What are /r/Soulseek's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I've been using [Foobar2000's](r/foobar2000/) to reorganize my library, specifically the "File Operations > Move to..." wizard, but that probably won't be the best option for you unless you are already familiar with foobar2000 because there's some setup/learning curve involved with it.

There are quite a few standalone "tag and rename" tools/apps for windows, from what I've observed MusicBrainz Picard seems to be very popular.

r/musichoarders might be the best place to investigate this, for example:

• /r/musichoarder/comments/jbvy3e/best_method_of_batch_renaming_filesorganizing/
• /r/musichoarder/comments/qappgn/good_tool_to_organize_entire_large_music_library/

using search terms like "library, rename, tool, reorganize" etc pulls back quite a few results like the above.

Absilutely dependant on where you're from. F.e. as a german user you can get a letter pretty easily for p2p if you're not cautious enough. I always use a VPN.

Problem with Mullvad (I used it before slsk): No subsequent port forwarding. I recommend AirVPN

AirVPN
$100 for 3 yrs and lets you open 2 consecutive ports. Which you need.
Obv, the monthly rate is quite a bit higher, but you only need to pay that for testing...

I've been with them for abt a yr and am impressed by speed and reliability

You should get no speed hit at all on 20 mbit/s

Review

hear hear.. I also started around the time AudioGalaxy went down. -> roomx

Cheers... Remember to donate once in a while

These days I use the program JQBX.fm to chat and listen to music like we did at SLSK back in the old days.
(I am in room Pizza & Beer if anyone else want to join in)

If you're not using it yet, use SoulseekQt, it's the only client still maintained.

If that doesn't solve it, have you made any changes to things other than Soulseek? A new router, firewall, etc? Can you post the results of ping vps.slsknet.org and of ping 208.76.170.59? See this if you need help with pinging.

Soulseek has not always supported UTF-8 character encoding, which is what is required to display Japanese (and other Kanji, and a bunch of other things). Soulseek NS definitely doesn't support it, so it makes sense to assume that older versions of Qt don't either.

I'd be interested to know your reasoning for installing a 32 bit OS.

I recommend using Nicotine+; it is frequently updated and there is a 32 bit installer for Windows available.

Seems like there are lots of stability and performance improvements: https://nicotine-plus.github.io/nicotine-plus/NEWS.html

Gotta give it a try; I found this last version unusable because of how often it froze.

If your ports are closed you will not see others with closed ports

Speed, ofc, depends on vpn
If you don't have a vpn atm, then get one that supports port forwarding.
AirVPN is the usual rec here

Considered using a VPN client that supports port forwarding? The VPN should provide you a IPV4 address within it's own tunnel, and you don't have to worry about port forwarding on the router. I am currently using AirVPN. But there are several others.

Here's a full overview of several VPN's I tried.

_port_forwarding_review_airvpn_purevpn/

Then you are using port forwarding on your router? Nord does not support port forwarding. This is from their port forwarding FAQ:

​

>Does port forwarding work with a VPN?
>
>Port forwarding and triggering could work with a VPN protocol in general, but not with NordVPN. Our apps block almost all port communication from within your device except for the ones most commonly used by popular applications. This was a tough decision that may inconvenience some users, but we’d like to explain why we did this.
>
>Browsing the internet with open ports opens you up to a number of security risks. Blocking access to all ports except those that are essential for our VPN to operate and for you to enjoy the internet is part of how NordVPN keeps you secure. We wouldn’t be able to maintain our excellent security track record otherwise.

​

So if the Nord connection closes, Soulseek will keep working exposing your real IP address. If you use a VPN that supports port forwarding and leave your router alone, when the VPN looses connection Soulseek stops working, because all the port forwarding was being handled by the VPN.

Sent also did some digging around for you and here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.companyname.andriodapp1&hl=en_GB&gl=US it's called seeker and it lets you use soulseek on an android phone.

https://www.opensubtitles.org should have you covered, it can be a bit challenging at times to find the exact one though (frames per second have to match and so has length, of course, but there's also programs out there to adjust that if really desperate).

