VPN needed for using Soulseek? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Sunny@slrpnk.net to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Hiya,

Working on completely replacing Spotify completely. Soulseek has popped up a few times here and there among forums and here on lemmy, so I thought I'd give that a go. I've started with getting Nicotine+ client and seems to be working fine. However, what does the traffic look like when downloading/uploading things over the Soulseek network? I read its peer-to-peer network, but does that mean I don't need a VPN? I'm also told to open a port on my router, I'm assuming this is so that I can share my own library with the rest of the network, but how safe is this?

If anyone could help my clarify this I'd greatly appreciate it!

Edit: Just found this very promising project too! https://github.com/slskd/slskd

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[-] praise_idleness@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago

Depends. If where you live is very strict with piracy, I'd suggest you do. Otherwise, don't bother. Note that port-forwarding is required; hence no Mullvad, for example.

[-] trouble@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago

Why do I keep seeing people say port forwarding is required on different topics? Is PIA ok? Cheers

[-] clmbmb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 weeks ago

Why do I keep seeing people say port forwarding is required on different topics

Because peer-to-peer connectivity works like that. That's why it's called peer to peer: you connect directly to the other peer, hence you need a port open and you are usually not connected directly to the internet, but through a router/switch/whatever, which in turn should forward the connection on that port to your client app.