I doubt that most casual users would even notice whether something is using OpenVPN or PPTP; to them, it's just another techno-babble acronym which *does something* and lets them watch Netflix. But again, different values and different goals I suppose.

 

@soupy

Network Lock won't kill the application itself, such as qBittorent, if the connection drops. But it will kill the connection and thus stop qBittorent from both up and downloading, if that's what you mean. Which is just as good. Just make sure to bind qBittorent to the VPN interface in question, in the advanced settings ^^. Remember to sort your servers based on "Speed" or "Latency" in the Eddie client, depending on what you need and increase the send & receive buffers to 256kb each.

You may like this guide:

https://airvpn.org/topic/9491-guide-to-setting-up-vpn-just-for-torrenting-on-windows/

 

What doy uo mean bind, I don't see this option? 

 

Bind as in telling the client to use the network interface. For in this case, your TAP v9 interface. This way, it only access the network through VPN only. So it won't automatically switch to non-vpn interface when VPN lost the connection. 

 

In QBittorrent, open Option>Advanced. In Network Interface, click the dropdown menu and click on the interface that the VPN is using. Usually in Window, they are Ethernet 2 if you only have one Ethernet interface installed. Or look for "TAP-Windows Adapter V9" and use that one. then click ok and restart the torrent client. 

[LZ1 672]

 

@soupy

Network Lock won't kill the application itself, such as qBittorent, if the connection drops. But it will kill the connection and thus stop qBittorent from both up and downloading, if that's what you mean. Which is just as good. Just make sure to bind qBittorent to the VPN interface in question, in the advanced settings ^^. Remember to sort your servers based on "Speed" or "Latency" in the Eddie client, depending on what you need and increase the send & receive buffers to 256kb each.

You may like this guide:

https://airvpn.org/topic/9491-guide-to-setting-up-vpn-just-for-torrenting-on-windows/

Wow look like a lot of work to set it up simply for torrenting. I just set up Tixati and disabled DHT, PEX and Peer Discovery Also NAT-PMP and UPNP with Randomize port disabled. Then I set the port forwarding from AirVPN to my Tixati. and match that TCP and UDP port to that. I assumed I am all set and secured. Also I did increase the buffer size.

 

Do I need to follow that guide to get more out of it for paranoid users or it just simply a suggestion?

You don't need to, if it works for you already. That guide attempts to cover a lot of ground as you can see; differnet OS's, different software and so forth. I do recommend that you download the test torrent on ipleak.net to make sure your IP is hidden, as this is ostensibly the most important thing. After that comes speed & convenience, as well as any additional tweaks that you think make things better, such as increasing the global amount of connections to 1000 and some of the remaining slots to values like 200 each, since the defaults in qBittorent are quite low. You can also refer to my own guide, wherein there's a guide section filled with various other useful posts from around the forums. If you're really worried about security, you should furthermore try to avoid closed-source & proprietary software; I believe Tixati is proprietary. But this is up to you.

[soupy 7]

 

 

I recently switched to AirVPN two days ago and enjoy it a lot. I had PIA, BTGuard and ExpressVPN. PIA is great for a beginner and want to try to something different. BTGuard... well it is weird that they are specialized in Torrenting, hence the name. However, they are not up  to par as other average VPN such as PIA. Then I moved on to ExpressVPN, pricey but I went with them because they offer all their servers in 1Gbps and few in 10 Gbps. I had ExpressVPN for like a year and want to try something different. I came to AirVPN because they have a support for OpenVPN, they offer more features. But only one thing that made me move is they have port forwarding. Only four VPNs in the world have this feature, and AirVPN is one of them.

How would you compare the speed to express vpn

 

ExpressVPN is very good. They have online chat support and instant phone support I believe. Their servers is well built and I have no issue with them. Well, I have a few but I will explain about that. Other than that, their Android App and Window App is solid and easy to use without any issue. They are one of the very few VPN that I am capable of maxing my connection (150/150) based on testmyspeed.net, speedof.me, fast.com and speedtest.net. ExpressVPN's speed is far better than PIA and BTGuard. and stable also. I imagine ExpressVPN is capable of going up to 1Gbps on speed test. 

