- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
I switched to windscribe last month because the proton CEO starting spewing politcal BS, and I wanted port forwarding that wasn’t locked behind a shitty GUI.
As far as I was concerned setup was super easy, the VPN speeds were great, and port forwarding worked really nicely. The whole price for a fixed server and port forward, + unlimited data was a bit much (at $95/year) but for the ease of use and speeds I was getting, I was happy to stick with them.
My setup is a always-on server with a 1gbps connection, where yes, I fucking seed my shit, all of it. I have about 30TB of linux ISOs and counting, and it’s rare that my combined upload speed is less than 1MBps, ever.
Which lead me to getting banned from windscribe with no notice or warning in the middle of last week. This lead to me having to spend tracker points to avoid HnR, and i’m also unable to grab any new ISOs until I find a new VPN provider that won’t ban me for actually using the service full time.
I did shoot them an email (after talking’ with their AI bot first), and they were actually helpful enough. The offered to restore support, so long as I promised to not torrent with them again (which, I honestly did promise not to. I’m not sticking with a VPN service that can’t handle me actually using it for what it’s advertised for) and they did unban the account. Whole email chain took about three days to get resolved.
My sticking point is that they still have instructions on setting up torrents on their own website, and that they specifically allow for unlimited data (with the plan i paid for) so long as it’s just one user. I did not break those rules. After clarifying that in the support email, they still said that I was using too much data (despite the unlimited data advertisement) and that torrenting was not allowed on their service.
TL:DR: Windscribe bans you if you use a lot of data, and support says torrents aren’t allowed, despite their website advertising such. Proof in the attached images.
If y’all have any other suggestions for a VPN that allow port forwarding i’d really appreciate it.
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I use airvpn with an always on server setup, port forwarding, and constant seeding. If you’re okay with manually using a wireguard or openvpn client instead of an airvpn specific client it works great.
Edit Plus, they have a progressive pricing thing that lets you buy a few days for like 2€ just to test stuff.
AirVPN is perfect. Works flawlessy with gluetun, only thing the website is kinda outdated, but I can’t remember the last time I got on there so who cares
AirVPN!!! Its really great.
I’d recommend AirVPN. Here’s why I’d recommend them, in their own words:
No traffic limit. No time limit.
No maximum speed limit, it depends only on the server load
Every protocol is welcome, including p2p. Forwarded ports and DDNS to optimize your software.
As a rule, the more outdated a service’s website is, the better the service is.
It’s funny that you mentioned this, because the crappy website is one of the things that sold me on it. It reminds me of the old internet.
It’s also surprisingly affordable, I got a 3 year subscription for something like $60. I was during a sale.
AirVPN seems really good, I liked Mullvad but unfortunately they dropped port forwarding which really ruined them as a VPN service for Torrenting.
Same here. Switched from Mullvad to AirVPN once they dropped port forwarding. I have had several issues with the Eddie client, but wound up dropping it in favor of gluetun and Wiresock with Wireguard configs and have had zero issues.
I switched to AirVPN about 6 months ago and I’ve been really happy with the service. Was previously using NordVPN, which was fine, but I was looking for a VPN provider that offered port forwarding and AirVPN does that. I don’t have hard stats on this, but I do feel that having access to port forwarding has improved my overall torrent speeds since switching.
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Came to give AirVPN a shoutout too. Been with them since 7 years. Using both their client and native wireguard kernel module. Very happy.
Wasn’t sure if this was the right place, but I figured someone should know about this. For what it’s worth, I would actually recommend windscribe if you don’t plan on doing torrents all the time, or you have sub 1gbps internet. Just sucks that I hit their “unlimited” internet limits on my home connection.
They have a page on their site about chargebacks. They’re confidant they’ll win them, but they still ban because it costs them money. I’ve done one anyways; as far as my reading of their tos goes, I was in the right. Might as well make this experience cost both of us money, instead of just them.
Their guide for using torrents with their service; https://windscribe.com/knowledge-base/articles/using-windscribe-with-torrent-clients/
Their FAQ on bandwidth and chargebacks: https://windscribe.com/knowledge-base/articles/why-did-my-account-get-disabled/
The fact that they have anti-chargeback wording on their public website speaks volumes. I get they have anti-union posters in their breakroom too. Fuck this company!
