I switched to windscribe last month because the proton CEO starting spewing politcal BS, and I wanted port forwarding that wasn’t locked behind a shitty GUI.
As far as I was concerned setup was super easy, the VPN speeds were great, and port forwarding worked really nicely. The whole price for a fixed server and port forward, + unlimited data was a bit much (at $95/year) but for the ease of use and speeds I was getting, I was happy to stick with them.
My setup is a always-on server with a 1gbps connection, where yes, I fucking seed my shit, all of it. I have about 30TB of linux ISOs and counting, and it’s rare that my combined upload speed is less than 1MBps, ever.
Which lead me to getting banned from windscribe with no notice or warning in the middle of last week. This lead to me having to spend tracker points to avoid HnR, and i’m also unable to grab any new ISOs until I find a new VPN provider that won’t ban me for actually using the service full time.
I did shoot them an email (after talking’ with their AI bot first), and they were actually helpful enough. The offered to restore support, so long as I promised to not torrent with them again (which, I honestly did promise not to. I’m not sticking with a VPN service that can’t handle me actually using it for what it’s advertised for) and they did unban the account. Whole email chain took about three days to get resolved.
My sticking point is that they still have instructions on setting up torrents on their own website, and that they specifically allow for unlimited data (with the plan i paid for) so long as it’s just one user. I did not break those rules. After clarifying that in the support email, they still said that I was using too much data (despite the unlimited data advertisement) and that torrenting was not allowed on their service.
TL:DR: Windscribe bans you if you use a lot of data, and support says torrents aren’t allowed, despite their website advertising such. Proof in the attached images.
If y’all have any other suggestions for a VPN that allow port forwarding i’d really appreciate it.
The CEO of Windscribe is an Elon stan so you didn’t switch to a more left-leaning provider than Proton.
Holy shit, you’re not lying. The literal first Post on his Twitter
I suspect most CEOs are, The vast majority just have enough common sense not to ruin their relations with the 99 percenters.
Wasn’t sure if this was the right place, but I figured someone should know about this. For what it’s worth, I would actually recommend windscribe if you don’t plan on doing torrents all the time, or you have sub 1gbps internet. Just sucks that I hit their “unlimited” internet limits on my home connection.
They have a page on their site about chargebacks. They’re confidant they’ll win them, but they still ban because it costs them money. I’ve done one anyways; as far as my reading of their tos goes, I was in the right. Might as well make this experience cost both of us money, instead of just them.
Their guide for using torrents with their service; https://windscribe.com/knowledge-base/articles/using-windscribe-with-torrent-clients/
Their FAQ on bandwidth and chargebacks: https://windscribe.com/knowledge-base/articles/why-did-my-account-get-disabled/
Lmao I like the tl;drs on TOS page. Some of them are a little reductive, but it’s still better than making it a giant illegible block
The fact that they have anti-chargeback wording on their public website speaks volumes. I bet they have anti-union posters in their breakroom too. Fuck this company!
They have a page on their site about chargebacks. They’re confidant they’ll win them
The portion about chargebacks refers to being outside the refund period, nothing to do with p2p or bandwidth caps.
It sounds like they banned you for excessive usage. They allow at least 1tb a month because ive used that amount regularly with them.
It is a bit misleading for them to be calling it “unlimited” tho
It is a bit misleading
If it’s limited, it isn’t unlimited. That looks like a lie to me, and not “a bit misleading”.
Which is why they said the issue was torrenting and not using too much data. It’s an unlimited plan and they would never think to put a limit on data usage. They just object to torrenting and it’s pure coincidence that they only object to that when someone is using a lot of data.
It’s not “a bit misleading” for them to call it unlimited and then ban people for using too much data, it’s extremely misleading, almost bordering on scammy. If I were OP I would’ve done a chargeback and switched VPNs instead of begging them for an unban. They deserve it for lying and trying to deceive customers. Vote with your wallet (and chargebacks) if you want companies to stop doing shitty shady like this.
The unban was just to check if the refund process would go through. Since it didn’t then I did a chargeback.
That makes sense, best to try and give them a chance before going the ugly route. I do try and point this out since there are a lot of people who believe you should never EVER do a chargeback since companies, especially the sleazy ones claim it’s not allowed or broadly illegal (likely because if people were more inclined to do it, they’d be in big trouble).
it’s extremely misleading, almost bordering on scammy
It’s neither of those things either. “Misleading” indicates their representations were technically true, but it sounds like this is just a straight up lie.