 

For issue, one is their website don't provide a lot of information of your account. Which it is true for them not to keep records of who you are or whatever. But They don't have a client panel like PIA and AirVPN offer, so basically no glandular control. secondly, I use VPN to bypass the filter in college or stores. I don't do crazy or illegal thing, but they can be very conservative with the filter which didn't make sense. Also bypass the web login before I get to use their access. I am tired of agreeing to my college wifi every half hour. It just a small community college. Anyway, with PIA, I have no issue of connecting directly to PIA server without having to login as long I force it to use IPv4. That only if I use OpenVPN with PIA's cert. And few months later after that, PIA improved the Android App and capable of connecting without issue. On ExpressVPN, it have connection problem. For whatever the reason, it does get stuck in Auth process for like a min before it can connect or simply fail. Same true for department store such as Target. In Target, I use their guest wifi to use Cartwheel or looking up Amazon since it only have 2G cellular network. Their building reflected 4G which crappy coverage inside the building. So ExpressVPN sometime get stuck in Auth handshaking and just loop there. In turn, their wifi temp block my phone from accessing their Wifi. I have to restart my phone to reconnect to their Wifi. PIA have no issue with it. For AirVPN, I haven't test it in Android app yet. I just got the sub like three days ago. I am still testing out and enjoy it a lot.

 

I like the way AirVPN app handle the network. Like EdensSpire said, if the server is overload, it will connect to other server automatically without issue. Not a lot of VPN is capable of doing this. 

 

One upside.. AirVPN is located in European Union zone. Which basically they only follow the EU law. Not the other country law such as Red, Blue and White country whom hunger for IP address if you know what I mean. Anyway, enjoy using AirVPN.

 

I actually had the same issues with torguard, client would get stuck in auth, sometimes for 10 mins than I have to open and close the client several times to even get it to connect than less than 24 hours alter it would crash and not reconnect. 

 

Thanks for the tip on qbittorrent, I notice download & uploads speeds dropped abit but see the thread about the tap driver seems oddly only seems to be worse when NL is enabled. 

[NoiselessOwl 26]

 believe Tixati is proprietary. But this is up to you.

 

yes it is, I go with Tixati because it have more features than other torrents I used. 

[soupy 7]

I have another question regarding port forwarding I have it set to port 8999 and upnp/nat -pmp port forwarding from my router and I get good speeds.

 

I was reading more on port-forwarding so I need to go to the client area put 8999 in and add it even if my speeds are good? 

 

Thanks for all the help,air vpn goes over away more than I ever learned from other vpns services. 

[NoiselessOwl 26]

Thanks for the tip on qbittorrent, I notice download & uploads speeds dropped abit but see the thread about the tap driver seems oddly only seems to be worse when NL is enabled. 

 

If you are using VPN just for torrenting, and use the network interface setting to lock to TAP-Windows. I don't believe you need to use the Network Lock. I could be wrong, I am assuming if the VPN lost the connection. qBittorrent wont be able to connect without VPN working since TAP is relying on VPN  client to function. I just let someone else correct me if I am wrong in that case. It just an assumption. 

[LZ1 672]

I have another question regarding port forwarding I have it set to port 8999 and upnp/nat -pmp port forwarding from my router and I get good speeds.

 

I was reading more on port-forwarding so I need to go to the client area put 8999 in and add it even if my speeds are good? 

 

Thanks for all the help,air vpn goes over away more than I ever learned from other vpns services. 

 

Make sure to not forward the same ports on your router as you do in the client area, as you will expose yourself to correlation attacks then. It's also recommended that you pick a high port number, instead of the low one you currently picked. You go to your torrent client, pick a port and then put that port number into the "Local Port" field on AirVPNs site. Then you add it. With NL on, do check your firewall isn't blocking your torrent client as well.

​

[NoiselessOwl 26]

I have another question regarding port forwarding I have it set to port 8999 and upnp/nat -pmp port forwarding from my router and I get good speeds.

 

I was reading more on port-forwarding so I need to go to the client area put 8999 in and add it even if my speeds are good? 

 

Thanks for all the help,air vpn goes over away more than I ever learned from other vpns services. 