They have a page on their site about chargebacks. They’re confidant they’ll win them
The portion about chargebacks refers to being outside the refund period, nothing to do with p2p or bandwidth caps.
Lmao I like the tl;drs on TOS page. Some of them are a little reductive, but it’s still better than making it a giant illegible block
Look in to I2P
It sounds like they banned you for excessive usage. They allow at least 1tb a month because ive used that amount regularly with them.
It is a bit misleading for them to be calling it “unlimited” tho
It is a bit misleading
If it’s limited, it isn’t unlimited. That looks like a lie to me, and not “a bit misleading”.
Which is why they said the issue was torrenting and not using too much data. It’s an unlimited plan and they would never think to put a limit on data usage. They just object to torrenting and it’s pure coincidence that they only object to that when someone is using a lot of data.
“a bit”. this post just proves they are lying all around
Didn’t the, do the same with the lifetime VPN for 10€/year and later stated the lifetime is meant to be Putin’s lifetime, i.e. when he dies the offer expires? Same with the 40gb/month for free which they randomly changed…
I don’t think this is misleading. Misleading is when you use technically true facts to draw someone towards an incorrect conclusion. Calling a plan unlimited then having a limit is more like fraudulent if you ask me.
I agree, but the 40gb limit on my phones “unlimited” plan seem to disagree with reality, as does the $30 per 500gb comcast would charge me if i use over 1.2tb…
Not saying it isnt false advertising, but its how a lot of internet service providers choose to advertise things these days.
Buried deep in the terms of service where nobody will ever read will be a “reasonable use” clause. That’s the justification for why it wouldn’t count as a fraud.
I do agree however that as a consumer we are constantly being defrauded by corporations free to do whatever they wish without repercussions.
Buried deep in the terms of service where nobody will ever read will be a “reasonable use” clause
Their ToS is pretty succinct and clear. There’s no “reasonable use” or any similar wording, and also no wording in regards to p2p or data caps.
Beware of the leopard
It’s not “a bit misleading” for them to call it unlimited and then ban people for using too much data, it’s extremely misleading, almost bordering on scammy. If I were OP I would’ve done a chargeback and switched VPNs instead of begging them for an unban. They deserve it for lying and trying to deceive customers. Vote with your wallet (and chargebacks) if you want companies to stop doing shitty shady like this.
it’s extremely misleading, almost bordering on scammy
It’s neither of those things either. “Misleading” indicates their representations were technically true, but it sounds like this is just a straight up lie.
That’s true, they outright lied, it’s not one of those technically true situations they outright lied and said unlimited and ban people for going over an arbitrary data limit, not even temporarily cutting off connection, outright suspending their accounts.
The unban was just to check if the refund process would go through. Since it didn’t then I did a chargeback.
That makes sense, best to try and give them a chance before going the ugly route. I do try and point this out since there are a lot of people who believe you should never EVER do a chargeback since companies, especially the sleazy ones claim it’s not allowed or broadly illegal (likely because if people were more inclined to do it, they’d be in big trouble).
Odd. I’ve been torrenting with them for years at this rate. Even have my media server up 24/7 with qBittorrent running. I guess I’ll have to find an alternative in case this winds up happening to me.
Same I’ve been using them for years without issue. This guy must have been using MASSIVE amounts of data.
About 8TiB upload and 2TiB download over the course of this whole mess. I don’t have exact numbers because WRT stopped counting for some reason, but I can infer based on January numbers.
Thanks for the note OP. Which VPN providers are you looking at for public torrents?
You’re going to be very hard pressed in finding a VPN that supports torrenting. People abuse it. That’s why mullvad pulled port forwarding support.
Additionally people misinterpret what they can do even if their VPN does support torrenting. It’s still illegal to use their service to torrent anything other than legal torrents…
There are no services available to you that allow you indiscriminately to torrent illegal content. They simply don’t exist. And even if you get lucky enough to find one they won’t exist for long. lol
People abuse it
My Man, unless you buy all the bullshit that YouTubers claim VPNs do, the only reason to get one is to torrent
There are no services available to you that allow you indiscriminately to torrent illegal content. They simply don’t exist.