That’s true, they outright lied, it’s not one of those technically true situations they outright lied and said unlimited and ban people for going over an arbitrary data limit, not even temporarily cutting off connection, outright suspending their accounts.
I don’t think this is misleading. Misleading is when you use technically true facts to draw someone towards an incorrect conclusion. Calling a plan unlimited then having a limit is more like fraudulent if you ask me.
Buried deep in the terms of service where nobody will ever read will be a “reasonable use” clause. That’s the justification for why it wouldn’t count as a fraud.
I do agree however that as a consumer we are constantly being defrauded by corporations free to do whatever they wish without repercussions.
Buried deep in the terms of service where nobody will ever read will be a “reasonable use” clause
Their ToS is pretty succinct and clear. There’s no “reasonable use” or any similar wording, and also no wording in regards to p2p or data caps.
Beware of the leopard
I agree, but the 40gb limit on my phones “unlimited” plan seem to disagree with reality, as does the $30 per 500gb comcast would charge me if i use over 1.2tb…
Not saying it isnt false advertising, but its how a lot of internet service providers choose to advertise things these days.
“a bit”. this post just proves they are lying all around
Didn’t the, do the same with the lifetime VPN for 10€/year and later stated the lifetime is meant to be Putin’s lifetime, i.e. when he dies the offer expires? Same with the 40gb/month for free which they randomly changed…
Windscribe encrypts your browsing activity, blocks ads, and unblocks entertainment content
so that was a lie
I think that refers to geoblocked content.
Agreed, but that’s also weird. Suddenly they’re the arbiter of what rules are okay to break and what aren’t? Sounds like they’re just trying to keep costs/traffic down.
What’s concerning to me is, how do they know what you use their services for if supposedly they don’t keep any logs. https://windscribe.com/privacy/ https://windscribe.com/features/no-identifying-logs/
There is a big difference between “not keeping logs” and “dont have a way to check what you are doing right now”.
No logs just means they can’t check what you did last week but they can always check the traffic you are producing in that moment. If they see traffic from a torrent protocol they know you are torrenting.
Edit: they do claim they do “No Monitoring” so yeah by their own words they should not be able to tell you are torrenting.
No Monitoring
We don’t monitor your activity and have no way of seeing what sites you are visiting. We do store when you last used Windscribe as well as the total amount of data used in a 30 day period (to enforce free account limitations and to prevent abuse).
It doesn’t take a genius to guess a forwarded port is used for torrenting though
Like most any paid VPN service they need to track bandwidth usage somewhat. They can’t see what you’re accessing but they can see how much of whatever it is. Windscribe also offers a free 10gb/mo plan so they do track it for that purpose as well, much like any VPN with a free tier would.
Sure, they say that they monitor bandwidth usage but how do they know it was used for torrenting.
Because I told them I used torrents. Their FAQ literally has a page with instructions for setting up torrents. Still does. I didn’t think it’d be an issue for them.
You told them after getting banned so either they saw you were torrenting or gave you a bs explanation and banned you just for your data usage.
Probably the latter. Doesn’t matter which it is though; they advertise both on their website.
It’s probably pretty obvious when terabytes of upload are accrued over a few days like what OP mentioned, by seeding 24/7.
It was submitted in the chat…
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Perhaps murder is a bit extreme. It’s more like “we’ve noticed you’re taking woodchips from the playground. That’s not allowed. We wouldn’t mind if you were just taking a few chips, but you’ve taken 2 tons.”
[edit] But putting analogies aside, the service really should make rules and restrictions like this clear in advance. That seems like the real failing here, rather than the rule itself.
If the service is advertised as no data limit, aka “take as man woodchips as you like” they shouldn’t track back on it.
Sure. I agree that’s the problem; and none of these analogies really help make that any easier to understanding. Certainly they don’t have a “murder as much as you like” policy! (I find that analogies are rarely useful - except for manipulating how you want people to feel.)
More like they operate a tollroad to the playground and are concerned about why there’s so many trucks of wood chips costing them much more to maintain the road to the playground. And OP freely admitted they’re taking truckloads of woodchips from the playground.
