Firewalled workarounds- OVPN $5/month and others

[xavier242]

VPNs with good connectivity with TTD's tracker (see thread 187203 as this may not matter):
OVPN
Torguard
Windscribe

Read this thread about being firewalled, especially note the TLDRs:
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...d.php?t=187203

I've been trying OVPN and that's been fun and interesting getting working. It's $5/month for the yearly plan.
Its Wireguard seems to be a bust, but OpenVPN is working. These are the settings I'm using in OVPN now:

General
ActivateIPv6 - disabled

Protocol
Connect using Wireguard - disabled
Connect using OpenVPN - enabled
Connect using TCP443 - disabled
Activate compression - disabled
Use recommended Encryption suite - enabled
Use Wintun driver - enabled

The interface used on my box for OpenVPN is Network Connection 3, and for Wireguard it's ovpn-wg. Yours may be different. You have to experiment with OVPN settings and watch what it does in Network Connections after connecting to a VPN server.

I'm not sure how good their privacy is with qBittorrent set to use Any Interfaces. You may want to bind to whatever network interface OVPN uses- that's in qBittorrent's Advanced Options->Network Interface.
https://www.ovpn.com/en/pricing

Make sure to forward a TCP/UDP port in OVPN:
https://www.ovpn.com/en/faq/functionality/opening-ports

Other useful stuff:
Uncheck use UPnP/NAT-PMP port forwarding in your torrent program.

To seed, set your torrent program port for incoming connections the same as the one you forwarded in OVPN.

For the mystery popups- after install you'll have something like "allow public connections?" You have to click yes or else no one can connect to you over the internet. IVPN (in Windows 7) will ask you each time you connect to a VPN server what type of network connection it is. Click "Work".

The 64bit version of OVPN WILL NOT install on Windows 7 64bit. You have to use the 32bit version of OVPN. Click yes to the driver warning. Reboot. This may not be an issue on Windows 10 or 11

They have MacOS and Linux versions too. Please post your experience if you try those.

[Crimson]

I've tried using a VPN here and the tracker won't allow to me connect giving a message in the tracker status that I can't remember. All my issues with performance here coincide with the implementation of Cloudflare. There have been many others reporting the same timing for them but some can't connect or seed at all. I couldn't connect either at the time Cloudflare was implemented but I can now. My performance is suffering badly but at least I'm able to connect, download and seed a little on busier torrents. I've been using the same client throughout which is uTorrent 3.5.5. When I was locked out I went to a different computer also running Windows 10 and with repeated attempts I was able to download. At that time, TTD would be closing so I wanted to pick up whatever I still needed for my collection before it closed for good. After a few weeks, I decided to try again with my desktop and then I was able to connect. Hard to expain for sure. I used to be able to seed well (despite the stealth firewalling by Xfinity) but now it's nearly impossible. My old average here was about one to one and a half. Now it's maybe one to .25 at very best. I'm thoroughly convinced that this marked difference was caused by Cloudflare. I hope this information helps get things right. I won't be able to maintain enough ratio to remain viable if the current situation continues. Thank you xavier for taking on this major challenge. We really appreciate you keeping TTD alive and well for the forseeable future.

[xavier242]

My testing with Cloudflare turned off (between 3am and 7am) showed no difference in anyone's connectable status (aka firewalled status). If Cloudflare is off during any other time, the site won't stay up more than a few minutes before becoming overloaded and the web server and tracker crashes.

My observation is that ones connectable status with TTD is not that useful in telling if you can connect with peers. I covered it in this post:
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...11#post3223811

Don't worry about your ratio. The current policy is that we need folks who are connectable to peers to seed gigs (otherwise bittorrent doesn't work). The ratio is not enforced. It essentially an honor system where you aim for 1:1. Those with better connections should aim for 4:1 to make up for those unable to seed. This is not a free-pass for hit-and-run.

I hope to update the FAQ soon with this info.

[Homebrew101]

I've been using Torguard for years and have no problems @ TTD

various pricing, I've been paying $30/year since I signed up.

[xavier242]

Originally Posted by Homebrew101

I've been using Torguard for years and have no problems @ TTD

various pricing, I've been paying $30/year since I signed up.

Thank you for the report. I'll add them to the list of known good VPNs.

[Riviera Nimrod]

I'm using Winscribe, static IP w/ port forward and it works great.

[xavier242]

I just found this:
https://www.ivpn.net/blog/gradual-re...rt-forwarding/

My IVPN port forwarding is still working but if I disconnect/reconnect it probably won't be. I'm reading the various discussions and hope to find some alternate VPN providers.

Does anyone use AirVPN and can seed to other members? On their VPN servers I tried, it's firewalled to the TTD tracker, but as I've posted before that doesn't mean much. What matters is are you connectable to someone trying to download from you. If you can seed to someone else, you are connectable to them (not firewalled to them).

[clorgie]

I just started using AirVPN after endless troubles with Torguard. Everything is working great everywhere except here. I seed fine with other trackers, ports show as open, other trackers show no firewall. But I can't seem to seed here at all. I've tried with a couple of recent torrents. Download is fine, but nothing seeding.

[Homebrew101]

Originally Posted by clorgie

I just started using AirVPN after endless troubles with Torguard. Everything is working great everywhere except here. I seed fine with other trackers, ports show as open, other trackers show no firewall. But I can't seem to seed here at all. I've tried with a couple of recent torrents. Download is fine, but nothing seeding.

I also use Torguard and ran into problems a month or so ago.

They advised me to try 1 of their networks outside of the US and that worked!

[clorgie]

Unfortunately the issue appears to be unrelated to the server I'm connected to. I'm not really a techie and I'm bummed that AirVPN appears to have troubles that, so far, only seem to affect TTD. I don't think this is a problem with XFinity, or I would have problems with no VPN, right? With no VPN things are very speedy and no shadow firewalling or anything seems to be a problem. I don't know. I'll probably just have to keep trying other services.

[clorgie]

Update: After changing the protocol in AirVPN to WireGuard (from TCP port 443), TDD still shows as Firewalled but I was able to seed some. Still need to test with the other tracker I use to make sure *it* didn't break. But maybe this is something to try.

[clorgie]

The saga continues. I have now moved to WindScribe, using wireguard, and am no longer showing as firewalled!

[Jettfan]

This is the only site like this that says I'm "Firewalled". On Zomb and Dime I am just fine.