cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/[email protected]/t/2046624

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.

  • Nurse_Robot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    11 days ago

    Taking everything you said at face value, it might be worth contacting a lawyer to sue for false advertising, assuming you’re comfortable with the risk of them selling you out for illegal hosting of content, for which you could countersue for privacy violations. It could make for a fun and action packed next ten years!

  • Zikeji@programming.devEnglish
    1·
    11 days ago

    I have used AirVPN for half a decade and never ran into any issues, if you’re looking for an alternative with port forwarding.

    • haych@feddit.ukEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      +1 for AirVPN. I got a year during I think the Halloween sale. Cheap, easy to configure for Gluetun, haven’t had any issues at all. And it Ports Forward which is a huge plus.

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Is spinning up your own out of the question? I pay $6/mo. for a Digital Ocean droplet. Installed OpenVPN server on it and I’ve been good to go for years. Their step-by-step documentation is the best I’ve ever encountered, seriously. Only got hung up on one tiny bit.

    • DoPeopleLookHere@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      11 days ago

      The problem is the for torrenting traffic is still traceable to you specifically.

      Where an aggregate VPN that keeps no logs isn’t able to discern who was using what connection at what time.

      If your only goal is to prevent your ISP from seeing traffic, sure. Otherwise it’s not “better” solution.

    • Yggstyle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      01·
      11 days ago

      This. Works flawlessly for obscuring filesharing from your provider and supports multiple connections. I’ve got the router splitting traffic across 4 different nodes and it’s a good balance of speed and security.

      Personally, any provider that is selling a VPN and is feigning this holier than thou attitude shouldn’t be trusted with anything. If they are looking that hard at your traffic - I doubt they’d bat an eye at giving your data to anyone asking. Fuck that.

  • jonathan@lemmy.zipEnglish
    11·
    11 days ago

    I have a feeling the “especially for the amount you do” is an important factor here.

    • maus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      10 days ago

      Lol my home hosted seedbox would break that 10TB limit at least x5 over in a month. Absolutely ridiculously low limit for calling something “unlimited”.

      I’m glad Air doesn’t care how many TB I’m uploading a month.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
    01·
    11 days ago

    How dare they block you for doing illegal activity!

    Did you not read the ToS? It is hard to feel sympathy for you.