Except the analogy also doesn’t work because ultimately piracy isn’t taking, it’s just copying and sharing copies. There isn’t really a good analogy without directly describing digital distribution and piracy. Maybe an analogy involving a solar farm and a transmission company? Except that gets into technical details that are just as technical as just explaining it as it is
The analogy works fine, the problem here isn’t about pirating, it’s about bandwidth
I’ll let you in on some reality about sysadmins: we generally don’t care what you’re doing until it causes problems. Clearly this guy’s amount of traffic did.
So yeah, absolutely. This is normal and reasonable.
It has to be against the rules for situations exactly like this where OP should be using a seedbox. But generally, they have better things to do than track down every little minor rule abuse.
Like playing their own pirated games while wfh. Or fixing other problems. Most teams of people who support shit like this are understaffed.
For instance, I’m sure that people are using my work network for all sorts of shit. I’ve seen people streaming Netflix to their desks. We lock down what we can, and don’t worry about shit until we have to because it’s causing a problem. Like years ago when someone streamed Netflix at an old location with I think only a T1 connection, saturated the network connection, and then no one could access anything on the network.
Most people don’t go around looking for reasons to enforce the rules. They use them when they have to because there’s a problem.
We don’t even care about customers going way over their license until they give us a reason to. You pay for 500 users, you have 2000 and are using the platform as a barely compressed 4k video hosting service which it really isn’t designed for. Then you also complain about performance?
Homestly if they didn’t act so shitty when raising a support ticket over it we probably would have continued to not care about it. Being a dick about it though and we will look for any reason to tell you to fuck off.
Well obviously. A severe violation of anything is considered worse by pretty much anyone.
if somebody does a little torrenting you can just hand wave it, but if someone is doing all of the torrenting, you pretty clearly know about it.
Their own website says they allow p2p so I would see what your options are for getting a refund. If you purchased with a credit card, file a chargeback and include the documentation.
I thought this was your Internet service provider. This is a VPN service? Holy shit what’s the point of a VPN with rules like this. Fuck em. I use proton and am looking to switch because the CEO is a right-winger but they don’t pull this shit.
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Does that even work? These companies know the IP ranges of many VPNs and block them.
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I’ve seen a grand total of one influencer make a good argument for a VPN and that was Alan Fisher saying “have you observed your work skirting regulations that they shouldn’t be? Are you potentially reviewing legal materials on your work’s WiFi that your place of work might prefer you didn’t know about? To help avoid retaliation, you might need a VPN such as one from today’s sponsor…”
If your workplace lets you run a VPN on their device/network they’re probably not looking through your traffic
Blocking VPNs isn’t really possible. You can block known IP ranges but ultimately there’s so many ways to encapsulate and encrypt traffic that no solution is 100%. I have specifically worked at places in which those in management positions are interested in sniffing DNS queries to “see what people are up to on company time” and those happened to also be the employers that were doing sketchy things that may or may not have been legal
You could pay less for that stranger but understandable
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AirVPN (Eddie) has port forwarding. The interface isn’t very appealing and their website is meh, but it works and I got a great deal on a 3 year subscription.
Meh, switch to usenet. Download as much as you want, at max bandwidth 100% of the time, with 0 need for a vpn and no obligation to re-seed content for months on end.
Do you have a guide or something to get started? I’ve considered doing this a couple of times, but haven’t had the bandwidth to dig in and figure it out.
In short, you need three things: (here’s what I’ve been using)
An indexer: NZBgeek Just like a torrent indexer, but for .nzb files instead of .torrents
A provider: Frugal Usenet Where you’re downloading data from.
And a client: SabNZBD
When it comes to which provider to choose; pretty much all of them provide similar retention and unlimited data cap, so you really just need to look for something nearby. Often people will recommend having 2 providers one covered by DMCA and one covered by NTD to make content more available; but I’ve not really noticed a need.
Why would having a provider covered by the DMCA be a good thing (not offhand aware of NTD but I am guessing it is similar to the DMCA)? I have also been interested in trying Usenet, so thanks for sharing three examples of what to look for!
NTD is the European version of DMCA essentially.
It’s not a good thing; but usenet providers like any other internet service are generally subject to one or the other depending on their location, so it’s good to know which one covers the provider you use.
