VPN's that provide servers with port forwarding

T1ggZ · 31 Mar 2015 at 23:52

Hi, my current situation means that I'm not in control of my networks firewall and it blocks pretty much everything.
I used "Private Internet Access" for a time and they provide a limited number of servers that allow port forwarding that essentially allowed me to bypass any firewall restrictions. I'm now trying out "IP Vanish" because I've heard good things about it but I've now been informed that they don't provide any of these port forwarding servers which makes their service essentially useless for me.
If anyone could recommend some services for my situation that would be great.
Cheers

thebennyboy · 31 Mar 2015 at 23:59

I use these guys: https://www.finchvpn.com/

They are well priced and have port forwarding. Just make sure you're on their "Premier" plan as that is the only one which has access to port forwarding.

Steveocee · 1 Apr 2015 at 08:21

Do you need port forwarding?

You port forward on your router to get around NAT but if you are using a VPN (from the PC) then this sits behind and tunnels through your NAT doesn't it? Unless that is the VPN provide is doing some kind of NAT.

T1ggZ · 1 Apr 2015 at 09:03

I am unable to change any settings on my router so if it's the NAT that is blocking me and a VPN will fix that then that sounds ideal.

Steveocee · 1 Apr 2015 at 18:17

I would have thought the vpn alone would be enough then if you're just swerving a local firewall. Providing that isn't blocking vpn locally

T1ggZ · 1 Apr 2015 at 18:49

Yeah that's what I thought but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Steveocee · 1 Apr 2015 at 20:32

What problem are you trying to get around?
Is it torrent speed or just that they aren't connecting?

T1ggZ · 1 Apr 2015 at 21:48

So my situation is that I'm trying to play league of legends. I can open the launcher and all that but when i actually start a game I can't connect to the game. Different ports are used for the launcher and the game client. I'm pretty sure the reason I can't play is because the port is blocked and I need to get around that issue without just adding the port as an exception.

Keo · 1 Apr 2015 at 22:03

You could check out https://www.hideipvpn.com/free-vpn/ 24hour trial see if that works for you. Ive played a few games over VPN without issues. Great service. Worth a try.

Rainmaker · 2 Apr 2015 at 22:53

Port forwarding doesn't do what you discuss in the OP. It's for receiving services listening locally on port xxxx. For example for sharing torrents you can specify port 1234 and then forward that on the VPN to ensure you get the traffic.

To bypass a restrictive local firewall you should try connecting over ports 443, 53 or 8080. If that doesn't work, try TCP instead of UDP (options available in PIA's app). Better still sign up for a trial with AirVPN as they give you much more control. Their app allows you to tunnel the VPN through SSH or SSL (or even TOR) to bypass local restrictive firewalls. They also allow you to manually specify up to 20 ports and reverse DNS, compared to PIA's one port assigned to you without any ability to choose. On AirVPN port forwards work on every server also, not just a few of them. They also have geo-unlocking configured so you can connect in the UK but still watch US Hulu etc, or connect to HK and watch iPlayer etc.

Steveocee said:
Do you need port forwarding?

You port forward on your router to get around NAT but if you are using a VPN (from the PC) then this sits behind and tunnels through your NAT doesn't it? Unless that is the VPN provide is doing some kind of NAT.

The fact that OpenVPN bypasses the local network and firewall (generally speaking) is true. Port forwarding through a VPN isn't anything to do with those reasons. It's so you can continue to operate services listening on port xxxx. So for example you can connect to the VPN and still receive incoming connections on your torrent client's port, or in the case of decent VPNs like AirVPN you could set up a port 1234 with RDNS myserver.airvpn.org and then host on that port from right behind the VPN. Loads of uses.

You have to forward ports for VPN as you're using a shared IP.

Basically a hundred users are on server X all sharing (mixing) traffic on IP 1.2.3.4. If you didn't port forward and started torrenting, for example, the torrent client would say 'Please send me traffic on IP 1.2.3.4'. That's great, except which of the 100 users on that IP are you exactly? Instead with forwarding you say 'Please send me traffic on IP 1.2.3.4 and I'm the guy listening on port 1234.' Simple.