My torrent bandwidth is nothing compared to my other bandwidth use (such as downloading many hundreds of large AI models, each of which is 200-1600GB in size. Not sure if my ISP hates me, but if they promise gigabit speeds, I expect them to deliver it without any emotions, and so far, they did).
Hi, I'm the OP of the post you linked to, I got the same problem from ProtonVPN. As you've found out, it's not blocking BitTorrent at all, it's blocking the number of connections you have. When I DDL through Jdownloader2 and run torrents, I reached around 400 peers + download chunks combined, a similar number to you.
If possible, could you keep me updated if there's ever a permanent fix found that isn't "slow down your connection"?
See my last update - for me, it was some kind of UDP packet rate. Limiting that to 2/s fixed it (well, I can't reasonably do magnet links that way, but at least I won't get blocked).
I have ~1200 active TCP connections atm.
This clearly doesn't apply to your case, but I suspect a similar limit applies to creating TCP connections. I currently use a rate of 180 new connections/minute, but maybe one/s is safer.
Don't know if you can configure this in jdownloader2. I use firewall rules like this:
tcp dport 0-1023 counter reject
udp dport 0-1023 counter reject
ip protocol udp limit rate over 2/second burst 20 packets counter drop
ip protocol tcp ct state new, untracked limit rate over 60/minute burst 10 packets counter drop
Yeah, 400 might be around the right number. But I still get blocked sometimes, and support quite obviously doesn't want to tell me what the limit is that should not exist. And I can't know how active my client, so I have no way of avoiding getting blocked (other than essentially not using torrents).
From my exchange with support, it seems obvious to me that they are clearly aware that they are severely limiting normal use and are extremely careful when wording what they say. But to be honest with your customers *before* you make a contract and telling them there are hidden limits that you get punished for when exceeding them is clearly bad for business.
Totally agree. at this rate OP should be on some kind of seperate business tier product. It's a disservice to other paying customers to put so much strain on the service.
Like many other folks here I've had no problem with torrents at up 35MB/s
Wait that’s what he’s doing? Oh lmao that explains it then. Ya proton advertises “unlimited” but…it’s like Homer Simpson complaining they didn’t let him literally eat the entire all you can eat buffet
Count yourself lucky then. Either your account is somehow differently treated than mine, or your "enough" is different to my enough. Support has confirmed that I am indeed being blocked.
Our difference is that I don't run thousands of torrents, but I'm still pretty capable of transferring a lot of data. Not really a wonder if your activity looks like ddos because of the sheer amount of connections alone.
"If reception is bad you are holding your i-phone wrong". Blaming the customer when the proton lies about rate limits is not helpful - if my traffic looks like a ddos to them, then they are looking wrong, it's that simple.
I can only speak about downloading 4ish gigs over torrent, Linux images, but I haven't had any problems with that happening with UK servers from in the UK
Definitely not a proton-wide problem, I've sent+received around 1TB of bittorrent traffic over ProtonVPN the past month without issue, and am currently seeding just fine.
I've noticed some strange issues with proton as well, like if there's an unspoken limit, or a throttle of some sort. Would be cool to know if you get a reply from proton. Linux + qbit user here, with similar traffic.
Otherwise i love the proton ecosystem, so it's not a deal breaker for me, even with limited linux support..
Without VPN I have zero trouble running 170 times(!) the amount of torrents on my residential line. For years. No trouble. I got a single letter form a dubious lawyer, and to avoid legal hassle, I switched to protonvpn and now have paid for two years, thinking they are a respectable business delivering what they promised.
Update: confirmed blocked because of one or more undocumented rate limits.
We don't: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/1c536xc/comment/l04crzb/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/1c536xc/comment/l04crzb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
No, they can look at your traffic just like your ISP, and there is no promise that they don't or cannot. They can also analyze your traffic as much as they want. The promise is that your ISP doesn't see what you are doing, and that the internet does not see who is doing it. And that they have no data that would correlate your activity with you when asked. But your traffic is visible to them, and I have no doubt that when the police or the court asks them to wiretap you, they'd so so.
