My VPN plan is up for renewal, and I'd like to move from my current provider (Privado) to one that supports port forwarding while maintaining access to a SOCKS5 service.

AirVPN would have been my choice, but doesn't have SOCKS5.

Private Internet Access checks off the boxes but I'm not familiar with the company behind it.

Thanks for the help and recommendations.

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[–] robotrono@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 day ago

Gluetun works great for other docker containers. For regular apps Vopono is another great solution, which makes it easy to for example run another instance of a browser in a separate namespace.

[–] TauZero@mander.xyz 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Curious, what is SOCKS5 used for that regular wireguard cannot do? I'm only familiar with the use case of telling Firefox to connect through a SOCKS5 proxy, which may be convenient as a form of split tunneling - only firefox traffic goes through the VPN and everything else through clearnet - but wireguard can be configured into a split tunnel form as well with a bit more work, and works for all software not just the ones aware of SOCKS proxies. Is it for use on a system where your permissions are too limited to turn on wireguard but not so limited that you cannot change Firefox proxy settings?

[–] uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

Thanks for the question - I value the ease of configuring SOCKS5 directly in an application. As you mentioned, WireGuard split tunneling can be done with a bit more work - which is knowledge I don't have at the moment and will take time to acquire.

My ISP is not proactive in deep scanning my traffic, so SOCKS5 has been entirely sufficient in in covering me against copyright notices for the past years.

I have Gluetun ready to go for for my torrent program on my server that I can better seed, but on my workstation I'm typically not running a VPN - and the odd time I might fire up a torrent program it is nice to have the proxy settings baked in to the application in case I forget to or don't care to toggle the VPN on.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

SOCKS like the other proxy types can be configured per application and not exclusively as an interface in kernel mode or something else in userspace mode.

[–] TauZero@mander.xyz 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

can be configured per application

wireguard can too using network namespaces

not exclusively as an interface in kernel mode

Which devices are you people running where you want VPN/proxy but don't have kernel permissions to run wireguard? Firefox on iPhone? Porn on wifi washing machine?

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago

Something like that IDK.

[–] Scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I have no idea about the SOCKS5 part but protonvpn supports port forwarding at least.

[–] retro 1 points 12 hours ago

Proton doesn't support SOCKS5

[–] TerkErJerbs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Windscribe has split tunneling and port forwarding, but doesn't directly host SOCKS5. You can however run a SOCKS server locally and the WS app will route if set up. https://windscribe.com/knowledge-base/articles/why-was-socks5-discontinued/

[–] far_university1990@reddthat.com 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Torrenting is not allowed on windscribe

[–] TerkErJerbs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 hours ago

Yeah I'm aware of that thread and participated in it at the time. I personally torrent on WS and I know lots of people do. I recommended it here because OP didn't specify that they wanted to run a seedbox like that person in the thread you refer to was doing. If you keep it casual they'll never notice you, afaict. WS is one of the few left that offer port forwarding is all I know for sure, which was what OP was asking about.

Having said that WS could've handled that shit better. I haven't heard much since then.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

PIA is probably fine until there's legitimate evidence demonstrating they aren't, there are only baseless accusations at present based on who owns them

[–] ryan_harg@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 day ago

i know probably nobody wants to hear that, but PIA is dead for me since they sponsored fucking fascist Gab a few years back.

[–] cogitase@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I use PIA because they're the only ones who support split tunnel and port forwarding on my OS. My torrent client and some chat apps run through the tunnel and everything else is bypassed. I'd use TOR on top of it if I wanted to do anything truly dodgy, which I don't.

[–] Slaxis@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago

Same. Split tunnel, SOCKS5, port forwarding…

[–] NotSoap@feddit.dk -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Mullvad maybe?
https://mullvad.net/en/help/socks5-proxy

[–] Skydancer@pawb.social 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sadly, Mullvad doesn't do port forwarding any more.

[–] GooseFinger@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've heard port forwarding is important for seeding, but why is that? Doesn't your uploaded data still go through your vpn regardless if port forwarding is enabled?

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

ELI5: Torrents require a way to send data and that's done through a port. Either you need to have a port available or someone else does. While you can upload without port forwarding, you're more likely to get higher connections if you have it turned on.