this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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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.

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[–] kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago

Look in to I2P

[–] kbal@fedia.io 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Them calling it "unlimited" when there's a limit is wrong, but so is using all of the available upload bandwidth 100% of the time on a cheap home VPN service when you consider the current market prices for data transfer. Mine's limited to 2Mbps. Seems fair for $7/month or whatever it is.

Edit: Oh right it was 2Mbps. I spent 20 minutes surveying datacentre prices around the world to come up with that number, but bandwidth prices vary widely and might've changed by now.

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Them calling it “unlimited” when there’s a limit is wrong, but so is using all of the available upload bandwidth 100% of the time on a cheap home VPN service when you consider the current market prices for data transfer. Mine’s limited to 2Mbps. Seems fair for $7/month or whatever it is.

they shouldn't make it unlimited them, skill issue on their part.

If you're selling me 1Gb networking speeds, with no bandwidth limit, it's not my fault for using all of it lol. I'm just using what i pay for.

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[–] COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

[–] gamer@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (12 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?

[–] nul9o9@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week 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.

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Thanks for the note OP. Which VPN providers are you looking at for public torrents?

[–] Alaknar@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago (46 children)

proton CEO starting spewing politcal BS

Context, please?

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