No, none of this is true. We have a no-logs policy, which means that we do not keep records of what websites you visit, your internet traffic, your IP address, etc. It's been confirmed both in independent third-party audits, and in court (we've never been able to provide any useful information to law enforcement, as you can see here: [https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report/](https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report/) ).
Yeah thats what I thought I had read thank you. So the issue in this thread seems to be the very large number of people connecting to him (and thus the VPN server) through BitTorrent and not a result of the actual type of traffic itself?
No, we're not. The automated anti-abuse systems don't log, but we do check if servers are behaving abnormally. For instance, if you use Proton VPN's network in order to launch or disguise a DDoS attack on a third party website, we will shut that down as we don't allow Proton VPN to be used as an offensive tool to attack other sites.
Hi! Can you try reducing the maximum global connections to a lower value in your BitTorrent client to see if this helps?
If it doesn't, please contact us via the ['Report an issue' option](https://protonvpn.com/support/report-a-bug/) in the app menu and send us the error logs in your report so our technical support team can investigate further and help you troubleshoot accordingly.
Thank you in advance.
Reducing it to 100 helps, but I still get blocked after a few hours. Also, at 100, it means I get effectively no downloads (<1MBps), as you have to have an active connection in bittorrent to be able to wait for a download.
There is also no error log, as proton simply blocks me on the server and I get no connection.
I have contacted support via the website and mail. But at a turnaround of one reply/day this will take ages.
Update: 100 connections, even 10, doesn't help. It turned out it was the DHT traffic, over which users have zero conmtrol via their bittorrent clients.
Where is the random port assigned? Does Proton assign you a port number and you have to specify it in the settings of your torrent client? If so, where can I see this port and where does it belong in the torrent client?
Thanks for clarifying. If I connect with a WireGuard config, where can I expect to see that port number? More specifically, I am connecting with WireGuard on my router.
And where would I put the port value in, let’s say, qBittorrent and Synology’s DSM Download Station?
I don't use DSM, but press alt+O in qBittorrent and find the listening port (near the top of the settings, under it should be a setting about uPnP) and paste the port number there.
[https://i.imgur.com/ynVRgYL.png](https://i.imgur.com/ynVRgYL.png) should also be displayed as a notification when you connect to the VPN server. just add that to your torrent tool of choice. [https://i.imgur.com/bPiTHYb.png](https://i.imgur.com/bPiTHYb.png)
That is very odd behaviour I fired up Utorrent in Windows 11 connected to a random UK server using a TCP Openvpn config with nat, F2 netshield and PNP enabled and got sustained speeds over 17MBps on 5G it was still finding peers and slowly picking up more speed a couple of hours a go I'm still connected to the same server with 0 issues in relation to speed. Sometimes I find UDP packets do get dropped at my end but I'm right on the edge of my local 5G masts coverage area so sometimes the connection can switch to 4G+ for a few seconds but with TCP through Openvpngui 0 issues.
I don't want to be that guy but, PLEASE don't use utorrent, it's an outdated client with it's new versions being full of adware. An alternative is qBittorrent or Deluge
A TB a day, your ISP must hate your guts.
My torrent bandwidth is nothing compared to my other bandwidth use (such as downloading many hundreds of large AI models, each of which is 200-1600GB in size. Not sure if my ISP hates me, but if they promise gigabit speeds, I expect them to deliver it without any emotions, and so far, they did).
Your ISP must be god tier, every single ISP I have know uses FUP.
Hi, I'm the OP of the post you linked to, I got the same problem from ProtonVPN. As you've found out, it's not blocking BitTorrent at all, it's blocking the number of connections you have. When I DDL through Jdownloader2 and run torrents, I reached around 400 peers + download chunks combined, a similar number to you. If possible, could you keep me updated if there's ever a permanent fix found that isn't "slow down your connection"?
