cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com/t/2046624

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.

  • jonathan@lemmy.zipEnglish
    1035·
    3 days ago

    I have a feeling the “especially for the amount you do” is an important factor here.

    • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
      51·
      2 days ago

      Yep if you run a seedbox you shouldn’t be surprised if consumer-grade offerings don’t want you on their service, they provision their capacities, whole business model, for a certain average usage.

      There’s a huge difference between “I downloaded that ISO because I needed it and am going to seed it 24/7 because I’m too lazy to turn off my PC in the evening” and “I grab every fresh release and mirror it”.

      OP you gotta pro up. You don’t want a VPN you want a server or rackspace at a datacentre or IXP. If all you’re seeding really is linux ISOs talking to the right people even might get you free access to overcapacity, as in free transit to wherever your location doesn’t pay transit for, and whatever minute-by-minute capacity doesn’t cost them anything on the upstream (those links are billed by max bandwidth used, not transfer volume, so if there’s a lull in their traffic you can soak it up and all it costs is electricity).

    • maus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Lol my home hosted seedbox would break that 10TB limit at least x5 over in a month. Absolutely ridiculously low limit for calling something “unlimited”.

      I’m glad Air doesn’t care how many TB I’m uploading a month.

      • y0din@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        3 days ago

        I do not work there, just referenced the terms of conditions from their website, so you need to ask them the questions, but I think having a 1Gb connection with 30TB of seeding will eat up that pretty fast either way and also cause a mayhem of incoming connections, so it can hardly be considered private use (based on their definition)

        Again, I have no reference to the company, so all questions should be forwarded to them not me. I simply gave a possible reasoning of the ban from their terms.

        edit: added info about their definition of private use

        • Theoriginalthon@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          3 days ago

          Wasn’t aimed at you, more of an observation, fttp in the UK is usually sold as 150/150 or 900/900(ish) with some areas having the option for 2.5gbps it’s like when it first launched and ISPs had usage quotas that could be gone in 3 hours of full usage

          • y0din@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            sorry, since you asked a question I just felt the need to clarify 🙂

            The ISP products you mentioned really don’t seem consumer-friendly. I understand that ISPs might benefit from setting byte limits, since they incur costs for both inbound and outbound traffic to transit providers. However, from a consumer perspective, it’s a poor deal—especially since most people don’t have the tools to manage their usage effectively and can burn through their quota far too quickly, just like you pointed out.

            It all comes down to costs and earnings in the end for all products unfortunately.

  • _thebrain_@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    26·
    3 days ago

    Airvpn can generate a pure wireguard (or openvpn) config. No vendor specific GUI needed. I have several boxes using it and have had zero issues. Plus their support is awesome.

    • pulsewidth@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      3 days ago

      Can also vouch for AirVPN. Going on 7 years now with no issues.

      They do excellent discounts aound black Friday so you can pay for the year(s) ahead if you do decide to use them long term.

    • Yggstyle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      3 days ago

      This. Works flawlessly for obscuring filesharing from your provider and supports multiple connections. I’ve got the router splitting traffic across 4 different nodes and it’s a good balance of speed and security.

      Personally, any provider that is selling a VPN and is feigning this holier than thou attitude shouldn’t be trusted with anything. If they are looking that hard at your traffic - I doubt they’d bat an eye at giving your data to anyone asking. Fuck that.

  • Zikeji@programming.devEnglish
    14·
    3 days ago

    I have used AirVPN for half a decade and never ran into any issues, if you’re looking for an alternative with port forwarding.

    • maus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      This is what I use, the 36 month pricing is just so cheap. Probably run 50-80TB of traffic through it a month for years without any problem.

      Really like the dynamic wire guard configs that allows you to bounce between servers in a small geographic area. Perfect for keeping private tracker admins happy

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    3 days ago

    Is spinning up your own out of the question? I pay $6/mo. for a Digital Ocean droplet. Installed OpenVPN server on it and I’ve been good to go for years. Their step-by-step documentation is the best I’ve ever encountered, seriously. Only got hung up on one tiny bit.

    • DoPeopleLookHere@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      16·
      3 days ago

      The problem is the for torrenting traffic is still traceable to you specifically.

      Where an aggregate VPN that keeps no logs isn’t able to discern who was using what connection at what time.

      If your only goal is to prevent your ISP from seeing traffic, sure. Otherwise it’s not “better” solution.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Meh. I turn it, pirate. Turn of off when I’m done. No issues unless I fuck up and leave the torrent running for 24-hours.

  • Nurse_Robot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1714·
    3 days ago

    Taking everything you said at face value, it might be worth contacting a lawyer to sue for false advertising, assuming you’re comfortable with the risk of them selling you out for illegal hosting of content, for which you could countersue for privacy violations. It could make for a fun and action packed next ten years!

  • anon@lemmus.orgEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    I’ve been torrenting with them in the past. I’ve since moved to Mullvad, but Windscribe didn’t have a problem with it about three months ago.

    • Cort@lemmy.worldEnglish
      161·
      3 days ago

      Police: if you’re not doing anything illegal, you wouldn’t mind if I strip searched you, right?

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
    11100·
    3 days ago

    How dare they block you for doing illegal activity!

    Did you not read the ToS? It is hard to feel sympathy for you.