 

Disable that. It is dangerous and exposing your network to the internet. It is very dangerous and they will be able to find your real IP. Turn off UPNP and NAT-PMP. You need to go Airvpn.org and go to Client Area. Then click Port Forwarding on the sidebar. I suggest you pick a different port number than the default one. Because if someone else is using the same port number, you can't use that number. just come up a port number between 9000-65000 and use that number that pop in your mind. Then put it in big text box. then click OK. then it will automatically port forward from VPN server to your VPN client. AirVPN will handle the port forward itself. Set your torrent client with the same port number that you set in AirVPN. After that, go back to AirVPN port forward page and click check in TCP test. So you know if the port is working or not. 

 

Also disable randomize port in torrent client too. Check your router and clean out all of the port number in router's port forwarding table that is forwarding to your PC. Unless you use the port forward for other reason without VPN, then just leave it alone. 

[soupy 7]

 

I have another question regarding port forwarding I have it set to port 8999 and upnp/nat -pmp port forwarding from my router and I get good speeds.

 

I was reading more on port-forwarding so I need to go to the client area put 8999 in and add it even if my speeds are good? 

 

Thanks for all the help,air vpn goes over away more than I ever learned from other vpns services. 

 

Make sure to not forward the same ports on your router as you do in the client area, as you will expose yourself to correlation attacks then. It's also recommended that you pick a high port number, instead of the low one you currently picked. You go to your torrent client, pick a port and then put that port number into the "Local Port" field on AirVPNs site. Then you add it. With NL on, do check your firewall isn't blocking your torrent client as well.

​

 

 

 

I have another question regarding port forwarding I have it set to port 8999 and upnp/nat -pmp port forwarding from my router and I get good speeds.

 

I was reading more on port-forwarding so I need to go to the client area put 8999 in and add it even if my speeds are good? 

 

Thanks for all the help,air vpn goes over away more than I ever learned from other vpns services. 

 

Disable that. It is dangerous and exposing your network to the internet. It is very dangerous and they will be able to find your real IP. Turn off UPNP and NAT-PMP. You need to go Airvpn.org and go to Client Area. Then click Port Forwarding on the sidebar. I suggest you pick a different port number than the default one. Because if someone else is using the same port number, you can't use that number. just come up a port number between 9000-65000 and use that number that pop in your mind. Then put it in big text box. then click OK. then it will automatically port forward from VPN server to your VPN client. AirVPN will handle the port forward itself. Set your torrent client with the same port number that you set in AirVPN. After that, go back to AirVPN port forward page and click check in TCP test. So you know if the port is working or not. 

 

Also disable randomize port in torrent client too. Check your router and clean out all of the port number in router's port forwarding table that is forwarding to your PC. Unless you use the port forward for other reason without VPN, then just leave it alone. 

 

Thank you both for the help, what tap driver are you guys running ?

 

@lz1 do you what do you think of owls statment is the inferface enough 

 

If you are using VPN just for torrenting, and use the network interface setting to lock to TAP-Windows. I don't believe you need to use the Network Lock. I could be wrong, I am assuming if the VPN lost the connection. qBittorrent wont be able to connect without VPN working since TAP is relying on VPN  client to function. I just let someone else correct me if I am wrong in that case. It just an assumption. 

[NoiselessOwl 26]

Thank you both for the help, what tap driver are you guys running ?

 

I am currently using 9.0.0.21, it came with AirVPN client. I don't have any issue with it so far. 

[Guest]

 

@NoiselessOwl

Your English is just fine I must say . Thanks for sharing your experience with ExpressVPN. I was curious. The PIA client doesn't allow you to change any options while you're connected to a server, last I saw, lol. If there's anything Air is good at though, it must be options options options. I suspect a lot of VPNs sort of forget about website security and privacy as well.

 

 

No they don't allow you change the option when PIA is connected. I understand the reason for it. They want to make it easier for the beginners and make sure that they are not fat fingering everything while it is still connected. One thing l like about PIA is their selection of encryptions. I have three different options to select what kind of handshake, auth, and encryption I want. Basically I have maybe about 50 different combo I can use. It is useful for some people who want to get a stronger encryption at the cost of speed. Or downgrade the encryption when the public wifi is freaking out. It happened in my college wifi once. I have to tune it down to get it connected.

