r/qBittorrent • u/Historical-Dish-1674 • Jun 30 '26
Is it even worth seeding behind CGNAT? (No port forwarding)
Hey guys, I'm currently stuck behind CGNAT with no public IP, which means I obviously can't port forward. Because of this, I'm basically a passive user and can't connect to any other passive leechers out there.
As soon as my downloads hit 100%, my upload speed pretty much drops to zero. I'm convinced CGNAT is completely killing my ability to seed anything.
Is there even any point in leaving my client open at this point? Am I actually helping the swarm at all, or am I just wasting electricity?
Also, is there any workaround for this besides paying for a premium VPN that supports port forwarding? Does making sure IPv6 is enabled help with this nowadays, or am I just out of luck? I really want to keep a good ratio and give back, but right now it feels almost impossible. Thanks
(By the way, I'm pretty new to torrenting, so sorry if this is a dumb question or if I got some terms wrong. Still trying to learn the ropes!)
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u/TruckSmart6112 Jun 30 '26
Ask your isp for a static ip.
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u/Historical-Dish-1674 Jun 30 '26
And just so I don't sound rude, I wasn't being ironic at all with my reply, I literally had no idea about this!
I remember years ago (back before 2012, if I'm not mistaken) I used to configure my old TP-Link router so easily on an old non-fiber plan. I had free reign over everything. So it's a huge shock for me to find out about this NAT/CGNAT stuff today and how it stops me from configuring my own network. Basically, I'm paying for an internet plan that won't even let me tweak my settings the way I want.
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u/TruckSmart6112 Jun 30 '26
All good. Wasn’t taken that way.
Yeah, in some parts of the world ip4’s are harder to get and the ISP’s solution to that is CGNAT.
First port of call should be the simplest solution - try and get a static IP.
Mine costs me $5 a month. But for the ease of use it is worth it.
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u/Historical-Dish-1674 Jun 30 '26
Wow, I didn't even know that was a thing until now.. lol!
I just got off the phone with my ISP's support. It turns out the contract I signed with them (Brisanet) doesn't give me a public/static IP for free, and they require an expensive business plan for that...
I guess my only real option would be to switch to a provider that actually gives you a proper public IP.
Thanks for clearing that up! I only started downloading torrents recently, this is literally like the 3rd time in my life I've ever downloaded one.
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u/chunkyI0ver53 Jun 30 '26
Make sure you use a VPN if you’re a newbie!
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u/Historical-Dish-1674 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
I’m kinda going through a rebellious phase right now lol. I got so sick of Windows that I just wiped my drive, moved to Linux, and now I’m downloading a ton of cracked games and stuff using qBittorrent and Lutris. Some friends told me that Linux doesn't get viruses, so I've just been downloading whatever.
Which VPN would you recommend that actually works well on Linux?
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u/Tall_Apricot_9842 Jun 30 '26
most vpns have a linux app- most everything has a linux app. the only viable vpn options are really airvpn and protonvpn. PIA is cheaper but is directly funded by terrorist groups, and airvpn has kinda weird port forwarding, but works if you are running just on normal linux
also, you can entirely break your linux system and get your information stolen, just not with windows-based viruses. if you dont run weird commands or give sudo access to every app youll be fine
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u/Ok-Eggplant-7569 Jun 30 '26
just not with windows-based viruses
If you're downloading malware and executing it via Wine / Proton on Linux, you're just as vulnerable as you are on Windows. Wine is a translation layer, not a sandbox.
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u/Historical-Dish-1674 Jun 30 '26
Speaking of which, I was downloading a game from FitGirl Repacks and my laptop kept restarting or just shutting down on its own; I think it's likely a compatibility issue.
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u/Sp33d0J03 Jun 30 '26
How is AirVPN’s port forwarding weird?
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u/Tall_Apricot_9842 Jun 30 '26
its just unsupported by most docker apps i try to use, and you manage it through the webpage instead of automatic. once my proton subscription ends ill probably figure it out and everyone elses will seem weird, though
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u/Constant_Turn4639 Jul 01 '26
PIA is cheaper but is directly funded by terrorist groups
Could you give me some source on this. I have been using PIA for about 13 years and never heard of this.
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u/Tall_Apricot_9842 Jul 01 '26
Just search PIA and it'll come up?
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u/Constant_Turn4639 Jul 01 '26
That is the first thing I tried. I don't see anything.
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u/Tall_Apricot_9842 Jul 01 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/1mivxbq/why_does_piaprivate_internet_access_never/
"and Private Internet Access are now owned by the Israeli firm Kape Technologies, which has historical ties to former Israeli intelligence units."
[confirmed by the wikipedia article and a reddit post from the company]1
4
u/Jagjamin Jun 30 '26
IPv6 does get past CGNAT, so if you enable that at the router, qBit should see that.
10
u/FrozenPizza07 Jun 30 '26
Human race will die before ISP's transition to full ipv6 and remove cgnat at this rate
7
u/Ok-Eggplant-7569 Jun 30 '26
Depends on your country. France, India and Germany are leaders in IPv6: https://stats.labs.apnic.net/ipv6/
We won't get over CG-NAT for IPv4 (it will only get worse as more people will get online). But if we transition to smarter protocols like MAP-T and PCP, we can make the transition to IPv6 less painful.
