I have port forwarding turned on, and am using it with qBittorrent, having followed the steps in the official documentation. While I having to enter a new code every session is inconvenient, it’s an easy enough operation that I don’t mind.
HOWEVER… For some strange reason, the open port keeps changing on me? Without any change to my VPN status or network configuration? I’ll connect to Proton VPN, open qBittorrent and enter the new port, and ~2``0mins later I’ll get a notification announcing I need to switch to the new open port… I’ve found nothing in the documentation to suggest that periodic randomization is a feature, and I’ve disabled Auto Reconnection under VPN Accelerator settings, so I’ve no idea why the open port would change on its own like this, without a network change or any apparent outside influence. This has occurred both after I’ve come back to my computer after stepping away, and while actively using it.
If this isn’t a bug, and is just the way port forwarding is going to work, then it’s virtually useless for bittorrent applications, as the only way to consistently make use of it would be to babysit your PC and continually punch in new port numbers into the client every 20mins or so, and that’s not at all how these applications tend to be used; you don’t run something like qBittorrent in short bursts, you get it configured safely and properly, and then leave it run in the background whenever you can. While thankfully my client still technically functions without bothering with port forwarding at all, I still want to use it *properly.*
Static portforwarding has much more abusive potential, compared to dynamic port forwarding. The abuse was the reason why Mullvad had to stop that (according to them).