P2P-safe servers / countries?

[mazurka7 3]

It is common practice among many VPN providers to limit P2P (torrenting etc.) to certain servers / countries which do not have overzealous DMCA policing. Does AirVPN have a standing policy about which servers are P2P-safe? Can users torrent from all servers on the list or are users restricted to only some servers?

 

What will AirVPN do if it received a DMCA notice about P2P / torrent activity on any one of its servers? More importantly, how would AirVPN ensure that the company hosting the server in question does not reveal incriminating evidence of the user under legal duress. As I see it, though the hosting company is bound by contract to AirVPN, it may be compelled by say, a court order to cooperate with law enforcement investigating a DMCA case.

 

There is the view that a wise user chooses P2P-neutral servers to torrent. However, not everyone has the luxury of making this choice as the P2P-neutral servers might be too slow in speed or unsuitable in other ways.

 

Could AirVPN comment on this?

 

Thanks.

 

[eyes878 43]

You may use any AirVPN server for P2P, or anything for that matter. They do not throttle or limit anything.

 

In straight words: AirVPN do not give a shit about DMCA.

It does not even apply to them since the company is not based in America, but this does not mean you aren't allowed to torrent on the American servers.

 

In regards to the hosting company possibly revealing information - AirVPN run dedicated bare metal servers and secure them, therefore the hosting company can only see what the network traffic is and who is connecting - they cannot see who is doing what, and therefore cannot release information, however it would never get to that point with just copyright.

 

As I think you have worked out, I do not work for AirVPN and cannot guarantee anything but the first sentence is correct, but from the time I've been here, I can be quite sure.

[Guest]

Paraphrasing from an earlier thread "as a courtesy, you could use Netherlands servers" to give them least possible hassle

[eyes878 43]

Paraphrasing from an earlier thread "as a courtesy, you could use Netherlands servers" to give them least possible hassle

I almost included this but didn't want to make it sound as if users are restricted.

[foxmulder 43]

To be more precise, you should refrain from using servers especially in UK/USA/Singapore because this countries are known for their rather strict copyright policies.

 

Best regards,

 

Fox & Dana

[eyes878 43]

To be more precise, you should refrain from using servers especially in UK/USA/Singapore because this countries are known for their rather strict copyright policies.

 

Best regards,

 

Fox & Dana

They've only had issues in the USA before, and I've always used UK servers to torrent. I would personally say the UK servers are definitely fine - not sure about Singapore though, I'd probably avoid as they have a limited choice of hosts and other users that are censored in China etc will need those.

 

For the most part, I wouldn't worry about what servers you are using. Afterall, AirVPN pride themselves in allowing you to do anything on any server, don't change it.

[mazurka7 3]

You may use any AirVPN server for P2P, or anything for that matter. They do not throttle or limit anything.

 

In straight words: AirVPN do not give a shit about DMCA.

It does not even apply to them since the company is not based in America, but this does not mean you aren't allowed to torrent on the American servers.

 

In regards to the hosting company possibly revealing information - AirVPN run dedicated bare metal servers and secure them, therefore the hosting company can only see what the network traffic is and who is connecting - they cannot see who is doing what, and therefore cannot release information, however it would never get to that point with just copyright.

 

As I think you have worked out, I do not work for AirVPN and cannot guarantee anything but the first sentence is correct, but from the time I've been here, I can be quite sure.

 

That's good to know. The ability to use any server is important, at least to me.

 

Paraphrasing from an earlier thread "as a courtesy, you could use Netherlands servers" to give them least possible hassle

 

Would you have a link to the earlier thread?

 

To be more precise, you should refrain from using servers especially in UK/USA/Singapore because this countries are known for their rather strict copyright policies.

 

Best regards,

 

Fox & Dana

 

What would happen in the worst case scenario if the user were using a server in any one of the three countries? I am asking because depending on the location of the user, servers in other countries may simply be unusable due to latency or speed issues.

[eyes878 43]

 

Paraphrasing from an earlier thread "as a courtesy, you could use Netherlands servers" to give them least possible hassle

Would you have a link to the earlier thread?

 

servers in other countries may simply be unusable due to latency or speed issues.

 

I do not have a link but I can confirm that they did indeed say this.

[InactiveUser 185]

@ tuttifrutti & eyes878:

 

I think this is one of the staff statements you're referring to.

