this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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Netflix Pricing Shakeup Removes Cheapest Ad-Free Plan In U.K. and U.S. (www.ign.com)
submitted 1 year ago by L4s to c/technology
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Netflix Pricing Shakeup Removes Cheapest Ad-Free Plan In U.K. and U.S.::Online streaming giant Netflix has quietly removed its ad-free Basic plan, forcing users to pay more or sit through adverts to keep costs down.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Lol port forwarding is a needless risk too, and I still don't get how not having it on keeps me from seeding properly. I seed torrents just fine?

EDIT: reading up on it, it sounds like it slows seeding down but still allows others to connect to you. I'm okay with that, honestly: https://www.reddit.com/r/VPNTorrents/comments/p6h7em/answered_why_you_do_need_portforwarding_for/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Maybe keep reading.

Bittorrent relies on your connection working both ways: to accept incoming and outgoing connections. Without port-forwarding: you may will see slower speeds, slower speed ramp up and if a torrent has very few online seeders you may run into a situation where you cannot connect to anybody at all - no download! Seeding is very hard without port-forwarding.

Normally home users cannot accept incoming connections due to NAT. This is always the case for proxies and VPNs, but some VPNs allow the assignment of a port that will always lead to your connected device (and to your client). Making outgoing connections is always technically possible but then you rely on the seed/peer to have their ports open! At least one side must be open. There's no way around.

They even had a special FAQ-like section for users such as yourself right before the above quote.

But it has been running fine without any port-forwarding for me!

Can you explain the risk of port forwarding through a VPN?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Port forwarding is inherently unsafe because it opens your network to outside connections from anyone that knows which port to ping. Having a VPN does nothing to mitigate that threat, it just gives you a different IP.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you need to do a lot more research because you aren't opening your network to anything with this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Forwarding a port is literally opening your network. It doesn't matter what the reason for doing so is, whether it's torrenting or gaming. That's why it's called both "forwarding" or "opening" a port depending on who you ask.

It's a small risk, but it's a risk. If you open a device on your network to the Internet through a forwarded port, there's a real possibility that somebody will find you and attack you. There are bots that spend their entire life looking for common open ports on random IP addresses. And the ports used for torrenting are probably some of the most common. Best security practice for any network is NOT to open a port, but rather to find an alternative method of accessing things outside your network, like a VPN or reverse proxy. In the case that you do need to open a port, that device should be isolated on your network, preferably in its own VLAN.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The port you're opening is with your VPN provider not your local network hence why you need a VPN with port forwarding.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You sure? I assumed you had to open a port in both.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

100%. The port gets opened on the VPN, nothing on your router (which is a risk). You input this VPN port into Qbittorrent (or whatever your torrent client is) and then people can connect to you. Without this, in QBit specifically, the little icon at the bottom of the window showing your connection status will be red (no connection) or yellow (limited connection) and as I said earlier, you won't be able to participate in private trackers since they won't show you as connectable.