Netflix Pricing Shakeup Removes Cheapest Ad-Free Plan In U.K. and U.S. - IGN
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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.

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.

  • PeachMan@lemmy.oneEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Eh? What does port forwarding have to do with dead torrents? I was under the impression that trackers tracked your IP to see if you were seeding, and that doesn’t require port forwarding. Also, I’d argue that your private tracker isn’t private enough if you need a VPN to use it. I use one private tracker without a VPN to avoid all those issues, and the rest of my torrenting is on public trackers with a VPN. Seems to have worked so far.

    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.oneEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      If you don’t have port forwarding, most other users can’t make a connection to your computer. How that ends up leading to dead torrents is that you’re reducing the size of the swarm by not seeding. Additionally, it may still show you as a seeder which can cause issues if you’re the only user as nobody will be able to actually make a connection with you to download the file.

      As far as private trackers go, I have no reason to ‘trust’ any of them since I don’t personally know any of the people running them. You can choose to turn your VPN off with them even though you already have one running for public sites, but I don’t see how that benefits you in any way. It’s just a needless risk.

        • CmdrShepard@lemmy.oneEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          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?

          • PeachMan@lemmy.oneEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            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.

            • CmdrShepard@lemmy.oneEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

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

              • PeachMan@lemmy.oneEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                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.

                • CmdrShepard@lemmy.oneEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

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