I've been running a seedbox for some time now but have never made a new torrent before. I've got a file I want to make publicly available but for some reason can't seed it normally.

On the seedbox, Transmission is bound to an open port, and I added the best 20 trackers from this repo to the torrent. I also have a client I'm trying to test uploading to, but it can't seem to connect to the seedbox unless I also open the port on the leech client. Once I do it works normally, but I was under the impression only the seeder needed to be on an open port in order for clients to connect. Am I wrong and it's expected that both seeder and leecher have open ports? Would really appreciate some help!

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[–] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Just to double-check did you already test that the open port is actually open and connectable from the internet? e.g. use any port test website & see if it can connect to your seedbox Transmission open port e.g. https://www.canyouseeme.org/ , https://portchecker.co/ or similar.

Also, not sure how the open port itself was configured but make sure it is open for both TCP and UDP traffic if you needed to specify that during your firewall setup.

[–] BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Always good to double check, but yes, I used canyouseeme and the port is definitely open.

The port is configured through ProtonVPN. A few menu options below the one for port forwarding there's another for configuring the connection as OpenVPN(TCP), OpenVPN(UDP), or Wireguard. I've had other issues in the past and Transmission's internal port testing thing always specifies it's testing TCP, so that's what I had it set to with Proton. I switched Proton to UDP and am waiting a few minutes before testing it with Wireguard.

lol well with Proton's Wireguard config it doesn't seem like I can open a port at all, so I've set that back to TCP for now.

Could I be missing a step with the trackers? Do I need to upload something to them first? I looked around on opentrackr.org and didn't see anything, plus in the client the trackers are reporting 1 seeder (me) and leechers, plus it worked when I opened the port on my test leech... I'm so lost :(

[–] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Always good to double check, but yes, I used canyouseeme and the port is definitely open.

That means TCP should be working as expected with the current configuration. Note those port test websites are only testing TCP, not UDP.

A few menu options below the one for port forwarding

I'm not familiar with ProtonVPN configuration so can't guide you much there, presumably if the port forwarding option only allows for one setting then maybe it's doing both TCP/UDP? I dunno..

there’s another for configuring the connection as OpenVPN(TCP), OpenVPN(UDP), or Wireguard.

Don't worry about that one, that's for configuring the VPN client you will be using to connect to the VPN server. It should not affect the port forward itself unless ProtonVPN is doing something odd.

I’ve had other issues in the past and Transmission’s internal port testing thing

Yeah I wouldn't rely on that, the internet port test inside the torrent client isn't always reliable. But in theory it should show up as open all the time if you have a stable open port :/

Could I be missing a step with the trackers?

Doubt it being a tracker issue, they update themselves on their own schedule usually.

I also have a client I’m trying to test uploading to, but it can’t seem to connect to the seedbox

Maybe should have asked this before - can the test torrent client see that there is a seed on the torrent? Or does it load the torrent but just isn't seeing any seeds or peers at all? The open trackers take a bit to update themselves with a new torrent hash so sometimes it just takes a bit before the torrent client sees a seed and begins downloading from it.

[–] BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I’m not familiar with ProtonVPN configuration so can’t guide you much there, presumably if the port forwarding option only allows for one setting then maybe it’s doing both TCP/UDP? I dunno..

Maybe that's a good place for me to do some digging, but this is an issue specific to the new torrent I made. Things I download first seed just fine, and at much higher rates when I have the port open, so I think that's working normally regardless of any TCP/UDP stuff under the hood.

can the test torrent client see that there is a seed on the torrent?

I think I misread this. No, neither client sees any peers, but when viewing the trackers within the client, the trackers are reporting peers. I'll keep what I originally typed in the spoiler below.

Tap for spoiler

Yes. Incidentally, when I opened the port on the leech client, a few other leechers joined the swarm as well, but I was only ever able to upload anything to my own test client. Even once the upload finished, neither client uploaded anything to those other leechers either. A few hours later, the count (looking from both seed and leech client) went back down to 1 seeder and 1 leecher.

Um. Just out of curiosity, I checked the peer list again, and while I'm still the only leecher, some of the trackers are now showing multiple seeders? I definitely only ever uploaded anything to myself, how is that possible?