Hi,
So I always had my VPN on while torrenting but I was recently caught with my pants down and got a letter from my ISP.
In qbitorrent, I switchout out my interface for my VPN interface as I was told that was how you bind the VPN to the torrent client. However, when torrenting, if I disable my VPN nothing pauses. So I am not sure if im missing something or thats normal and my ISP wont do anything because qbitorrent is not actually doing anything anymore.
Thanks for the help!
In Settings > Advanced choose your VPN from the Network Interface drop down and then leave it alone. Never change it and you’ll stay bound. Check it every time your VPN software or qbittorrent updates.
Are you absolutely positive you selected the correct interface? 'Cause if you’ve been using lo eth0 or basically anything that is clearly your default interface then you haven’t been using the right one. Typically on, Windows for example, the interface for your VPN is named accordingly. AKA: your VPN provider is the name of the interface. Whereas on Linux and Mac you’ll have to verify the network interfaces yourself via the Terminal.
When, binding QBT to your VPN interface what it does is it disallows QBT from connecting to the internet without the specific VPN interface. AKA, when the VPN drops it should not be able to access the Internet because the network interface that was bound to it (the vpn) is no longer accessible (no internet connection).
If you don’t mind me asking, what VPN are you using? And most importantly have you taken a look at this guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/VPNTorrents/comments/ssy8vv/guide_bind_vpn_network_interface_to_torrent/
The guide linked above is a tremendous help in ensuring you’re binding to the correct interface. Another potential cause of the IP leak is the use of IPV6 addresses In Settings>Advanced for Optional IP address to bind to change “All addresses” to “All ipv4 addresses”
Unless you’re using a VPN that actually encrypts ipv6 network traffic, then you’re bound to leak your ipv6 address, therein leaking your real-world IP address. -Which, a surprising amount of VPN providers do NOT provide protection for. In the event that you’ve bound QBT to the correct network interface, it’s likely that this is the cause of the leak.
And most importantly, depending on the VPN you’re using it could very well just be that they don’t support P2P (torrenting) connections and are purposefully leaking your real IP because they fucking hate you lol. In any case verify that your particular VPN provider actually allows P2P connections on their servers. You can pretty easily do this by looking up your VPN provider + qbittorrent, torrenting, or P2P connections/servers in NOT GOOGLE because they will purposefully obscure results like that. Use duckduckgo dot com to find results…
For reference, there’s only a handful of trustworthy VPN services that allow P2P connections and even fewer that allow P2P connections and port forwarding via NAT. From what I’ve managed to find from both user review and personal review of their privacy policy, logs policy, services provided, etc the only worthwhile VPN providers for torrenting are; AirVPN, Windscribe, ProtonVPN & Mullvad. Of course they all have their pros and cons, but one thing to point out is that AirVPN is NOT beginner friendly in the slightest in any way shape or form. They’re quite possibly the cheapest option in the list but unless you have a firm grasp of networking and basic IT stuff then you’ll have a horrible time trying to set it up for torrenting as literally every single guide for QBT on the forum is severely outdated or very specific to that particular user’s use-case. Meaning it will very likely not suit your use-case.
Whereas, Mullvad, ProtonVPN, & Windscribe are incredibly user friendly. Basically one-and-done setup. Though, it’s highly recommended to look through the various options available to you to better configure it for torrenting and overall security/privacy.
TLDR: You may not be using the correct network interface for your VPN. Your VPN may not support ipv6 (meaning that your ipv6 address is in use and NOT encrypted at any given time), meaning that it is leaking your ipv6 address, therein leaking your real address. Or it could simply be that your particular VPN provider doesn’t support P2P (torrenting) network traffic and is straight up dropping your VPN connection or purposefully leaking your real IP due to them absolutely despising you.
It’s worth noting that the torrents won’t change to a “paused” state. They just won’t be able up upload or download. They would most likely show as “stalled”
if I disable my VPN nothing pauses.
How long did you wait?
Data transfer stops but qBit transfer speed looks like it doesn’t stop immediately because qBit shows the average speed. It takes a few seconds for the average to drop to 0.
Looks like you were right about me not using the correct interface. I use ProtonVPN so I have access to P2P servers and they got a guide on their website as to which interface is the actual VPN.
As for the IPv6 issue, I don’t think its a problem because Proton actually protects IPv6 addresses as well.
Thanks a lot the for guide, problems should all be solved now.
Ah, I see. Well, that works for me. Thanks for the info!
I wait about a minute between each test. I also found out the real issue thanks to another comment pointing me to a guide on binding VPNs to clients.
Also, does my ISP see anything if the speed is 0? like I’m trying to connect to download or something? or do they not see a thing the moment the speed gets to 0?
So isn’t it leaking if my VPN is off but qbit still says I’m seeding?
They don’t see anything because, if binding is set correctly, you aren’t connected to your ISP.
By the way, your ISP is not watching your torrents. It’s other peers working for copyright holders.
No.
As I said, data transfer stops.
Binding is like saying you may only use this door. If that door (VPN Interface) is gone then there is no way to transfer data.
Ah, I see. Thank you for the info!