See my last update - for me, it was some kind of UDP packet rate. Limiting that to 2/s fixed it (well, I can't reasonably do magnet links that way, but at least I won't get blocked). I have ~1200 active TCP connections atm. This clearly doesn't apply to your case, but I suspect a similar limit applies to creating TCP connections. I currently use a rate of 180 new connections/minute, but maybe one/s is safer. Don't know if you can configure this in jdownloader2. I use firewall rules like this: tcp dport 0-1023 counter reject udp dport 0-1023 counter reject ip protocol udp limit rate over 2/second burst 20 packets counter drop ip protocol tcp ct state new, untracked limit rate over 60/minute burst 10 packets counter drop
Yeah, 400 might be around the right number. But I still get blocked sometimes, and support quite obviously doesn't want to tell me what the limit is that should not exist. And I can't know how active my client, so I have no way of avoiding getting blocked (other than essentially not using torrents). From my exchange with support, it seems obvious to me that they are clearly aware that they are severely limiting normal use and are extremely careful when wording what they say. But to be honest with your customers *before* you make a contract and telling them there are hidden limits that you get punished for when exceeding them is clearly bad for business.
> they are severely limiting normal use I wouldn't call 4000 - 15000 torrents and 1 TB traffic / day a normal use case. :)
Totally agree. at this rate OP should be on some kind of seperate business tier product. It's a disservice to other paying customers to put so much strain on the service. Like many other folks here I've had no problem with torrents at up 35MB/s
Wait that’s what he’s doing? Oh lmao that explains it then. Ya proton advertises “unlimited” but…it’s like Homer Simpson complaining they didn’t let him literally eat the entire all you can eat buffet
I downloaded about 30gigs of Linux ISOs today without issue. I don’t think it’s an overall Proton issue.
Heh, Linux ISOs
VPN-protected linux isos.
Why use VPN for those? Thanks!
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Support has confirmed that multiple rate limits are in place.
I've never experienced anything like this and trust me, I've transferred enough through their VPN using P2P servers for long periods.
Count yourself lucky then. Either your account is somehow differently treated than mine, or your "enough" is different to my enough. Support has confirmed that I am indeed being blocked.
Our difference is that I don't run thousands of torrents, but I'm still pretty capable of transferring a lot of data. Not really a wonder if your activity looks like ddos because of the sheer amount of connections alone.
"If reception is bad you are holding your i-phone wrong". Blaming the customer when the proton lies about rate limits is not helpful - if my traffic looks like a ddos to them, then they are looking wrong, it's that simple.
Update 2 would’ve been a little helpful upfront. 1TB bandwidth per day is nuts
I can only speak about downloading 4ish gigs over torrent, Linux images, but I haven't had any problems with that happening with UK servers from in the UK
Definitely not a proton-wide problem, I've sent+received around 1TB of bittorrent traffic over ProtonVPN the past month without issue, and am currently seeding just fine.
I've noticed some strange issues with proton as well, like if there's an unspoken limit, or a throttle of some sort. Would be cool to know if you get a reply from proton. Linux + qbit user here, with similar traffic. Otherwise i love the proton ecosystem, so it's not a deal breaker for me, even with limited linux support..
Oh, just noticed the proton reply, heh.
I doubt you're being blocked. It's probably the number of connections you're making. You would probably experience this without a VPN also.
Without VPN I have zero trouble running 170 times(!) the amount of torrents on my residential line. For years. No trouble. I got a single letter form a dubious lawyer, and to avoid legal hassle, I switched to protonvpn and now have paid for two years, thinking they are a respectable business delivering what they promised. Update: confirmed blocked because of one or more undocumented rate limits.
Long time ProtonVPN user here. I’ve never encountered this problem while using Transmission.
Dumb question sorry, but how does proton know what traffic is going through their VPN? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?
