I thought about publishing a Terraform module one time that spins up a cheap VPS, installs OpenVPN and then gives you a config with a certificate. You could run it for just a few hours at a time, and use destroy when you're done. But then I got really bored because I have ADHD.
this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Not a VPN, but you may also want to look into I2P.
https://proprivacy.com/privacy-service/guides/i2p-guide
https://youtube.com/watch?v=FNp0TRDG0BQ
Basically, a p2p protocol for the entire internet.
Its considerably more complicated to set up than most modern VPNs, where nowaday's its usually as simple as install an app with a GUI, verify some settings and you're good to go, and i2p is also quite slow...
... but its totally free, and you can torrent over it, and as far as I know, if you've set it up properly, it is basically undetectable by ISPs, due to how it uses 'garlic' routing: basically, a whole bunch of users net requests are encrypted, anonymized, and then smashed into a big packet... so an ISP would have to untangle all of that for every packet, and afaik, none of them have figured out how.
I2P would obviously be horrible for watching streaming content though, snail speed.
I love Mullvad, but if you need P2P its not the best option. If you just need a VPN, though, its amazing. Today I just switched to AirVPN and am running it on Arch through Eddie. Have my qbittorrent set up to only allow connections through Eddie and just forwarded my first port. I'm very happy with it.
I think the only downside is that I could get Mullvad for 5eur a month on a month by month basis. AirVPN is 7eur or 15eur for three months, so I have to lock into the three months to get the same price.
Worth noting that Italy (location of airvpn) hates vpns and is constantly fucking around with them, to the point air doesn't even actually operate in Italy to preserve users privacy. Right now, theres no immediate risk, but it' is worth keeping an eye on the political situation in Italy regarding VPN laws
I did read this somewhere before. I just have to take my chances at the moment. My other option was Windscribe, but unless you're paying for a year+ their prices are astronomical.
Yeah I use airvpn myself, its just worth throwing that info out for full transparency/disclosure
mullvad
Good choice for privacy, not so much for piracy. They removed their port forwarding feature a while ago.
IMHO if you don't have a globally-reachable address or forwarded port, you are not really a participant of the internet, you are just a receptacle xD
One service I never see mentioned is OVPN. They have a 1-to-1 feature parity with mullvad and were an easy drop-in replacement when mullvad closed their ports:
- wireguard
- port forwarding
- no usernames/emails/registration, only account numbers
- crypto payments/cash in the mail
- same price as mullvad
- multiple device keys
- multihop
- no bandwidth limits
- setup guides
- status dashboard
I used mullvad for years, sad to see them go, and all my scripts basically worked without any change other than the server addresses/public keys. Only downside is they don't have as many users so not as many servers. I wish more people would join up so I get more IPs to choose from :D
Mullvad is so great in a vacuum, but it seems like every other website has you writing out a captcha or blocking you outright exclusively because you're on mullvad.
Yes! And on top of it, embedded YouTube is also starting to block access
I've decided I'm not using websites that block mullvad anymore. I'm talking about a hard block like reddit does and not a captcha (captcha is fine by me).
If they're doing that much trouble to prevent me from using a VPN they must me doing some pretty shady shit with my data.
I will not move to another VPN because of all VPNs I feel Mullvad respects my privacy most.
I've used AirVPN for this exact setup and it works great. The port forwarding is static and doesn't change once setup. I switched to proton because it was convenient, I was already paying for ProtonMail et all, so I dropped the extra VPN subscription when it renewed.
I'll add another recommendation for Windscribe. I've had a lifetime subscription since 2017 and have never had issues. I use it for normal internet usage pretty much daily and the occasional torrenting.
Great for use on my phone when I want to use public/airport wifi
If you just want the tunnel encryption you can try hosting a VPN on your own home network. It's what I do since I don't need to spoof my location.
You are asking in the piracy community so I'm assuming you're also using it to torrent (which a home VPN won't help with) but you didn't specifiy so I'm not sure
What's going on with Proton the company?
Edit: ah fuck, thanks for the replies. Sigh.
Their CEO praised Trump/the Republican Party. He got widely criticised for it. Proton released a damage control statement but later deleted it after it made things worse.
People are now moving away from Proton as a result.
https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e worth a read regarding that situation.
It would be more accurate to say some people are moving away. The majority of their users are quite happy where they are.
"Time to find a CEO who has yet to publicly express their fascist sympathies..."
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Just FYI, the majority of Proton AG (which includes all Proton services) is owned by a non-profit body called the "Proton Foundation". This are headed by a board of 5 members, including Andy (CEO) and Tim Berners-Lee (the literal father of the internet as we know it).
Proton is fine.
Andy yen praising trump is one thing and I kind of don’t care about that so much. What I do care about is how proton practices predatory sales to cash in on FOMO. Or if you subscribe for one month it’s an auto renewing subscription. Or that the best rates are if you sign up for a year. It’s weird for a not-for-profit structure to do billing like this
Mullvad doesn’t play games. A flat price and you get what you pay for.
Andy Yen may have praised one situation, but doesn't seem to support Trump overall. https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e
The CEO said that Trump chose a great pick and sided with Republicans and there was a firestorm over it, he doubled down on his position through the official Proton channel.
https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e worth a read regarding that situation.
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Just throwing in another voice for PIA. Their corporate owners may be questionable, but I've been with them since before they sold out and have never heard a peep from my ISP for seeding terabytes of torrents. They don't keep logs, and they are audited to prove it regularly.
EDIT: They also have port forwarding, but not for every exit server.
AirVPN, IVPN, Mullvad, Windscribe
The requirement for port forwarding narrows that down to AirVPN and Windscribe, which is an unfortunately small set of choices.
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