You might try "Check Integrity" with foobar2000 (Need additional plugin http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_verifier ) Doing it you know if it is errors in files you've got, it might be caused by connection issues during filetransfer process. I have some from time to time with .flac Usualy can solve it with redownload problem file from same source, it is supposed to babyseat your downloads and check'em immediately when finished - not fun at all and also sometimes source files are already corrupted : (

I use Foobar2000 and Everything

Everything is pretty much instant. On launch, give it a minute or two to construct its db, and then leave it open.

It tells me I have 874,000 files weighing in at 14.6TB, and will give correct returns as I type.

Rutracker has music videos. You'd want to look for .vob files. Those are the best. If you want to download from youtube in bulk, try learning youtube-dl. It's a really nifty program.

I've had the same problem and I was never able to figure it out. There is one user in particular, I cannot access when I'm on my VPN despite my ports definitely being forwarded. When I am off my VPN and forwarded my ports on my router, I was able to access this user's shares no problem and browse them. This has been true despite restarting router/wifi connection/soulseek ad nauseum. I have also found, at least for AirVPN, sometimes when it disconnects and reconnects I have to restart it in order for the ports to actually be forwarded.

The current issue I have is I'm pretty sure I don't come up on searches on all although people able to download from me if they browse my files directly. i can dl fine from almost everyone. Also under "received searches" it's very few entires like four over twenty four hours rather than hundreds a minute. i have no idea what that's about

>So, they can can get my details from the ISP and proceed legally?

yeah, and because ISPs want to cover their asses they just give your info to them

>Also any good recommendations for a VPN?

ProtonVPN is pretty good.

> Also I have heard some people say that your VPN needs to have at least 2 consecutive ports open to work properly, not sure if this true or not.

AirVPN allows you to have consecutive open ports.
Which is why it is the recommended vpn here

As to whether the obfuscated port needs to be open - I've seen it mentioned here at least once that it doesn't need to be, but haven't seen a proper explanation.
Or maybe there was one and I didn't understand it

Think I'll start a thread and see if anyone bites...

You dont upload to soulseek, but just make a directory (and its sub directories) available for other users to download from. If you have nothing at the moment but are able and willing to share what you download, you can hit me up (as volcanic_birth) and download something from me freely to build a very small collection if you're scared of being banned for not sharing anything

As for VPN, I use AirVPN as its slsk friendly, but it's not essential. I never had issues using it for years before I VPNd but your mileage my vary and that may not be that way forever

Check this thread for a rundown on different VPN's.

I use AirVPN, and upload about 500GB a month through their VPN. My upload speed sucks due to my provider, but the uptime on the VPN service is fantastic. AirVPN's system is the best for port forwarding, but has an inherent flaw of running out of ports at some point or not letting you have access to specific port numbers if needed.

_port_forwarding_review_airvpn_purevpn/

I don't really know what all of that means sorry I'm not that knowledgeable with that stuff. All I know is I am connected to NordVPN while I open Soulseek and when I close the connection to NordVPN Soulseek will automatically shut down. That's the only way I can lose connection to it right?

My experience has been ibVPN, using UDP protocol, using very certain Eastern Europe countries. Those are the only servers that fully allow SoulSeek to upload (other servers show open on port checker but no one downloads from me while on those).

NordVPN did not work for me.

Part of it is cause I have shitty internet connection. Every time it dropped l had to rejoin AirVPN and restart Soulseek. There also was at least one user I couldn’t connect to with AirVPN ports forwarded but I could without a VPN and ports forwarded.

> However, Private Internet Access MACE works differently. If you have Private Internet Access MACE enabled in our desktop app, your browser requests the IP address of "" and the DNS will return "127.0.0.2", which points back to the local computer. As a result of this, your browser won't be able to make any tracking requests.

This isn't going to help conceal your IP. Only ensuring that all of your Soulseek traffic is routed through the VPN will do that.

So, I think what I'm going to try is enable MACE in PIA, and then just have nicotine in split tunnel to bypass the vpn. Do you all think this will work?

Here is what MACE is, for those that do not know.

MACE is a system developed by Private Internet Access to help protect our customer's privacy and security. Private Internet Access MACE returns IP addresses of unwanted domain names as an address that's not routable on the public internet.

