The Truth About VPNs: What You Need to Know
(open.substack.com)
from Petersnowden@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 21 Apr 2025 09:01
https://lemmy.ml/post/28927317
from Petersnowden@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 21 Apr 2025 09:01
https://lemmy.ml/post/28927317
Which VPN to choose and why
threaded - newest
I’ve used Mullvad for years, but the lack of port-forwarding is becoming a pain in the proverbial. I’d been considering OVPN, but does anyone have any experience with that, IVPN or Proton? What do you consider the better option?
I’ve been using OVPN with port forwarding for a couple of years, it works great for my use cases.
I haven’t used other providers, so I can’t really compare to others though.
Same. I’ve used OVPN for years, port forwarding seems to work as I get the green check in rutorrent. I haven’t tried others.
IVPN removed port-forwarding two years ago.
Protons port forwarding works fine for me. I use it mainly via gluetun as a vpn layer for some docker containers.
Bear with me here, as I know sweet FA about docker containers, but am I right unthinking you only really use it in your container, as opposed to running it on whole devices, or your router? What’s the advantage of that?
AFAIK the selling point of gluetun is that the traffic from e.g. a qbittorrent container is guaranteed to go through the VPN - this is also what one would need port forwarding for
Ah, so essentially, you’re achieving a similar result to port-forwarding while still using Mullvad by the container forcing all qbittorrent’s connection to go through Mullvad. That’s actually a pretty ideal situation for me, I’d much rather keep using Mullvad if possible, I’ll have to go learn how all this works. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction
No, your VPN provider needs to offer port forwarding for that to work. You can still use qbittorrent without port forwarding, but it’ll be harder to find peers which could lower your speeds
I’m using Mullvad at the moment as well and looking to change for the same reason. I’ve been looking at switching to AirVPN once all my credit runs out on Mullvad. They have a similar model to Mullvad, but they allow port forwarding.
PIA is working quite well with this container.
github.com/haugene/docker-transmission-openvpn
OVPN and IVPN are both solid , you can go for either ! Proton doesn’t support port forwarding on any tier
Proton VPN absolutely does support port forwarding, just not on the free tier.
IVPN don’t allow port forwarding either.
I realise port forwarding is something lots of people want but the reasons are nothing to do with privacy. Mullvad remains, in my opinion, the best solution for those whose priority is privacy.
I don’t understand why so many privacy respecting vpns just lack port forwarding. It’s really frustrating and I don’t know why mullvad would remove it.
Something to do with it enabling nonces I think
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My recommendation: www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/
Only mentioning Reddit to say that r/vpn has a spreadsheet you can DL to view VPNs and lists what they offer.
Windscribe Supports port-forwarding and they rank pretty well in privacy regards too but they are certainly rank a tier lower than IVPN and Mullvad. Guess it comes down to your priorities here
This was talking about protonvpn Bitcoin is not at all anonymous all transactions are completely public for everyone to view.
The issue is also that they’re all either run by Israel or intelligence agencies, or they comply with their backdoor access to everything.
If it was actually a good, private vpn free from government spying, the governments would shut it down.