this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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So, I've recently started torrenting more, but I wanted to be safe about it, or a safe as can be.

I already have a PIA subscription from like 3 years ago on a Christmas sale.

I would like to continue using Docker, as I have been.

I know there are docker images of qBittorrent with VPN included, but I have PIA set up with the "Gluetun" docker image, so that if I wanted to, I could run other containers through it rather easily.

So, I'm using PIA with Gluetun image, and the standard qBittorrent image that is being funneled through Gluetun. I'm using Portainer and Portainer Stacks to manage my docker environment. I'm also using a PIA server in CA Vancouver, as far as I can tell, that server allows port forwarding as well as seeding.

My problem is I can't seem to seed anything. Can any of y'all help me get properly set up for seeding as well as torrenting?

If you need any more info or screenshots, let me know!

Also, I am actively looking and researching to try to fix it, but work is a pain right now. I'll update if I manage to figure it out.

Thank you in advance!

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (4 children)

you need to set up port forwarding not only with your vpn provider, but also with gluetun:

https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/blob/main/setup/advanced/vpn-port-forwarding.md

[–] koinu 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh. My.god. I'm worse at Google Fi than I thought.

Thank you so much! I'll try to get it set up on my break, and report back. Again, thank you so much!!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Did you have a stroke commenting this 4 times? lol

[–] koinu 1 points 2 years ago

Huh, the other comments show as deleted on my side? Strange.

But it was a glitch of either Connect for Lemmy or of Lemmy itself! About 60-75% of the time I try to post a comment, it times out or whatever and I am under the assumption that it failed to post, so I click "post" again, and that's how I end up with multiple comments haha.

I've started just copying my entire comment, and backing out to check if it already posted when I get that error.

Thanka for bringing it up! :) (Let's see if this comment times out haha)

[–] eating3645 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The best way to troubleshoot your setup is to test each bit by bit individually until you figure out where it's gone wrong.

Try your qbit container without glutun. Can you download and seed a Linux iso from the same directory your current seeds are? If not, you're probably looking at a permissions issue.

Next test your glutun container. Can you ping the tracker from the container? If not, your VPN isn't set up correctly.

Lastly try qbit via glutun, if it doesn't work it's a port forwarding issue.

Good luck!

[–] koinu 2 points 2 years ago

I'll go ahead and give this a try when I'm off work. Thank you so much for your help!

[–] darcmage 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have the same setup but with transmission instead of qbittorrent. Make sure you map the listening port of qbittorrent to the forwarded port from pia in gluetun.

[–] koinu 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I added the VPN_PLRT_FORWARD command on the Gluetun container. It gave me a port. I added that to qbit, and it seemed to work! I'm now wondering why the speeds are so slow though? My download is at upwards of 15MB/s, but the uploads are in the KBs and Bs. I know other people leeching affect the speed, but I figured it has to be faster than that right? Do you think I did something wrong?

I'm going to try with a Linux distro to see if it's my set up, or just the torrent themselves.

[–] darcmage 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

PIA upload is definitely faster than that. It doesn't saturate my connection but I've seen it upload at 5MB/s+ at times. Are you sure you have the right options for the gluetun container as shown in the wiki? You'll see the port PIA assigns you in the logs. Testing with a linux iso probably won't help much since the ratio of seeders/leechers is high. Try a popular newly released torrent instead.

[–] koinu 1 points 2 years ago

At this point, I'm not sure of anything! Haha

I'm doing so much reading from different sources, I'm starting to get everything mixed up now.

Checking the wiki for Gluetun, I used that exact docker compose that they suggested, but added the port for qBittorrenr, so I can access the webUI. (And also now added the "port forward" variable)

I'm very lost right now, and unless you're willing to walk me through it, I think imma start from scratch and hopefully learn something new along the way.

Thanks so much for helping me so much!

[–] koinu 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So I just tried a torrent from nyaa.si that had hundreds of seeders and hundreds of leechers.

After it finished downloading, the upload speed has fluctuated from 900kb/s up to ~1.52mb/s. Way better than before, but still feels slower than it should? Idk.

[–] darcmage 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think you can consider the issue solved at this point.. Last thing to check is the cpu usage while the torrent is active. If it's being pegged, that could limit your speeds.

[–] koinu 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Awesome. Thank you so much for your help!

I gotta figure out how to check CPU usage on a headless Linux environment lol.

[–] darcmage 5 points 2 years ago