 

Just so you are well informed, yes it allows you to change the encryption HOWEVER the servers are set to default encryption only and it can cause trouble between client and server if they are using 2 different ciphers and auth methods including limiting the effect it has with changing the encryption because everything you send may be in whichever cipher you choose but you get back what the server is set to meaning the connection cannot be completely verified as secure.

[soupy 7]

 

 believe Tixati is proprietary. But this is up to you.

 

yes it is, I go with Tixati because it have more features than other torrents I used. 

 

Which features are those?

[NoiselessOwl 26]

 

 

 believe Tixati is proprietary. But this is up to you.

 

yes it is, I go with Tixati because it have more features than other torrents I used. 

 

Which features are those?

 

Sorry for taking a while to get back to you. It is one of the highly customizable torrent client than any client I encounter. It indeed does highly customizeable. Tixati is underdog in torrenting world. People dismiss this client because it is complex to use. At first, when you see it. It indeed look complex but really it is simple to use. It take me 2 min to understand how it works and it have a lot of helpful resources in the client and their website. Tixati website have pictures to show the step on their website. 

 

1. Auto Limit - This is a unique feature I like in Tixati. It auto adjust the limit of speed. It test your local network speed and adjust accordingly. It is designed to prevent torrent from hogging all of your network speed. It is more for Cable and DSL in mind. It use the ping and traceroute to test the latency, when there is no latency, it will up the limit from 50Kb to 100Kb, then try again in 6 sec and test the ping again. No huge latency, then it will up the limit. When it discover huge latency, it will lower the limit. As in that case, you will have a good web browsing experience or streaming experience. I used it in the past and it work amazingly. Now I have Fiber, So I don't need it. I believe this is the only client have this feature. I heard uTorrent have it but they have their own protocol. Also you can edit the rules. It use the ruleset to analyze. 
2. Rules - rules and rules and rules... May I remind you that this client is customizeable? In this sense, you can tell the client what you want to do with the torrent, how to download it, what to ignore, how to handle the file after download, stop the seeding, superseed if it need. You can set the system the way you like it. It let you take the complete control of the torrent client than let the torrent client to do the work and take that power away from you. It can let it do it for you in default setting which it is fine by itself. Or if you don't like the way it work, just edit the rules and tell the client what YOU want, and it will do what YOU want. 
3. Menu - You can customize the menu too. It have a preset of menu you can adjust or go dive down to the rule and change the menu interface. 
4. Stop/Start - This is one of the feature that it is overlooked. The problem with many client is when they show the word "stop" and you click it. It didn't actually stop, it simply pause. That mean the announcement is still running, peering is still running. So you have to go through the hoop to pause then click it to stop fully. It is still broadcasting your client to the world. It is too much work and really design stupidity. Tixati just stop if you click stop. Stop means stop, alto, nana, zip, arret. Tixati will stop, disconnect the peer, disconnect the DHT for that torrent, stop announcing. 
5. Behavior - You can set Tixati the clicking behavior. It have many different options for each tab, not just window itself. Just each tab the way you want it. 
6. Lightweight - It is extremely lightweight and wicked powerful. It basically the old utorrent back in the day but with steroid of options. You can use it on a 15 years old XP laptop (512 MB ram) and it will run like a champ in it. with over 100 torrent files seeding and downloading, it only use 55MB in my memory and that is so extremely low. 
7. Scheduling - I never used it but I read people praise it for one of the best scheduling system. So I can't really comment there since I never used it. 
8. Logging - Tixati have the best logging than any client I use. Most of the client I have usually hide in the files and it is not right in the face of the client which rub me the wrong way. It have a separate logging for each torrents and one separate logging for the client itself. It have 6 different level of logging. 0 is no logging all the way to 5 is logging with file, peering, event, tracker, pieces and errors. 5 provide the deepest details of what happening with the torrent. Also it help to analyze what is wrong with the torrent. And the logging is very clear. It can store up to 50,000 lines of log each torrent and that is massive! the default setting is 3 (status, errors, tracker event and file). 
9. Chat - It have a chat system to chat with other people. I personally never use it
10. Detailed DHT Charts - It is great feature if you use DHT. It show deep information of DHT status even it show the charts.