Yes, most VPNs will allow you to do that just fine. And they exist for years.
My Man, unless you buy all the bullshit that YouTubers claim VPNs do, the only reason to get one is to torrent
This is one of the top 10 dumbest statements I’ve ever seen on the internet and shows a total and complete lack of understanding what a VPN is, and what it does.
Yes, most VPNs will allow you to do that just fine.
There are currently 2-3 countries where torrenting IP isn’t illegal. Unless you have a VPN in one of these countries, there are no conditions where its “allowed,” because it’s entirely illegal. Even if it’s not expressly outlined in a services TOS it’s still illegal, and therefore not allowed. Even if they expressly permit it, it’s still illegal, and therefore not allowed.
I absolutely fucking beg you to use the brain you were given and stop embarrassing your parents who put time and energy into raising you.
There are currently 2-3 countries where torrenting IP isn’t illegal.
Why are you moving goalposts? You stated originally:
You’re going to be very hard pressed in finding a VPN that supports torrenting.
MANY support it. Supporting something in of itself doesn’t speak to it’s legality.
I know they’re not popular anymore, but PIA supports it, was taken to court over it, provided nothing (no log service, so couldn’t provide anything) and walked away clean. You don’t get that if what they were doing was illegal. And if they thought the risk actually mattered, they would have changed their policy to keep their company alive. But they didn’t. So they support it (about as much as anyone would care to support it) and have been tested by courts.
The sad part is… if you had read the OP, you could have done 3 seconds of research and found https://windscribe.com/knowledge-base/articles/using-windscribe-with-torrent-clients/… Which is literally the VPN service being discussed EXPLICITLY talking about configuring torrent clients. Wouldn’t creating pages to support users who are looking for configuration for this “illegal” thing be direct evidence that you’re full of shit?
I absolutely fucking beg you to stop embarrassing the dictionary by learning and using words correctly, and to stick to the topic that you literally brought up.
Why are you moving goalposts?
There are no goalposts. This isn’t my opinion. It’s an incontestable fact that stealing IP is illegal in 98% of every country on this planet. You can choose to live denial in some virtual fantasy where you pretend that this isn’t true, but you can’t change facts. Period.
MANY support it.
There is no VPN on this planet which “supports” theft of IP. There are providers which don’t actively seek to ban users for doing so. Which is absolutely not the same and you pretending that it is, is disgusting behavior. Truly infantile.
There are no goalposts.
Yes you did. You switched from “supporting” to “illegal”. Which are two separate and distinct conception. Murder is illegal… How many people around these parts support Luigi? See… two completely separate topics.
This isn’t my opinion. It’s an incontestable fact that stealing IP is illegal in 98% of every country on this planet.
Cool. Then next time don’t talk about “support” when you meant “legality”. And further please cite the 98% claim, as I will definitely contest it. And be careful to fall into the trap for countries that DO care about IP laws, but only within their country (China).
There is no VPN on this planet which “supports” theft of IP.
So you think they setup these torrent help pages and don’t expect people to use torrents in an illegal manner? Do you think that the Windscribe page wouldn’t come up in a lawsuit if they were dragged into one to put some onus on the provider themselves for supporting their users in the process of torrenting illegal content?
You think these companies are just stupid? You think they don’t recognize that capturing this group of customers is valuable to them?
Which is absolutely not the same and you pretending that it is, is disgusting behavior.
I never weighed in on my thoughts on the matter at all. You have no idea if I support torrenting illegal content or not.
Truly infantile.
Says the person who’s failing to comprehend basic language and easy premises while claiming actual things that nobody else claimed.
Now that I have a bit more time later in the day…
https://privacysavvy.com/security/torrents/safest-countries-to-download-torrents-and-worsts/
Switzerland Switzerland tops the list of the most torrent-friendly countries. Swiss law gives every citizen the right to download music, movies, books, and all types of copyrighted content as long as it’s for personal use.
Spain Spain is almost as safe a country as Switzerland for torrenting and filesharing users. The legal precedent was set in 2006 when a judge ruled that downloading, keeping, and using copyrighted files was fine as long as no profiting was involved.
