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.

  • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
    51·
    3 days ago

    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.

    • Xanza@lemm.eeEnglish
      14·
      2 days ago

      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.

      • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
        51·
        2 days ago

        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.

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
          12·
          2 days ago

          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.