 

One of the thing I dislike when people ignore or stamp on Tixati because it is not open-sourced client like Deluge, qTorrent, Transmission. Keep in mind, Open source didn't mean it is bad program. Open Source allow you to audit the code and fork the client. I like open source program, but sometime it is ok to have closed source software. Tixati is one of the client that is open and honest closed source program. Based on people review with Tixati, they all said they have no such issue and no hidden code that will rampart their system. Compare that to what uTorrent been doing with their system and using people PC to bitcoin mining without user knowledge. Tixati don't require much but only 35 MB of your hard drive. And it didn't require any library for it to run. It uninstall cleanly from the hard drive if you uninstall it. 

[LZ1 672]

It sounds like an oxymoron when you say "honest closed source program". Then based on what you said afterwards, it sounds like you're saying there's some people who reviewed the program and its code and found it to be fine, is this correct? I understand it as being a few people got access to the code. The problem is evidenced in your sentence: you have to rely on trust and that's simply not a very good assurance. It's true that if a program isn't open-source, it doesn't mean it's a *bad program* automatically, but it does mean the program, for one reason or another, doesn't let others view how it works. This, regardless of whether the intentions are good or not, is a vulnerability and to some, like the FSF, morally wrong and it therefore still qualifies as a bad program. It could be you're right and right now the program code is 100% benign. But it's exactly due to the closed nature of the code, that this won't matter, as the developer or whoever else has access, could simply add malicious code immediately afterwards and no one would be the wiser. So while I think it does sound like a nice program, filled with many lovely customization options, I cannot ever agree with its code philosophy - not in this day and age. Of course, it's "ok" to have closed source software, if that's what you choose, so this is something you're right about, as people have different use-cases, opinions, ideas and attitudes towards different things.  Thanks for listing the things it does well. We should be careful not to get too off-topic .

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

You present those points as if it was something only Tixati supports. Most of them are features of other clients as well.

For example, I personally find it amusing how you call Tixati honest when their "Automatic Bandwidth Limiter" is just another name for uTP which was implemented into almost every client by now. There are reports about speed and connection issues when uTP is used with OpenVPN. If you happen to run into issues, remember uTP

 

What I can confirm is point 6. Tixati really is lightweight and a good client to run on low-RAM configs. qBt and uT bloat themselves up a bit over time. But it hardly matters today, since most computers have gigabytes of RAM with quad cores inside; now even smartphones got there. The small Pi computers will get there as well.

 

And then there's point 9. Why would you implement a chat feature into a BitTorrent client?

 

Regarding closed source vs. open source, I agree with Mr. NoiselessOwl. There are closed source clients which do a specific job a lot better than their open source counterparts. 30% of all apps on my Android phone are closed source. There are either no open source replacements or they do the job so good, no open source replacement can do it better. But it's healthy to avoid proprietary software as much as possible, after all, you'll never know what it does when you look away...

[soupy 7]

Not sure if you say this lz1

 

@lz1 do you what do you think of owls statement is the interface enough 

 

If you are using VPN just for torrenting, and use the network interface setting to lock to TAP-Windows. I don't believe you need to use the Network Lock. I could be wrong, I am assuming if the VPN lost the connection. qBittorrent wont be able to connect without VPN working since TAP is relying on VPN  client to function. I just let someone else correct me if I am wrong in that case. It just an assumption. 

[Khariz 109]

Just FYI, I'm a Tixati fanboy too. It just works out of the box with all VPNs without any need to muck with stuff. Even without binding the TAP adapter (no leaks regardless. I have meticulously checked). Been using it for 3+ years now. No issues. No DCMA letters. Love Tixati.

[9RNA2 0]

Airvpn is already honestly. You might consider mulllvad as an alternative.

[bnrrteterstnjrsj45 0]

Just FYI, I'm a Tixati fanboy too. It just works out of the box with all VPNs without any need to muck with stuff. Even without binding the TAP adapter (no leaks regardless. I have meticulously checked). Been using it for 3+ years now. No issues. No DCMA letters. Love Tixati.

 

I'm today (and before) playing with TIxati, but didn't find settings related to GUI updating rate especially Peers tab, I actually want very reflecting UI there like in uTorrent for example. 

 

I myself a big user of Vuze, all torrents of all the years in Vuze. Binding feature not using, regarding to AirVPN, Eddie client have an Network Lock feature for that.