Poland The legal status of file sharing is nowhere near as explicit in Poland as in the previous two countries. Instead, it’s more of a nobody’s land. No written law or official legal precedent refers to “personal use” as an acceptable instance of possession and use. However, there seems to be legal consent in legal opinions that point to the private use of copyrighted material as legal and acceptable.
And this is just the EU… You think ANY African or South American government gives a flying fuck? (Really the best you’ll find is that it’s illegal on paper but there’s virtually/effectively 0 enforcement).
You think most of Asia gives a flying fuck?
China as mentioned before only cares if you’re stealing from within China. Russia is the same in that they don’t care about outside companies but only if you hurt another Russia/friendly company.
To be frank, it’s only a handful of countries that actually care about international IP laws. You’re so far out in left field with your claims that it’s actually sad. It’s almost like you live in one particular country and assume the rest of the world is the exact same. When in reality the rest of the world really doesn’t care, like nearly at all.
This is one of the top 10 dumbest statements I’ve ever seen on the internet and shows a total and complete lack of understanding what a VPN is, and what it does.
Well then explain me why I would need a VPN in the year 2025 with encrypted connections and HSTS being the norm
There are currently 2-3 countries where torrenting IP isn’t illegal. Unless you have a VPN in one of these countries, there are no conditions where its “allowed,” because it’s entirely illegal. Even if it’s not expressly outlined in a services TOS it’s still illegal, and therefore not allowed. Even if they expressly permit it, it’s still illegal, and therefore not allowed.
It’s illegal, but in practice not enforceable if you hide between a VPN in another jurisdiction.
So in practice you can do it and nobody gives a shit.Well then explain me why I would need a VPN in the year 2025 with encrypted connections and HSTS being the norm
To connect to a network, which is private and virtual. As the name suggests, this is the reason for which VPNs were invented and are still used today. Using VPNs for “privacy” is how they’re popularized for anyone who doesn’t actually know what they are and how they’re used. Which clearly includes yourself. To believe that there’s no legitimate use for VPNs outside of their layman’s usage is so incredibly fucking insane.
If you’re going to speak about something, do yourself a favor in the future and at least do a cursory Google search to find out what it is that you’re speaking about first so you don’t look like a total idiot. For fucks sake.
So you’re moving Goalposts again?
Nobody was talking about a VPN for accessing your private home or company network. Even you were talking about a commercial VPN Providers…You’re really insufferable
Using a VPN for accessing your private, home or company network is the literal reason for which it was created and designed.
It’s in the fucking name, virtual private network. I don’t have to mention it like it’s somehow tangential or some kind of secondary and unused function of the technology. It is it’s literal primary focus.
I’m having a conversation with a literal child trying to explain to them the purpose of a network software that is self-evident in the fucking name of the software itself, and you have the balls to say that I’m insufferable? This community is fucking insufferable–filled to the brim with 12-year-olds that don’t know their ass from their elbow and assert with absolutisms without reading or understanding anything at all. It quite literally brings bile to the recesses of my mouth.
Mullvad didn’t pull port forwarding because of people abusing torrenting. They pulled it because interpol resorted to telling everyone to block their servers after mullvad wouldn’t/couldn’t assist in its investigation into csam sharing across forwarded ports using stuff as simple as the windows file and printer sharing system.
What caused them to pull port forwarding was the threat of being dropped from the routing table over stonewalling a police investigation into csam, not torrenting.
This is well documented and reflects the experience of many mullvad users including myself over the time period that it occurred. Saying that the decision had anything to do with torrenting is just false.
Mullvad didn’t remove port forwarding because people were torrenting too much they removed it because people were using it for real criminal activity like hacking and CP and they were getting heat for it.
I have no idea why you’re mentioning legal versus illegal torrenting as laws differ everywhere, they’re not banning OP for illegal activity, they’re not scanning all your files to determine whether it’s legal IP or not, and they’re banning him for using too much bandwidth.
Mullvad didn’t remove port forwarding because people were torrenting too much they removed it because people were using it for real criminal activity
Regardless of your personal feelings on the matter, pirating IP is illegal. The statement you just made is unabashedly stupid beyond all measure. Everything you listed are crimes.
