Port Forwarding Required?

[caca]

My VPN doesn't support port forwarding. So, will that restrict the number of peers I'll be able to upload to?

[Moe]

My VPN doesn't support port forwarding.  So, will that restrict the number of peers I'll be able to upload to?

That will restrict the number of peers you can connect to.


You will only be able to connect to peers that can accept incoming connections.


It will have little affect on your ability to join larger swarms as there will be enough peers able to accept incoming connections for you to participate.


With smaller swarms, you won't be able to connect to everyone so speeds may be a little slower.  If the swarm is small enough, you may not be able to connect to any peers.

[caca]

i was under the impression that port forwarding assisted with uploading... hmm.

now... if i don't have port forwarding, will NAT-PMP and UPNP in my torrent client do what port forwarding does and help me connect to those peers that you say i can't connect to if i don't use port forwarding?

[Moe]

Port forwarding is a function of NAT, and its sole purpose is to forward an incoming connection on a public IP address and listing port to another computer, usually with a private IP address, elsewhere on the network.

NAT-PMP and UPNP are simply ways to automate the process of forwarding a port.

[caca]

here's what my vpn provider said:

"For P2P communcation, as with all communication that uses our service, it needs to be compatible with NAT (Network Address Translation) since we utilize shared IP space to increase privacy. Some applications have something called NAT Compatibility which you can enable to allow it to have repeated 2-way communication through the service. If your application does not have that, you may want to find and download one that does."

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does that have anything to do with NAT-PMP and UPNP?

[Moe]

You'll have to ask them if their gateway is compatible with either of those.

[caca]

i asked them about it and they just said i need to contact my torrent client's developers to find out if it is compatible with NAT.

i guess if there's nothing i can do about it, i'll just live with it. my download speeds are not that bad.