With providers spread across the globe, mirroring each others data, and subject to different copyright notice/takedown laws; the whole system is quite robust against removals. While you can send notices to individual providers, It’s extremely difficult to coordinate a global takedown effort and truly remove content from usenet as a whole.
That’s why multiple provider’s in different regions can be beneficial. Some people will buy ‘block’ accounts (a fixed amount of data to be used as needed, vs a monthly cap) for a provider in a separate region to fallback on when the data has been taken down from their local provider.
What does retention mean in this context? File retention? Is there any way to integrate with Kodi or other media server like debrid services?
Retention refers to how long a particular provider keeps the data users upload. 3-5k days is pretty typical, but there are some lower ones. Data is also mirrored across the backbones of all the different providers; so if it’s removed from one (due to retention or a takedown notice) it’s still available on others.
I’ve had little to no issue finding content, with 97% of data I’ve requested being available (stats from SabNZBD); but in the off chance you want something that is unavailable, most indexers have a requests section.
Similar to setting up torrenting, usenet indexers/clients can be added to the arr stacks for automation. I’m not sure about Kodi/Real Debrid as I don’t use those.
I don’t have a guide, but I knew nothing about it and it took me like 15-30 minutes total of googling and researching to set it all up.
Good on you! Usenet has been around for DECADES.
I don’t have a guide that’s modern. I’m just remembering how I used to connect in the 90s-2000s.
Ha!
My ISP sends me emails saying (paraphrased) “we’re only forwarding this email because we have to. We don’t track your data and your IP logs are wiped every 30 days. Your best option is not to respond because then they would know who you are.”
What ISP are you with?
Seems like something that could fit here
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Not really. Unlimited means no data cap, not infinite bandwidth, and that’s perfectly reasonable to provide. Data isn’t a limited resource, the only thing that’s committed is the amount you can get right at that second.
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Unlimited means no data cap, not infinite bandwidth
How is limited bandwidth not a data cap? When you multiply a bandwidth limit x the number of days, hours, minutes, etc in a month, it sure looks like a data cap to me.
A search of the comments didn’t turn up any mention of seedboxes. So I’ll throw that hat in the ring as an option.
Odd. I’ve been torrenting with them for years at this rate. Even have my media server up 24/7 with qBittorrent running. I guess I’ll have to find an alternative in case this winds up happening to me.
Same I’ve been using them for years without issue. This guy must have been using MASSIVE amounts of data.
About 8TiB upload and 2TiB download over the course of this whole mess. I don’t have exact numbers because WRT stopped counting for some reason, but I can infer based on January numbers.
Them calling it “unlimited” when there’s a limit is wrong, but so is using all of the available upload bandwidth 100% of the time on a cheap home VPN service when you consider the current market prices for data transfer. Mine’s limited to 2Mbps. Seems fair for $7/month or whatever it is.
Edit: Oh right it was 2Mbps. I spent 20 minutes surveying datacentre prices around the world to come up with that number, but bandwidth prices vary widely and might’ve changed by now.
Them calling it “unlimited” when there’s a limit is wrong, but so is using all of the available upload bandwidth 100% of the time on a cheap home VPN service when you consider the current market prices for data transfer. Mine’s limited to 2Mbps. Seems fair for $7/month or whatever it is.
they shouldn’t make it unlimited them, skill issue on their part.
If you’re selling me 1Gb networking speeds, with no bandwidth limit, it’s not my fault for using all of it lol. I’m just using what i pay for.
That’s technically within your legal rights I guess, just like (depending what the fine print says) it’s within their rights to throttle all your traffic one way or another to a low speed including the stuff you actually need to go faster. The places that always have low speeds for everyone are like that because they’re designed to cater to people who don’t give a shit about what their fair share might be and just want to max out their connection. Those services are fine for torrenting, useless for everything else. Windscribe isn’t one of those but it could become one if enough of its users think like you and insist on it.
Hopefully they’ll set a soft 2TB limit or something before they do that, though.
that’s true, but i would prefer they be upfront about it. If you’re advertising something, and i’m not getting it, that’s not great advertising.
If you’re telling me i get unlimited bandwidth on a 1gb connection, and you don’t give me that exact thing in return, it’s false advertising. Soft limit it if you want, just be honest about it. The solution here is a bandwidth limited plan, and one that isn’t.