I have no idea why you’re mentioning legal versus illegal torrenting as laws differ everywhere
There are less than 5 countries on the planet where pirating IP isn’t illegal. This isn’t a “well, it’s illegal in Arizona, but not in Idaho!” type of deal. It’s essentially illegal in every sovereign country on the planet save for a few.
This community is so incredibly naive and stupid sometimes. I swear to God.
The statement you just made is unabashedly stupid beyond all measure
It’s hilarious you keep making statements like this as every point you make has been shown to either be uninformed or completely false. I sense strong projection here…
Everything you listed are crimes.
Torrenting isn’t a crime and downloading others’ IP is also not a crime. Sharing others’ IP can be a crime in some jurisdictions. There is also a gap as wide as the Grand Canyon between sharing a Taylor Swift album and distributing child porn or hacking into government systems which is why I put a qualifier on my statement. I’m surprised a stable genius such as yourself couldn’t understand the difference. You’re basically claiming that speeding and murder are equivalent crimes here.
It’s essentially illegal in every sovereign country on the planet save for a few.
What exactly are you defining as illegal here and what’s the level of enforcement in all these locations? Weed is illegal everywhere in the US, and yet I have been able to drive down to a store and buy it for the past 10 years without issue. Once again you don’t seem to grasp what you’re discussing, and I notice that you conveniently left off the rest of that statement since you presumably can’t form a coherent rebuttal like we keep seeing in all of your other comments here. For someone who puts their intelligence in such high regard, your replies seem to be anything but.
Sweetheart, if you’re going to participate in online communication you need to keep up. And you need to read the entire statement and not just cherry pick like what you’re doing now. Not once did I ever say torrenting is illegal. I said very specifically an exactly that torrenting IP is illegal.
That’s not a contestable statement. It’s not an opinion. It’s a literal fact. There’s no politics here, where I say a statement that you disagree with and we agree to disagree. There’s no version of this where what I’ve said is wrong and you’re somehow correct. It’s a wholly truthful statement from start to finish… And you’re pretending like it’s not by cherry picking the very first part of it and convincing yourself that I’m saying that torrenting by itself is illegal and I think you know at least on some basic level of intelligence that that is not at all what I have said, and it’s concerning to me that maybe you don’t even understand that you’re doing it. It’s truly sad and pathetic thing to see…
Is there a “Confidently Incorrect” community here? Regardless, it always seems to be the most condescending people that make the most generalized and factually incorrect statements, then sneer at the person that was actually right… 🙄
Every part of your comment is wrong or false. Air, O, Proton. There’s 3 that are “mainstream”.
There’s multitudes of smaller providers that allow it.
Mullvad removed it because of CP and extremist content being hosted behind mullvad. It had nothing to do with torrenting as they had no problem with it for the many years.
Many countries don’t even acknowledge DMCA. Some have their own that have higher criteria for enforcement like the NL, others just don’t care. Hosted many things out of Vietnam, Kosovo, Hungary, etc.
It’s evident to me that you’re either stupid, or lack the ability to read. You make up your mind on which is which.
It’s not possible for a company, no matter where they are in the world to permit users to do things which are illegal. Period. Proton cannot allow their users to use their VPN to use the torrent network to download IP. As with any company anywhere in the world. To live in some state of reality to be unable to acknowledge this is the most insane shit I’ve ever seen in my life. You literally are living outside of reality here… The sheer level of stupidity here is fucking insane to me, so I’ll try one last time to put it into perspective for you;
I’ve said “Murder is illegal, no matter where you are. You can’t just kill people” and you’ve said quite unironically “GLOCK allows their customers to kill people, they’ve made murder legal.”
Do you genuinely not see how fucking idiotic and stupid you sound?
Many countries don’t even acknowledge DMCA.
This also has nothing to do with DMCA–which is a US law and cannot be enforced in other parts of the world. As I’ve said from the very beginning, theft of IP (torrent or otherwise) is individually illegal in all but less than 5 countries on this planet… It doesn’t matter how you do it, or where you do it. It’s always going to be illegal because all of the countries from which these VPN providers originate, it’s illegal in those countries.
I’ve done my very best to explain this very simple concept to you–that you can’t break the law just because you’re behind a VPN and they don’t actively pursue you for every little infraction–but if you still don’t understand it after all this, then do us both a favor and just take a vow of silence for the rest of your pitiable life.
