Why do you need a Port Forwarding VPN?

[u/PureVPNcom]

What is Port Forwarding?

Port Forwarding lets you enable incoming traffic to your system on selected ports of your choosing. You can either use it on a regular VPN connection or bundle it with a dedicated IP to get a static IP and the ability to enable incoming ports. It gives you an option to make your computer accessible to other computers on the internet especially if you are behind a router or on a NAT network.

Think of the ports as doors that are usually closed. With PureVPN's Port Forwarding add-on, you can open these doors and stay secure simultaneously!

How does it work?

Normally, when you connect to a VPN, you get an IP that is shared with many other users and no ability to receive any data on your system. All the incoming traffic is blocked by default.

With PureVPN’s Port Forwarding Add-on enabled, you get connected to our exclusive non-NAT network where each IP is assigned to one user at a time and get the ability to allow incoming connections.

To help you do it in a secure way, we provide you a panel to define your own policies and control which ports should be allowed to receive traffic and which ones should be blocked. You can either choose to open all ports or define upto 15 specific ports to enable.

Advantages of Port Forwarding

In general, it's required by internet applications like online games, file exchange, communication programs, and servers. Some common use cases include:

• Users who need it to set up their Plex Media Servers
• Developers who want to enable incoming connections to their MySQL and HTTP/HTTPS servers
• Torrent users who need to enable ports to maintain a healthy upload/download ratio
• Gamers who want to play on the Xbox Network
• Bundle it with a dedicated IP and access your laptop/pc from anywhere
• It lets you control ports on which to receive traffic

How to use Port Forwarding with PureVPN?

After purchasing the addon, you can define which ports to enable/disable directly from your Member Area. (Each PureVPN user is given the Member's Area access where you can view account, billing, add-on, and download details.)

Supported Devices

Since port forwarding rules are applied on your VPN connection, the policy will be applied on any device on which you’ll connect your VPN.

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[u/d3daiM]

I am having a really hard time getting port forwarding to work with OpenVPN. It seems to work with the PureVPN app, but I have a requirement to use OpenVPN.

[u/TechTravis → u/d3daiM]

I was basically told you have to use pptp in order for the port forwarding to work if your not using their app.

[u/d3daiM → u/TechTravis]

Damn really? Well, I can tell you that _some_ of their P2P servers work with port forwarding over OpenVPN successfully. I actively probe the port availability from a remote location using monitoring tools to make sure. But many servers don't work, so I find a few IPs that work and stick with connecting only to those.

[u/YouDontKnowInternet → u/d3daiM]

Same problem here. Tried everything and depending on the support agent was either told, OpenVPN on a router with port forwarding is supported, or not.

In the end never got it to work. Found another provider where it's working like a charm.

[u/Count042 → u/YouDontKnowInternet]

What provider did you end up using?

[u/YouDontKnowInternet → u/Count042]

Torguard works like a charm.

[u/Count042 → u/YouDontKnowInternet]

Thanks so much!

[u/PureVPNSupport → u/d3daiM]

Hey u/d3daiM I'd request you to please join us on LiveChat so that we can help you resolve this in real-time.

[u/Longjumping_Use4194]

Sai

[u/WFX_Malice]

I was really hoping PureVPN would work for me. A little background info to set the scene. I run an intricate home network, consisting of a gateway router (router on a stick) into a PFSense box separating out to 3 networks, one for my wired devices, one for my WAP and the other for my VM's hosted on my dedicated server (mostly pub game servers). My plan was to setup OpenVPN on PFSense, allocate OpenVPN to a virtual gateway interface and point all my VM's to the VPN, keeping all my other traffic going out the ISP's gateway.

I stumbled on PureVPN while searching for VPN's that allowed static IP, port forwarding and OpenVPN support , everything looked good, the price was right and their website and customer portal were clean and smooth.

Initially I could not establish adjacency on the tunnel, I had to contact PureVPN where they said they would look in to it. Half an hour later with no changes on my end, my tunnel established full adjacency (probs a shut, no shut on the virtual interface I was connected to). within a couple of hours of having connection and about a TB of data being slung back and forth my connection kept dropping again. Upon testing my connection I noticed that the ports I had set up both in PFSense and on PureVPN's customer portal were still blocked. When I contacted PureVPN about the blocked ports, they said they would review my case and get back to me. One week passed and no response, when I asked for a refund they insisted on connecting to my PC with an Anydex session to attempt to resolve to which I naturally refused.

Conclusion, I got a full refund as PureVPN don't offer port forwarding through OpenVPN, their support isn't that great, and their SLA is less than 50%. To be fair, my "home use" is bordering on commercial grade. If you are looking for an app based VPN that offers static IP and a clean GUI, give these guys a go. If you want something more technical, keep looking