I used AirVPN and didn’t like it. Mullvad couldn’t forward the ports sequentially. Guess I’ll have to keep raw digging it and hope copyright trolls stay off of it. I also generally avoid anything recent or big names

Thanks again! I use NordVPN and it doesn’t support port forwarding.

However I found a better solution which is to bypass the router function of the Starlink router and connect my own router/switch to the Ethernet adapter to enable all functionality such as port forwarding.

When I used AirVPN even with the right ports forwarded there were a couple of people I couldn’t download or see their files. I talked to others and my suspicious is Soulseek just doesn’t work well with VPNs

Mullvad might work. The main listening port you enter into SS (Options tab->top of window- Listening Port) is for normal connections. Use the port number that Mullvad tells you. SS uses one more port (1 higher) for obfuscated connections (I don't know what that is or how important it is).

If Mullvad changes the port with each login, you'll have to change it in SS afterwards each time. I assume a restart of SS is needed (someone correct me if wrong). Or find a different VPN. Several allow more than one port (that do not change).

Instead of a proxy you might consider a VPN. Mullvad is a known working provider, but really any that allow port forwarding should work.

Here is a docker-compose configuration using Mullvad and gluetun.

You might also consider just running slskd on the VPS and using the FTP integration to send completed files back to your home server. The problem with this, though, is that you'll have to upload everything you want to share to the VPS. You could mount your home FTP on the VPS to avoid this but I'm curious how well this would actually work.

I’m behind a cgnat and this has been my experience. I can still search and download files, but I’m assuming not everything shows up. And sometimes I want to browse someone’s files and it doesn’t work. It’s usable, but it’s also kind of annoying.

I just got AirVPN to open ports there. (and for some other non-slsk stuff I haven’t quite figured out yet). For my ISP at least, it’s cheaper than getting a static IP.

Problem solved

AirVPN was something I was looking at, but Mullvad is just a better choice for me as I use it for other things, not just SlSk. It really isn't too difficult once you go through it a few times. And you're well rested LOL

Right. I'm sure I did everything correctly. If I don't seem to be getting many upload notifications I'll see if I need to change anything. Just getting used to Mullvad. Thanks again, very appreciated!

It wouldn't be working for the server connection, but it might work for connections to other users.

The problem with this configuration is that the Soulseek server must advertise your IP address to other users so that they can connect to you, and other clients will still be attempting to connect to that IP while you are on the network. If AirVPN doesn't block these connections, then no, it isn't doing anything for you.

I'm not an expert on VPN software, but I'd wager that if connecting to AirVPN doesn't disconnect an existing connection to the Soulseek server, it probably isn't blocking incoming connections, either.

No idea
That's between you and mullvad

Easiest, and most recced here, is AirVPN, which allows you up to 20 ports of your choice (if no one else has them)
Could easily be cheaper than mullvad also, if you don't mind buying volume (I recently bought my second 3 yrs)

At OP, what jumpfetus said is very much right. I'd figure I'd mention a program that can do what exactly what he said ie Sox http://sox.sourceforge.net/ it can be a bit tricky to use I think but give it a go

Open Source virtual machine for Mac. Allows you to run linux or windows on your device. Install it. Choose an OS that plays nice with Soulseek - Ubuntu is a good choice and run SS in that. It's a bit of a workaround, will probably use a fair bit of memory/processing so not the most elegant solution.

The maker of Tixati is supposed to have a hybrid all in one software that is like BitTorrent and Soulseek and include chatting.

It’s called Fopnu. I have not used it, so have no experience, though I do like Tixati.

https://www.fopnu.com/

I have no advice for the original QT client but, you can try using the alternative which is Nicotine+. It's an open source client that interfaces with SS so you'll get that same experience with better performance IMO.

https://nicotine-plus.github.io/nicotine-plus/

I've had no issues that I remember! You should be good to go out of the box. I don't remember configuring slsk to go only through mullvad though, so just make sure to only leave slsk open when Mullvad is on. I have the kill switch enabled on Mullvad ( or maybe it's on by default) so if Mullvad disconnects it blocks internet for the entire device til the connection is reestablished.