I mean Jesus Christ.
The CEO of Windscribe is an Elon stan so you didn’t switch to a more left-leaning provider than Proton.
Holy shit, you’re not lying. The literal first Post on his Twitter
I suspect most CEOs are, The vast majority just have enough common sense not to ruin their relations with the 99 percenters.
Switch to ProtonVPN, they don’t have any problem with Torrents and allow unlimited bandwidth usage. Windscribe can go fuck themselves
OP says they switched away from Proton in the first sentence.
Man if OP has problems with CEOs then no one can help them, 90% of the CEOs are greedy retards who’d sell their kids for money if they could
Hard agree. Only CEO I think might not be 10000000% a psychotic sociopath is the CEO of Signal…but only cause she’s not said anything I personally disagree with…and a bunch of things I do agree with. That’s not exactly a great metric though…
What’s concerning to me is, how do they know what you use their services for if supposedly they don’t keep any logs. https://windscribe.com/privacy/ https://windscribe.com/features/no-identifying-logs/
There is a big difference between “not keeping logs” and “dont have a way to check what you are doing right now”.
No logs just means they can’t check what you did last week but they can always check the traffic you are producing in that moment. If they see traffic from a torrent protocol they know you are torrenting.
Edit: they do claim they do “No Monitoring” so yeah by their own words they should not be able to tell you are torrenting.
No Monitoring
We don’t monitor your activity and have no way of seeing what sites you are visiting. We do store when you last used Windscribe as well as the total amount of data used in a 30 day period (to enforce free account limitations and to prevent abuse).
It doesn’t take a genius to guess a forwarded port is used for torrenting though
Like most any paid VPN service they need to track bandwidth usage somewhat. They can’t see what you’re accessing but they can see how much of whatever it is. Windscribe also offers a free 10gb/mo plan so they do track it for that purpose as well, much like any VPN with a free tier would.
Sure, they say that they monitor bandwidth usage but how do they know it was used for torrenting.
It’s probably pretty obvious when terabytes of upload are accrued over a few days like what OP mentioned, by seeding 24/7.
Because I told them I used torrents. Their FAQ literally has a page with instructions for setting up torrents. Still does. I didn’t think it’d be an issue for them.
You told them after getting banned so either they saw you were torrenting or gave you a bs explanation and banned you just for your data usage.
Probably the latter. Doesn’t matter which it is though; they advertise both on their website.
Ha!
My ISP sends me emails saying (paraphrased) “we’re only forwarding this email because we have to. We don’t track your data and your IP logs are wiped every 30 days. Your best option is not to respond because then they would know who you are.”
What ISP are you with?
Windscribe encrypts your browsing activity, blocks ads, and unblocks entertainment content
so that was a lie
I think that refers to geoblocked content.
Agreed, but that’s also weird. Suddenly they’re the arbiter of what rules are okay to break and what aren’t? Sounds like they’re just trying to keep costs/traffic down.
Them calling it “unlimited” when there’s a limit is wrong, but so is using all of the available upload bandwidth 100% of the time on a cheap home VPN service when you consider the current market prices for data transfer. Mine’s limited to 200Kbps. Seems fair for $7/month or whatever it is.
Them calling it “unlimited” when there’s a limit is wrong, but so is using all of the available upload bandwidth 100% of the time on a cheap home VPN service when you consider the current market prices for data transfer. Mine’s limited to 2Mbps. Seems fair for $7/month or whatever it is.
they shouldn’t make it unlimited them, skill issue on their part.
If you’re selling me 1Gb networking speeds, with no bandwidth limit, it’s not my fault for using all of it lol. I’m just using what i pay for.
That’s technically within your legal rights I guess, just like (depending what the fine print says) it’s within their rights to throttle all your traffic one way or another to a low speed including the stuff you actually need to go faster. The places that always have low speeds for everyone are like that because they’re designed to cater to people who don’t give a shit about what their fair share might be and just want to max out their connection. Those services are fine for torrenting, useless for everything else. Windscribe isn’t one of those but it could become one if enough of its users think like you and insist on it.
Hopefully they’ll set a soft 2TB limit or something before they do that, though.
