this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
561 points (97.8% liked)

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

60040 readers
335 users here now

⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.

Rules • Full Version

1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy

2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote

3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others



Loot, Pillage, & Plunder

📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):

🏴‍☠️ Other communities

Torrenting/P2P:

Gaming:


💰 Please help cover server costs.

Ko-Fi Liberapay
Ko-fi Liberapay

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

I think you should give surfshark a go I've been using it for over a year every day all day and it's flawless.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 16 hours ago

Their own website says they allow p2p so I would see what your options are for getting a refund. If you purchased with a credit card, file a chargeback and include the documentation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

proton CEO starting spewing politcal BS

Context, please?

[–] sus 16 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

What started it I think is this twitter post praising trump and the republican party: https://xcancel.com/andyyen/status/1864436449942110660

He later doubled down on it (if I recall correctly) and the company has generally been making some highly questionable decisions since

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Alright, have you actually read his tweet?

I know you just linked it, but have you actually read it, the context, and given it some thought?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (2 children)

Goddamnit, I just made an email with them, trying to get out of google's monopoly. Does anyone know an email service that doesn't suck?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

The whole "scandal" is bullshit.

Look at the linked tweet, mate. Trump appointed Gil Slater as Assistant Attorney General or the Antitrust Division.

Slater was known for being anti-Big Tech.

Yen is famously anti-Big Tech.

He calls the appointment a good choice.

That's it. He doesn't say "Trump is great", he doesn't say ANYTHING about Trump himself, he just comments that "appointing this person (who we know is anti-Big Tech) to a high position in the Antitrust Division is a good choice".

But since we live in the world where saying "Trump, maybe, potentially, accidentally did something good" means you're in a cult because you didn't call to hang him for everything he does, we are where we are.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

That is in the back of my mind. God help me I may just do it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

It's definitely a bandwidth usage thing, given their reputation for being informal in communications they could have been a lot nicer about that.

It's really disappointing to see this from them, they were one the best priced VPNs out there claiming to respect privacy. Their support was also super helpful with my questions about their datacenter static IPs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Tailscale + mullvad integration works great if you want port forwarding and at about the same price as mullvad VPN.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

How does this work??? I thought I wouldn't be able to use Mullvad with port forwarding. Would I need to have a vps? Would the VPS not disallow me for connecting to VPN or detecting p2p traffic?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Since y'all probably know more about VPNs than me, is Mullvad any good? I bought them to use for torrents, though haven't tried seeding anything yet. I assume they're good with that?

Also, anyone know if they're run by MAGA creeps?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Mullvad are Swedish and the most privacy respecting out there, so that's an excellent choice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

I second this, Mullvad is awesome, and after trying Windscribe, NordVPN, and ProtonVPN, I ended up switching to Mullvad a few weeks ago and I haven't looked back.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 16 hours ago

They are who I use, never heard of anything fishy with them.

The fact that you can pay by mailing in cash is pretty cool.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 day ago (3 children)

What's concerning to me is, how do they know what you use their services for if supposedly they don't keep any logs. https://windscribe.com/privacy/ https://windscribe.com/features/no-identifying-logs/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

It was submitted in the chat…

[–] [email protected] 16 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

There is a big difference between "not keeping logs" and "dont have a way to check what you are doing right now".

No logs just means they can't check what you did last week but they can always check the traffic you are producing in that moment. If they see traffic from a torrent protocol they know you are torrenting.

Edit: they do claim they do "No Monitoring" so yeah by their own words they should not be able to tell you are torrenting.

No Monitoring

We don’t monitor your activity and have no way of seeing what sites you are visiting. We do store when you last used Windscribe as well as the total amount of data used in a 30 day period (to enforce free account limitations and to prevent abuse).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 13 hours ago

It doesn't take a genius to guess a forwarded port is used for torrenting though

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Like most any paid VPN service they need to track bandwidth usage somewhat. They can't see what you're accessing but they can see how much of whatever it is. Windscribe also offers a free 10gb/mo plan so they do track it for that purpose as well, much like any VPN with a free tier would.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ha!

My ISP sends me emails saying (paraphrased) “we’re only forwarding this email because we have to. We don’t track your data and your IP logs are wiped every 30 days. Your best option is not to respond because then they would know who you are.”

[–] [email protected] 6 points 14 hours ago

What ISP are you with?

[–] [email protected] 267 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The CEO of Windscribe is an Elon stan so you didn't switch to a more left-leaning provider than Proton.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago

I suspect most CEOs are, The vast majority just have enough common sense not to ruin their relations with the 99 percenters.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 day ago

Holy shit, you're not lying. The literal first Post on his Twitter

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago (5 children)

“It’s not allowed… especially in the amounts you do it” LMAO. It’s against the rules but we let him murder some people, just so long as it doesn’t get out of hand 🤪

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Perhaps murder is a bit extreme. It's more like "we've noticed you're taking woodchips from the playground. That's not allowed. We wouldn't mind if you were just taking a few chips, but you've taken 2 tons."

[edit] But putting analogies aside, the service really should make rules and restrictions like this clear in advance. That seems like the real failing here, rather than the rule itself.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

If the service is advertised as no data limit, aka "take as man woodchips as you like" they shouldn't track back on it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago

Sure. I agree that's the problem; and none of these analogies really help make that any easier to understanding. Certainly they don't have a "murder as much as you like" policy! (I find that analogies are rarely useful - except for manipulating how you want people to feel.)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

More like they operate a tollroad to the playground and are concerned about why there's so many trucks of wood chips costing them much more to maintain the road to the playground. And OP freely admitted they're taking truckloads of woodchips from the playground.

Except the analogy also doesn't work because ultimately piracy isn't taking, it's just copying and sharing copies. There isn't really a good analogy without directly describing digital distribution and piracy. Maybe an analogy involving a solar farm and a transmission company? Except that gets into technical details that are just as technical as just explaining it as it is

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

The analogy works fine, the problem here isn't about pirating, it's about bandwidth

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago (10 children)

I thought this was your Internet service provider. This is a VPN service? Holy shit what's the point of a VPN with rules like this. Fuck em. I use proton and am looking to switch because the CEO is a right-winger but they don't pull this shit.

load more comments (10 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›