[foxmulder 43]

Hi again,

 

read this article on TF a couple of minutes ago. It's about PIA though, but this seems to be a general issue and could probably pose a problem in near future:

 

https://torrentfreak.com/pia-runs-vpn-through-vpn-to-avoid-bittorrent-ban-151101/

 

Cheers,

 

F&D

[Lee47 23]

Interesting read I like this quote

 

"The policy affects a few servers in Japan, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Singapore and Hong Kong. Subscribers who are connected to these servers may notice that their BitTorrent traffic is rerouted through another region"

 

Perhaps easier and better bandwith just connecting to a VPN in a country without the restrictions though.

 

Personally I would not bother to connect to US or UK or any english speaking countries anyhow, while I trust the VPN others within that country may not.

[iwih2gk 92]

Paraphrasing from an earlier thread "as a courtesy, you could use Netherlands servers" to give them least possible hassle

 

I remember quoting on that thread.  For those of us that have been here awhile you will remember the loss of the DENVER USA server over this issue.  While its true that Air will defend your privacy, we can create such a hassle for them that the datacenters just get tired of the DMCA's and then eventually they will break off from Air.  You are safe, but you are making it very difficult for others users in the USA when you do this.

 

How difficult is it to log into e.g. the Netherlands for a download of "suspect nature"?  Then come back to a low latency super fast connection close to home for the other times?

 

Some of the other good providers (e.g. ivpn) have disabled p2p on usa servers.

 

So the answer is beyond CAN you do something, but more of having a team spirit here and making this about a long term great experience for all users.

[foxmulder 43]

 

Paraphrasing from an earlier thread "as a courtesy, you could use Netherlands servers" to give them least possible hassle

 

I remember quoting on that thread.  For those of us that have been here awhile you will remember the loss of the DENVER USA server over this issue.  While its true that Air will defend your privacy, we can create such a hassle for them that the datacenters just get tired of the DMCA's and then eventually they will break off from Air.  You are safe, but you are making it very difficult for others users in the USA when you do this.

 

How difficult is it to log into e.g. the Netherlands for a download of "suspect nature"?  Then come back to a low latency super fast connection close to home for the other times?

 

Some of the other good providers (e.g. ivpn) have disabled p2p on usa servers.

 

So the answer is beyond CAN you do something, but more of having a team spirit here and making this about a long term great experience for all users.

 

Yes, i think that's the point. AIR is very generous and allows P2P on each server. Other providers simply block traffic to avoid the hassle with DMCA. So we should not use those sensitive servers as long as there are alternatives to stick with.

 

Regards

[mazurka7 3]

All good points raised on this thread with which I wholly agree, especially with regards to the recent TF article about PIA. The problem is when the user is located in one of those "sensitive" countries and there are no real alternatives to choose from, unless one doesn't mind taking 5 days to complete a P2P session at 60 Kbps/s.

[quisp65 1]

All good points raised on this thread with which I wholly agree, especially with regards to the recent TF article about PIA. The problem is when the user is located in one of those "sensitive" countries and there are no real alternatives to choose from, unless one doesn't mind taking 5 days to complete a P2P session at 60 Kbps/s

 

Agreed.   When I shop for a VPN, a server close to me is one of the top qualifications I am looking for along with port forwarding.  It just plays too important of a factor with p2p speeds.  As far as the US goes, the hosting companies are immune I would imagine, they just have to put up with harassment.  Having lots of people shopping for these close servers strengthens this market and creates more companies that are willing to put up with it.  I would think VPN companies that allow it, would look at the competition and choose some of the same hosting companies, if they share the similar lack of restraint with p2p.    

[serenacat 83]

I'm not a big torrent user, mainly using VPN because annoyed by / protesting government metadata logging, but do notice big differences in performance from Australia using servers in HongKong, Singapore, CA USA and Netherlands or Germany. But unsure what are the factors - ping times do not correlate with bandwidth throughput. Local user forums complain of congestion in the carrier network (National Broadband Network). Others complain of congestion in an ISP infrastructure. Variation with time of day, weekend. Periodically an undersea cable goes down, or traceroute indicates some odd change in routing such as Australia-Singapore via USA ! Possibly equipment failover. Cable capacity reservation and load varies.

The AirVPN Hadar HK server seems to have restricted bandwidth, which varies with time of day. Seems to apply even if doing something like a large Android Studio SDK or MS Windows update, not related to torrent protocol. But just let it churn away overnight or in background. If doing something with torrents, protocol seems to recover without loss if exit qBittorrent and resume the next day. Like Hadar's fastest ping / latency times if just web browsing.

So not sure what is specific to VPN provider, or specific server and hosting, or it's location, or type of traffic.