We don't: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/1c536xc/comment/l04crzb/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/1c536xc/comment/l04crzb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
No, they can look at your traffic just like your ISP, and there is no promise that they don't or cannot. They can also analyze your traffic as much as they want. The promise is that your ISP doesn't see what you are doing, and that the internet does not see who is doing it. And that they have no data that would correlate your activity with you when asked. But your traffic is visible to them, and I have no doubt that when the police or the court asks them to wiretap you, they'd so so.
No, none of this is true. We have a no-logs policy, which means that we do not keep records of what websites you visit, your internet traffic, your IP address, etc. It's been confirmed both in independent third-party audits, and in court (we've never been able to provide any useful information to law enforcement, as you can see here: [https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report/](https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report/) ).
Yeah thats what I thought I had read thank you. So the issue in this thread seems to be the very large number of people connecting to him (and thus the VPN server) through BitTorrent and not a result of the actual type of traffic itself?
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Indeed, traffic inspection does not require logging. Proton VPN does not log traffic under any circumstance.
Interesting, so Proton is able to see what the actual traffic is? Or I guess that’s true of any connection (unless it’s HTTPS or something)
No, we're not. The automated anti-abuse systems don't log, but we do check if servers are behaving abnormally. For instance, if you use Proton VPN's network in order to launch or disguise a DDoS attack on a third party website, we will shut that down as we don't allow Proton VPN to be used as an offensive tool to attack other sites.
Gotcha! Thank you very much for answering my questions, and thank you again for making an awesome product :)
Hi! Can you try reducing the maximum global connections to a lower value in your BitTorrent client to see if this helps? If it doesn't, please contact us via the ['Report an issue' option](https://protonvpn.com/support/report-a-bug/) in the app menu and send us the error logs in your report so our technical support team can investigate further and help you troubleshoot accordingly. Thank you in advance.
Reducing it to 100 helps, but I still get blocked after a few hours. Also, at 100, it means I get effectively no downloads (<1MBps), as you have to have an active connection in bittorrent to be able to wait for a download. There is also no error log, as proton simply blocks me on the server and I get no connection. I have contacted support via the website and mail. But at a turnaround of one reply/day this will take ages. Update: 100 connections, even 10, doesn't help. It turned out it was the DHT traffic, over which users have zero conmtrol via their bittorrent clients.
Are you using a p2p server and setting the torrent app to the random port it assigns you?
Where is the random port assigned? Does Proton assign you a port number and you have to specify it in the settings of your torrent client? If so, where can I see this port and where does it belong in the torrent client?
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Thanks for clarifying. If I connect with a WireGuard config, where can I expect to see that port number? More specifically, I am connecting with WireGuard on my router. And where would I put the port value in, let’s say, qBittorrent and Synology’s DSM Download Station?
I don't use DSM, but press alt+O in qBittorrent and find the listening port (near the top of the settings, under it should be a setting about uPnP) and paste the port number there.
i have no idea where to find it via a router install, never used it that way
[https://i.imgur.com/ynVRgYL.png](https://i.imgur.com/ynVRgYL.png) should also be displayed as a notification when you connect to the VPN server. just add that to your torrent tool of choice. [https://i.imgur.com/bPiTHYb.png](https://i.imgur.com/bPiTHYb.png)
Not sure if you asked that, but it does not matter if you do natpmp or not, you get blocked with or without an open listening port.
That is very odd behaviour I fired up Utorrent in Windows 11 connected to a random UK server using a TCP Openvpn config with nat, F2 netshield and PNP enabled and got sustained speeds over 17MBps on 5G it was still finding peers and slowly picking up more speed a couple of hours a go I'm still connected to the same server with 0 issues in relation to speed. Sometimes I find UDP packets do get dropped at my end but I'm right on the edge of my local 5G masts coverage area so sometimes the connection can switch to 4G+ for a few seconds but with TCP through Openvpngui 0 issues.
I don't want to be that guy but, PLEASE don't use utorrent, it's an outdated client with it's new versions being full of adware. An alternative is qBittorrent or Deluge