Honestly I've been very pleased with Mullvad. I almost went with Windscribe 2 years ago because they were cheaper, but Mullvad looked more trustworthy. And indeed it turned out Windscribe recently got caught being sketchy or something.

Hey, i just messaged you through QT. but in case you dont get that....

​

Instructions on setting up AirVPN (and others) and port forwarding:

_port_forwarding_review_airvpn_purevpn/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=Soulseek&utm_content=t5_2smh2

​

This is going to be the easiest, most direct route in solving your issue. You can absolutely accomplish the same thing by manually designating and forwarding specific ports on your router, but I found this to be a much easier way of going about it. Does cost some money, so if the money ain't worth it, then climb the learning curve and figure out "port forwarding".

Slsk requires two sequential ports to be open. This is me watering/dumbing down the explanation to all hell, but it'll help in getting you where you need to go. In slskQT, if you go to options>login, you'll see a "listening port". the one after that is the obfuscated port. i.e 444 is your listening, then 445 would be your obfuscated.

Don't hesitate to dm me direct to ask questions. and i did message you direct through QT so hit me up if needed.

Cheers

Option #1

1. Switch to AirVPN
2. Open TWO CONSECUTIVE ports between 10000-60000 that isn't used by something else on your network (eg, 28777 and 28778)
3. Make sure the VPN is turned on in the machine running soulseek
4. Set the listening port on soulseek (eg, to 28777)

​

Alternatively (this one I'm less sure about but pretty sure will work):

1. Open one port on mullvad
2. Download and install nicotine+ (a different soulseek client)
3. Make sure the vpn is turned on in the machine running nicotine+
4. Set the listening port in nicotine+ to the mullvad port you selected

​

That's it. You will be able to connect to most other users.

This is not true, you can use AirVPN which allows you to open consecutive ports.

Additionally, my understanding is that Nicotine+ can be configured with 1 open port, in which case Mullvad is usable as well.

Nicotine+ and slskd both allow you to use nicknames/aliases for shares which will obscure the path.

If you want to use an official Soulseek client you'll need to move the files to somewhere else.

Not all VPNs will work well. You need one with port mapping, otherwise you will not be able to connect to users with misconfigured or just closed ports.
The way slsk works:
- open port you / open port other party - connection fine
- open port you / closed port other party - usually works, but sometimes unstable
- closed port you / closed port other party - no connection

NordVPN definitely doesn't work, I think PIA does. But you should check carefully.

>I was using Windows media player

That might be your problem. Windows Media Player doesn't support FLAC natively. Try using InfraRecorder or another CD burner program instead.

I came across this freeware that I now run all my mp3 files through. It fixed an issue I had with attributes not showing in some files, and fixes some other errors.

http://mp3val.sourceforge.net/

If this is an issue across all your files I'm not sure this will necessarily fix it, but it's worth a shot. You can make copies and try it out.

I use Beet, to organize my music. I'm a linux user so I just install it with "apt- get". I know you can use it on mac too. If you don't know about it, check it out. Made my life so much easier 😃

https://beets.io/

The Spek app is a free download. As long as it takes to drag a drop a file is the time it takes to check if it’s real or fake. If your DLing a full EP/LP folder, you can check the individual tracks as they complete. If they’re all coming up as bad transcodes (fakes) you can cancel the remaining DL.

I use MediaHuman Audio Converter. It’s free and fast. There are many apps that will convert audio files, including iTunes.

I am currently using Meta (https://www.nightbirdsevolve.com/meta/) to edit my files metadata. I never used, but the app has a Create Directory feature that might help you and save you some time.

This is only half of what you are asking, but hopefully it helps.

I use Soundiiz to transfer playlists from service to service. You can also connect your YouTube account as a source. When you select a playlist there is an option to save the list as several file types.

This would be great way to save what you have.

Site is down for me aswell but I downloaded it with the Nicotine+ frontend and it works and looks great.

https://nicotine-plus.github.io/nicotine-plus/

The .dmg installer won't work on macOS 10.14 or older due to being built on 10.15. Your options are to upgrade to macOS 10.15 or newer, or install Nicotine+ with Homebrew instead. https://nicotine-plus.github.io/nicotine-plus/#stable-high-sierra1013-and-mojave1014

1) Options>File Sharing>Share Folder is how you share your music folder. Please share something.

