What is actually port-forwarding in VPN? why would it effect torrenting and seeding?

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From what I read, Mullvad's issue is that open ports let people run servers, on which illegal material can be hosted, which brings too much bad attention from law enforcement.

Also, as a second point, if you are connected to a VPN server and using port forwarding, it makes it MUCH easier for someone working at the datacenter the VPN server is located in to isolate your traffic and determine which connected IP address is the one associated with the open port.

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When you run a server, you have to open a port so people on the outside can connect to your server. So, if you run the server behind a VPN, you need port forwarding, which isn't always available with VPN providers. All those using torrents or hosting Plex servers or similar who bought Mullvad for this specific reason feel ripped off now.

To directly answer your question, when you seed torrents, people who want to download from you have to access your torrent files through an open port on your network.

All those who are in private trackers groups have to maintain a certain level of seeding to be able to stay in those groups ...

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Just wondering if someone can please give a quick answer, this port forwarding thing would not affect me getting DMCA from downloading anything, right? I feel I've never set it up...

If you have never set up any ports in Mullvad, then there's nothing to worry about. As long as you're always using mullvad whenever torrenting, then you'll never get a DMCA.

In other words, if you've never even set up ports, this has zero effects on you.

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I understand the concept of port-forwarding in routers

That's all you need know. When you're on the VPN, Mullvad is your router.

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Is anyone hosting Plex? Have you been affected?

Yeah my Plex server will be dead in the water without port forwarding thanks to my ISP's use of CGNAT.

I'll be dropping Mullvad and either switch to AirVPN or i'll try and get Plexargod up and running. Looks like a pain in the ass, most port related things imho but we'll see. https://github.com/danielewood/plexargod

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This is the exact type of reasons why I use docker and gluten in my homelab. I can run qbittorent through my iVPN gluten docker container which runs downloading and seeding over the vpn connection in the backend, but all of my services like jellyfin, adguard dns (forwarders pointing to iVPN dns) and what not (including the qbittorent portal) are still accessible over my domain network through cloudflare and traefik reverse proxy. Meaning, although the backend traffic is routed through the VPN container, all the services themselves are accessible through my normal (non-vpn) network.

My downloads stay hidden from ISP, my network stays protected and still accessible through traefik and only local port forwarding for http and https are needed (for just the reverse proxy).