ANSWERED Unable to seed in qBittorrent behind Gluetun/AirVPN (Proxmox VM) - Port forwarding not working

[Kiki09 0]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently setting up a media server stack (the "Arr" suite) on a Linux (Ubuntu Server) VM hosted on Proxmox. I'm struggling with seeding: my downloads work perfectly, but my upload speed is constantly at 0 B/s, even for high-demand torrents like the Ubuntu ISO.

I am using Gluetun as a sidecar for qBittorrent with AirVPN (WireGuard).
Environment:
 

•     Host: Proxmox (Linux VM - Ubuntu Server)
•     VPN Provider: AirVPN (WireGuard)
•     Setup: Gluetun -> qBittorrent (network_mode: service:gluetun)
•     Port Forwarding: Port 7755 is configured in the AirVPN client area and mapped in Gluetun.

Configuration (docker-compose.yml):
 

services:
  gluetun:
    image: qmcgaw/gluetun
    container_name: gluetun
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
    devices:
      - /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
    environment:
      - VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER=airvpn
      - VPN_TYPE=wireguard
      - WIREGUARD_PRIVATE_KEY=${AIRVPN_WG_PRIVATE_KEY}
      - WIREGUARD_PRESHARED_KEY=${WIREGUARD_PRESHARED_KEY}
      - WIREGUARD_ADDRESSES=${AIRVPN_WG_ADDRESS}
      - SERVER_COUNTRIES=Netherlands
      - VPN_PORT_FORWARDING_LOCAL_PORT=7755
      - TZ=${TZ}
      - FIREWALL_OUTBOUND_SUBNETS=192.168.1.0/24
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
      - 7476:7476
      - 8191:8191
      - 7755:7755/tcp
      - 7755:7755/udp
    volumes:
      - ${CONFIG_DIR}/gluetun:/gluetun
    restart: unless-stopped

  qbittorrent:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/qbittorrent:latest
    container_name: qbittorrent
    network_mode: service:gluetun
    environment:
      - PUID=${PUID}
      - PGID=${PGID}
      - TZ=${TZ}
      - WEBUI_PORT=8080
    volumes:
      - ${CONFIG_DIR}/qbittorrent:/config
      - ${DATA_DIR}:/data
    restart: unless-stopped

What I have already verified:

•     AirVPN Dashboard: Port 7755 is active and assigned to my current WireGuard server.
•     qBittorrent Settings: Port is set to 7755, uTP is enabled, global upload limits are unlimited.
•     Internal Connectivity: Downloads work at full speed (10+ MiB/s), confirming the VPN tunnel is functional.
•     Logs: No obvious errors in Gluetun; the WireGuard tunnel initializes correctly.

The Issue:

Despite these settings, I have 0 incoming connections and 0 upload speed. External port checkers report the port as CLOSED.

When monitoring the peer list in qBittorrent, I occasionally see peers attempting to connect, but they disconnect almost immediately. It seems that while I can download (the swarm can see me), external peers cannot establish a stable incoming connection to initiate a handshake.

I am testing on private trackers, and I am aware that my 200 Mbps upload speed often gets outrun by dedicated seedboxes with superior peering. However, even when testing with the Ubuntu ISO (a high-demand public torrent), I observe zero incoming connections and no upload activity. This strongly suggests a deeper network configuration issue preventing peers from initiating a handshake with my container.

Could this be a routing issue at the Gluetun level, or perhaps a Proxmox/VM network bridge setting that is dropping incoming packets on the forwarded port?

Any help or guidance on further debugging (iptables, routing tables, etc.) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance !

[Staff 10567]

@Kiki09

Hello!

You need to set FIREWALL_VPN_INPUT_PORTS environment variable, otherwise container's firewall blocks all incoming packets on the virtual network interface. Please check the manual https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/blob/main/setup/providers/airvpn.md

VPN_PORT_FORWARDING_LISTENING_PORTS has a quite different purpose. It sets up a redirection of incoming traffic from the VPN opened port to a custom localhost port of your choosing. As the GlueTun manual clearly warns, do not use this with torrent clients, or any other software that publicly announces its port, as that software would not be aware of the publicly visible port and would be announcing the private port instead (you can see more details of this explanation on our FAQ answer about p2p). Furthermore, it does not even instruct the firewall to allow incoming packets on the virtual network interface. 

Kind regards

[Humming9683 0]

Hey,

I had this trouble today and discovered that its the latest version of qBitTorrent (5.2.1).

Down grade your qBitTorrent to 5.2.0 and it should fix itself.