2) http://www.slsknet.org/news/node/1 to download the latest.

3) Don't download executable files and you'll be fine. Get all the music, movies and books you want.

I only use this version of soulseek http://www.slsknet.org/news/node/683
it is a bit older and the layout is not so extravagant,
but it works properly. Hope you get it done.

all you guys calling this dude a poser or disrespecting him are the real fucking posers. stop trying to exclude people. let people join the fun. Maybe hes not as used to the internet as we are.

go here: http://www.slsknet.org/news/node/1

download whichever version is appropriate for you based on what OS you have

install it, click on the search tab, type in what you're looking for

the results will show all the files people have uploaded with a file/folder name that matches what you searched for. it will show you the contents of the folder as well as their quality. find one you like, right click it, and click download. you can use the "transfers" tab to monitor download progress. it automatically downloads to a folder, you can click the "open folder" to find your downloaded content. good luck.

https://slsk.net/ seems to be compromised. The ssl page presents this error in Firefox:

>slsk.net uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is only valid for the following names: 4008096586.com, www.4008096586.com Error code: SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN

It's possible there's filter on the new router that blocks ssl pages with invalid certificates that makes the page timeout for you instead of allowing Firefox or Chrome to present you with the error. http://www.slsknet.org/ goes to SoulseekQt's home. As far the port issue, make sure UPnP is enabled in SoulSeek's settings and it should work, unless the new router also blocks P2P programs and sites.

Hi, try as much as possible to be more specific, in which operating system and what version of Soulseek is running.

Anyway I leave you an official help link that can be your guide.

http://www.slsknet.org/news/node/200

I have found http://www.slsknet.org/SoulseekQt/Mac/SoulseekQt-1-26-2013.dmg works great for me, despite some folks having problems let me know how you get on Mac OS X 10.6.8 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GB Memory

In my earlier post I mentioned that the site dev had stopped mentioning slsk.
But he lied

Here's the thread where he launched himself here, and suggested he would remove all refs to slsk. In April 2018.

And here's his twitter feed where he states "based on the soulseek protocol". In March 2019

So the boy lied to us

I'm not going to remove this post, partly coz it would be based on personal prejudice

Personal prejudice? The dev of this site is a bottom feeding scumbag who seeks to monetize slsk for his own gain.
In this respect he is worse than any locker/trader/non sharer who, let's be honest, is only using slsk in a way that it has been written

This is the first post about this site I have read in a really long time. Going forward, I will remove any post about it I see

And no; I'm not going to add anything to the sidebar - adding a "rule" or similar would only give him publicity

The long term health of slsk would be better served if the site were shut down.

There's a ton of "banners" in this sub.
You wanna ban this boy? Add some unique content to your shares, open slsk, search for your unique content on the site and download it. Note the uploader...

Go to your Mullvad account and go to port forwarding, then select a city (you have to be connected to that one) and enable it for your wireguard key. You should get a port number. That number you will put into the port field in the settings of nicotine. Restart. If everything worked, the button "check port status" should get you a OPEN result.

Open - Private Internet Access

PIA has a setting to allow port forwarding, but you can't control which port it is. It's a bit frustrating because the port will randomly change like once a month, but other than that works perfectly.

Server at home: AirVPN. Perfect uptime. I do have to restart the client maybe once a month because it seems like no one is able to connect to me for some unknown reason. I have 0 slots in use, then I restart and slots start getting used.

Rented server: Directly attached to the Internet (IP address of computer is Internet IP). Opened the required ports on Windows firewall. Zero problems so far. Works great, but is pricey solution.

thx a lot again for ur fast reply I'm using the free version of ProtonVPN and it doesn't allow me to connect to servers with P2P traffic support. So... do u see any advantage of using the above mentioned VPN in my case?

I use Seeker on a Android 11 Device from Samsung. And it works good. I have no solution for your problem. You can write an email to the dev. Maybe the uploader of stuff you are searching is offline.