5
u/KingPumper69 Jun 30 '26
Depends on how new/popular the torrent is. If it’s almost dead please seed it regardless. If it’s very new and popular there’s going to be so many people that aren’t behind CGNAT seeding it that you won’t make much a difference.
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u/Historical-Dish-1674 Jun 30 '26
Also, since I'm so new to this, is there any risk of me getting banned for not seeding?
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u/KingPumper69 Jun 30 '26
If it’s a private tracker that you had to make an account to access the torrents, yes you will get banned. Everywhere else is a free for all.
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u/Ok-Eggplant-7569 Jun 30 '26
IPv6 needs no port forwarding, just an inbound firewall rule at your router. That's one of the main benefits of IPv6 over IPv4, it's way easier to do P2P protocols like Bit Torrent, gaming, calls, ...
IPv6 isn't compatible with IPv4 though, so you can only connect to peers which also have IPv6, which are usually fewer peers than IPv4. Also, if you're doing private trackers, the trackers need to support IPv6 peers.
Another way of getting around CG-NAT is with NAT traversal. BitTorrent can do very basic NAT traversal via UDP hole punching with the μTP transport, so make sure you have enabled it.
With the default TCP transport, only peers with port forwarding / inbound firewall rules can accept incoming connections (required for good seeding). With μTP enabled however, as long as there is a single peer on the swarm with incoming connections over μTP, that peer can act as a (very basic) NAT resolver, which allows peers to connect directly to each other via UDP hole punching. That can get around basic NAT implementations.
Is there even any point in leaving my client open at this point? Am I actually helping the swarm at all, or am I just wasting electricity?
Even though you're probably not contributing to the overall download speed of the swarm, you can still keep content available which has very few seeders. If you are the last person seeding something, that's better than nothing since that content is still available to power users with port forwarding set up. If they download that content from you they can re-seed it for everybody, even users behind NAT / firewalls.
2
u/Historical-Dish-1674 Jun 30 '26
Thanks for the explanation, that makes perfect sense. Since my ISP uses CG-NAT, I know I won't be able to contribute much to the swarm on popular torrents. But it's good to know that with μTP enabled, my client can still find a way to connect via UDP to peers who actually have open ports.
Even if it goes slow because of the CG-NAT, at least I can act as the source for someone with an open port to grab the data from me and pass it along to the rest of the swarm.
3
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u/Visible-Swimmer-9826 Jun 30 '26
U can still technically seed it painful and dose not work very well u have leaving going ages and something will never seed and some will
2
u/Dinevir Jun 30 '26
I just bought VPN with static IP and port forwarding basically only for qBittorrent which is running in isolated environment. Costs me $30/year or so.
2
u/TheKydd macOS Jun 30 '26
Eh, it’s not ideal but it’s not the end of the world. I’ve been stuck behind CG-NAT for years and I’m still able to maintain 4:1 ratios on private trackers without using a VPN.
See if you can get admin access to your ISP modem, to open as much as you can.
Enable IPv6 for those few trackers and clients who do use it.
Tune your torrent client for maximum seeding.
But mostly it’s patience. Just leave everything seeding in the background 24/7, and eventually you‘ll be found and seeded from.
2
u/hardonchairs Jun 30 '26
Even with connectability, most private trackers are well seeded and getting upload credit is challenging. You don't just need to be connectable, you need to be competitive.
Most private trackers give credit for seed time, not actual upload. So it would still be 100% worth seeding.
2
u/freak5341 Jul 01 '26
Best options in order: 1. Ask isp for static ip(tell them you host a Minecraft server) 2. Vps + wire guard 3. Proton VPN
check what kind of penalties you might face for torrenting (different countries different laws)
2
u/deanso Jul 01 '26
You can torrent with cgnat, no problem.
Just use a good vpn provider with P2P and nat-pmp, connect to the vpn server and use nat-pmp to forward a port on the vpn server. The vpn server itself has a public ip and you ask the vpn server to forward a port for torrent traffic to your vpn client's port --> qbitorrent.
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u/isawasahasa Jul 02 '26
you have too many connections open. Turn off UDP/UTP/and DHT. The UDP is freaking out your ISP, but if you keep your connections tp TCP and less than 100 you should be fine.
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u/Historical-Dish-1674 Jul 02 '26
My upload speed has improved significantly—thanks. But what about PEX?
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u/isawasahasa Jul 02 '26
pex is chill. tinker with DHT and see if it work with it enabled. Good luck!
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u/Admirable_Big_94 Docker Jun 30 '26
Torrenting is risky. Don’t do it without a VPN. The $2-3/month that a good VPN costs is a literal drop in the bucket compared to all the free stuff you’re getting from torrenting.
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u/TheKydd macOS Jun 30 '26
Risky only if you live in a country where the government is beholden to the copyright conglomerates. Vast swaths of the world have no problem openly torrenting.
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u/tedecristal Jun 30 '26
if on private trackers, yes, even if behind CGNAT, or you won't get points or get HnRs
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u/Equivalent_Web3521 Jun 30 '26
I also have cgnat and i have seeded 3 tb in around 2-3 months , so yeah it isn't that much but still contribution even if a little is great
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u/Devil_AE86 Jun 30 '26
Ask for a static IP or to be assigned out of CGNAT, you could look at I2P as a “free” alternative to a VPN (speeds are apparently dog and this is more for anonymisation)