Port Forwarding with qBitorrent and ProtonVPN?

Questions
1

So I read the guide setup Port Forwarding with qBitorrent and ProtonVPN.

But, I was downloading something and left my computer.

ProtonVPN must’ve disconnected / lost it’s connection. Then, when it reconnected, the active port number had changed.

qBittorrent must’ve resumed the downloads when ProtonVPN reconnected, as the External IP shown in the footer was different from the one shown in ProtonVPN.

Did I set it up wrong? Or is this a risk you have to take?

Also, how can you safely start qBittorrent if you can only enter the port number when qBittorrent is running?

Surely, as soon as you start QB, it connects without the right port entered?

Thanks

2

Tools → Preferences → Advanced → Network interface and there select your VPN

https://github.com/qbittorrent/wiki/blob/c85b15bc8ae8571362a28813a97a2d6a0174aa80/How-to-bind-your-vpn-to-prevent-ip-leaks.md

3

@Privy ProtonVPN is known for changing the port number frequenly, or every time when you reconnect ProtonVPN. Happens to all of us who uses qBittorent and ProtonVPN.

The link that any1 mentioned is a good way to bind qBittorrent to ProtonVPN if you haven’t set it up already. This prevents qBittorrent from sending torrent traffic outside the VPN tunnel. Like a kill switch.

For the port number, you still need to update it manually when ProtonVPN reconnects.

Alternatively, you can setup qBittorrent and ProtonVPN (with Gluetun) in Docker with a Linux server or your computer. Then you can change the port automatically when ProtonVPN connects

4

Hello, I am the person who wrote the guide, however, I do not use ProtonVPN or qBitTorrent anymore (although I doubt they have changed much since I wrote that guide).

Unfortunately, ProtonVPN changing the port everytime a new connection is made is intentional, as this is done to prevent people from abusing it to host illegal content (what happened to Mullvad and IVPN). There is no way around. There is an app for windows called Quantum that can automatically update the port for you everytime it changes, but I cannot verify the safety of the app, nor has it been updated since 2024, so that is use at your own risk. Otherwise, if you don’t want to deal with the port changing, there is another anonymous VPN called AirVPN, which lets you port forward and it doesn’t change the port. However, AirVPN is based in the US and has not been audited, so once again, use at your own risk.

As for the downloads restarting and other potential safety issues, as long as you binded the VPN interface to qBitTorrent as described in my guide (step 2 under “How to Configure qBitTorrent”), you will be fine, as this prevents qBitTorrent from downloading unless your VPN is connected. The port entered into qBitTorrent does not affect this at all. All that happens if the port is set incorrectly is that if qBitTorrent tries to connect to anyone else who did not enable port forwarding, the connection will fail, resulting in downloads either being slower or just outright failing. There is no security risk to using the wrong port number, it just simply makes your downloads slower (and causes some to fail). So as long as your VPN interface is binded to qBitTorrent, you can change the port settings as much as you want and there will be no security risk.

5

AirVPN is based in Italy.

6

What about Windscribe?

7

Windscribe only supports port forwarding for OpenVPN, no? I could be wrong. I just recall having issues with it when I tried to use it. Luckily, Transmission supports NAT-PMP (which Proton VPN uses). Though I did have to use LD_PRELOAD to change the static IP that libnatpmp tries to communicate with. That was annoying.

9

wrote about Docker and Gluetun, didn’t see it above, apologies!

10

I don’t think this hold. There is a key limitation depending on whether you use the official Windscribe app or a manual, custom configuration:

Using the Windscribe App: You can easily use port forwarding with both OpenVPN and WireGuard. You simply buy a static IP, set up the port forward rule in your web account, and connect via the protocol of your choice in the app.

Using a Manual Config (Router/Third-Party App): If you are bypasssing the official Windscribe app and generating a manual configuration file, port forwarding is only supported via OpenVPN. Windscribe’s custom-generated WireGuard configuration files do not currently support port forwarding rules.

11

Is there a guide anywhere on how to do this with Proton and Transmission?

12

I had to string together several different guides. I may be able to write a full guide incorporating all the elements, but it will take me a little while.

13

I wrote a guide. Let me know if you have issues.