this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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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.
I think you need to do a lot more research because you aren't opening your network to anything with this.
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.
The port you're opening is with your VPN provider not your local network hence why you need a VPN with port forwarding.
You sure? I assumed you had to open a port in both.
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.