Trackers not working on VPN

[Giu989]

Hello everyone, I am new to the torrenting world, so I apologise for my ignorance in advance!

I have been using uTorrent for several weeks now, and everything is working fine. I can download torrents at a maximum of 3-8MB/s (around my ISP max download limit).

After a while however I decided to use encryption to obscure my identity in the torrenting world (after having learnt the risks involved with it).

Having already used the service before, I opted to use VPN, for it was quick and easy to set up, and most of all, I already had a subscription. The service that I used was called VPNBook. Their website is here:

http://www.vpnbook.com

However I encountered serious, rather unexpected issues: With the VPN on, every single torrent that I attempted to download had all the trackers not working. The status would be on updating for ages and then

"Connection timed out."

.

After several tests I concluded that it must have been something to do with the VPN connection, for upon disconnecting it, all the trackers would immediately respond, and the torrent would start downloading within seconds.

I have looked on the VPN provider's website, and they do not block torrenting. If it may help, their servers are based in Romania.

Is there any way to fix this issue? Is there a recommended VPN service provider for torrenting, or if not, are some better than others?

Thank you very much for reading this, and once more I apologise if the answers to these questions are obvious, or my description was not very accurate!

Extra Information: Running uTorrent 1.8.4 on OSX 10.8.4, ISP is British Telecommunications (BT). I have not changed any of the uTorrent settings, and I have tried re-installing it several times. The computer has no firewall activated. I did the VPN testing on both PPTP and OpenVPN systems, with neither working.

Have a nice day,

Giu989

[pityrules]

Hi There, I am no expert but I wonder if you are downloading your torrent files from private tracker sites (where you have to register)? I am not sure of the technical reason but I know that sometimes when you download or interact with a private tracker, they keep track of your stats and rations by your IP address and so by anonymising your IP, your private tracker sites may not recognise you as a member and block you from downloading.

[ciaobaby]

Did you read this bit?

And BitTorrent doesn't actually work over ANY of those four choices.

[Giu989]

Hi There, I am no expert but I wonder if you are downloading your torrent files from private tracker sites (where you have to register)? I am not sure of the technical reason but I know that sometimes when you download or interact with a private tracker, they keep track of your stats and rations by your IP address and so by anonymising your IP, your private tracker sites may not recognise you as a member and block you from downloading.

Thanks for the reply! No, I do not use private trackers, only the public ones.

[Giu989]

Did you read this bit?

http://ciaobaby.info/screenshots/vpn-book.png

And BitTorrent doesn't actually work over ANY of those four choices.

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I did read it, and tried all the servers. However, I also used the PPTP service, and it does not work either.

Could it be that the VPN blocks the ports of the trackers or something?

[ciaobaby]

You cannot forward a listening port through a VPN.

[Giu989]

You cannot forward a listening port through a VPN.

Ok thanks, do you think that that could be the issue?

[ciaobaby]

If the client cannot receive incoming messages what do you think would happen?

[Giu989]

If the client cannot receive incoming messages what do you think would happen?

Well then obviously it won't work, but it still seems strange to me, for every VPN service that I have used (around 5-7, can't remember exactly) has this issue. Also, when I look up on videos on how to use VPN with torrents, everything that the video shows seems to work so well, so I'm thinking that maybe it is a client side issue.

Oh and finally, is there an encryption system that allows to forward a listening port?

Thanks once more!

[ciaobaby]

for every VPN service that I have used (around 5-7, can't remember exactly) has this issue.

Re-read post #6 take note that it doesn't mention any particular VPN by name, so applies equally to ALL VPNs (and proxies for that matter)

And let me add:

Even if the VPN supports dynamic/automatic port forwarding, all it takes is two connected users using the same port for ANYTHING, not necessarily using BitTorrent protocol and both of them are FUBARred

Also, when I look up on videos on how to use VPN with torrents,

And was this an 'official' uTorrent provided one? Or was it made by some clueless muppet then published on YouTube?

[Giu989]

for every VPN service that I have used (around 5-7, can't remember exactly) has this issue.

Re-read post #6 take note that it doesn't mention any particular VPN by name, so applies equally to ALL VPNs (and proxies for that matter)

And let me add:

Even if the VPN supports dynamic/automatic port forwarding, all it takes is two connected users using the same port for ANYTHING, not necessarily using BitTorrent protocol and both of them are FUBARred

Also, when I look up on videos on how to use VPN with torrents,

And was this an 'official' uTorrent provided one? Or was it made by some clueless muppet then published on YouTube?

Yes, the videos were from the "muppets on youtube". Oh well then, I see that there is no real solution to this issue. Thanks for replying, your comments were very useful. Perhaps I shall try some different, private trackers and see what happens.

[johnnash]

for torrenting, i recommended VPN4All which having VPN servers in 26 countries including Netherlands, allows you to enjoy torrent downloading along with P2P sharing without any restriction. I also suggest BTGuard for torrenting purposes. I am really happy with the speed of BTGuard. For detail of these providers u can visit http://www.bestvpnservice.com/blog/best-p2p-torrent-vpn-list-of-top-p2p-torrent-vpn-providers/. I am sure this will definitely help you, best regards

[Giu989]

for torrenting, i recommended VPN4All which having VPN servers in 26 countries including Netherlands, allows you to enjoy torrent downloading along with P2P sharing without any restriction. I also suggest BTGuard for torrenting purposes. I am really happy with the speed of BTGuard. For detail of these providers u can visit http://www.bestvpnservice.com/blog/best-p2p-torrent-vpn-list-of-top-p2p-torrent-vpn-providers/. I am sure this will definitely help you, best regards

Ok thanks a lot! Will check the website and VPN4All out

[CatWitch]

I use Private Internet Access. I found I could not beat the price. Just this past week I installed their internet kill switch, so now my whole internet shuts down when the VPN connection drops-very important. It's hard to set something up like that for the MAC, but the feature is in the software for the vpn and can be toggled on and off.

It's highly recommended to use some type of vpn or other protection always!!!!!!!!!!!

I did a lot of searching and you can try googling "best vpns" and from there you will find lists w/ info about each one and sometimes lists showing which one log users [best avoid the one that do]. After picking a few I ran a google search w/ the name of the vpn and the word "complaints". That helps narrow down the choice and also prevents getting "ripped off".

It seems the ones' that give some sort of software are easier to get to work.

Also I found that when I did not add a exception for the vpn's software in my firewall utorrent would not pick up any action. I had to add both utorrent and the vpn's software program to the list of firewall exceptions.

Hope this helps for what it's worth

[vividvibe]

I agree, Private Internet Access is great. It was the best choice for me after days of research online. I use the Romanian server option and all is well. Speeds are great and they do not store logs, so there ya go.