I am looking to buy a VPN subscription, and im interested in getting one that allows port forwarding. Found a few that still allows this, including pure VPN and air VPN which seem to offer good value for money, at least on the the long term plans. Any feedback on these two?

I used to have nordvpn, and used it for 3 years, and once that subscription ran out, have been using mullvad so far. Performance wise mullvad hasnt disappointed me or anything, but now im looking to find one that allows port forwarding.

I also have a doubt regarding the whole port forwarding thing, does the VPN having this feature enable to do it even if my ISP doesnt allow port forwarding? From the videos and articles I read, VPN port forwarding is just something you do inside their native apps and such, so if the ISP hasnt enabled port forwarding for me (which I know it hasnt, because tried to get jellyfin working the other day, and couldnt get the ports to open even after setting everything up in my router), will I still be able to do it? I tried searching around with this query, but didnt really find anything.

  • svotay@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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    1 year ago

    I do not have a defined purpose exactly. What felt appealing to me about having something like port forwarding with a VPN subscription, it would mean I can avail it wherever I physically am, and without having to give any consideration to whether my ISP at the moment allows me to or not, since my living situation is a bit fluid and I move around a bit. If I am able to avail it, wouldnt I be able to avail some self hosted services, like jellyfin, regardless of where I am, and be able to share with friends and family.

    • thorbot@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m still not sure why you’re trying to use port forwarding in that case. You can just use the VPN service on any device from anywhere. Port forwarding is typically only for someone hosting a server inside their network that they want outside people to be directed to when browsing to their public IP address. You don’t need it for torrenting.

      • svotay@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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        1 year ago

        As I understand it, port forwarding is very much needed for torrenting when you’re seeding. But in my case, I was curious about using a service like jellyfin for sharing my media to people I know over internet, a service which does require open ports.

        • Pulp@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Definitely recommend using port forwarding for seeding. But seems like you want multiple ports. Have to make sure the provider you use allows that. Alternatively you could use VPN to port forward your torrent client and cloudflare tunnels to allow access to Jellyfin

          • svotay@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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            1 year ago

            I dont really need the use of multiple ports simultaneously. Im ashamed to say it, but I do not do that much seeding, I use mostly public websites with public trackers. So its not really for the torrenting aspect I was curious about port forwarding about. As I mentioned in my post, it was when I was trying to see whether I can set up a jellyfin service for people I know to access my music that I found my ports cannot be opened. So it was with regard to that my post was initially about. Anyways, thanks for your input.

        • thorbot@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s not required at all. It helps if you want to set up a seed box specifically for boosting your ratio but you can run a torrent program without port forwarding and it works just fine. I’ve been doing it for 10+ years.