I see a lot of soulseekers recommend AirVPN. It might have to come to that. I've got a couple other VPNs currently with active subscriptions (including ExpressVPN) that I was hoping I could get working but that is proving to be difficult/impossible.

Private Internet Access is an amazing VPN. Way better than any other I've come across. Great customer-service and great product. I seriously can't imagine doing any sort of downloading without it.

Maybe. I tried the 3 day plan and left thoroughly unimpressed in comparison to Mullvad.

But hey, use what works best for you. Mullvad's Wireguard works with 300 Mb up/down for me, while AirVPN was stuck at around 100 at best.

>I run a somewhat complicated VPN container + reverse proxy container and route all of my “softwarr” through these 2 containers, so they all share a single VPN connection

I'm doing the same thing using Docker. dperson/openvpn-client

Ahh, interesting! How many ports do they let you forward? Some VPN providers only give you a single port. I switched from NordVPN to AirVPN because Air let you forward up to 20 ports, so I can use torrents, Soulseek, and a bunch of other apps all with their ports properly forwarded.

So I finally after a long time took care of my port forwarding - just sign up for AirVPN, they allow port forwarding as part of their service. That is, if you can’t figure out your router settings etc etc. I’m going to try and get my ports forwarded manually eventually but AirVPN could hold you over in the meantime

Can you share a screenshot of your router's port forwarding page?

Also, is your ISP old or new? If it's new there is a good chance they implement CGNAT which shuts down all possibility of you being able to port forward from your home connection. You would need to use a VPN like AirVPN/Mullvad in that case.

If you have serious probs that you are simply unable to resolve through usual means, then I suggest you read this post and consider spending $100 for 3 yrs of AirVPN

I get what you're saying. I explained it in the stickied megathread some time ago and got well intentioned but trite answers. I gave up bcs it's too simple of a problem to have to affront and it's plain sketchy that I can't PF with VPN on Soulseek, as if I were being discouraged from using a VPN at all.

My VPN is PrivateVPN, all ports are forwarded. Ports are open when I'm seeding through that port (any port) on qBittorrent. Same setup and to Soulseek's tool the ports are closed.

Edit: You were the one who tried to help me lmao! Oh well.

Yup I used that post as a reference to make my AirVPN purchase. I'm honestly stuck because when I search for 2 ports and try to add them I get a message saying they are taken. I've tried so many times.

Are the downloads coming from user list friends? If ExpressVPN is enabled basically nobody can see your files. I've left it running for 3-4 days straight with like 80,000 files shared and nobody downloaded from me once. As soon as I disconnect from the VPN and close out slsk and fire it back up people find my files and start downloading

I reached out to their support via chat and email and also received that same response, they do not offer forwarding. I've been pretty happy with ExpressVPN overall but am likely going to move to AirVPN, just hoping the speeds and uptime are comparable.

>Or any recommendations for another VPN service with a good reputation/speeds that can do this?

Standard rec here is AirVPN which allows you to open 2 consecutive ports.

Rec post

I have no issues using Soulseek via ExpressVPN. From what I understand, there is no need to enable port forwarding specifically for Soulseek using ExpressVPN as it does it for you. I don’t have the technical language skills re port forwarding but I have been using ExpressVPN for over 5 years now (and Soulseek for a decade) and through my use, have come to discover that ExpressVPN is one of the most advanced & secure VPN’s on the market and have set out to tackle port forwarding on several occasions with certain tasks only to discover via their technical customer service assistants that there was no need with the ExpressVPN VPN.

IME if slsk says your ports are closed, then your ports are closed

You can test this easily with an AirVPN trial - grab a couple of consecutive ports, point slsk to them, see if your prob goes away

Closed ports = reduced connectivity

I will say I use Mullvad and I have trouble seeing all search results and connecting to certain members. Mullvad doesn’t allow for two sequential ports to be forwarded, as is required by Soulseek. I’m planning to try AirVPN as it seems to be the one most people on the sub recommend for use with Soulseek, but I can’t vouch for it as of yet.

I do enjoy Mullvad otherwise

> I had that too, looked into port forwarding and was like fuck that

Easiest workround for the "fuck that" factor is to give AirVPN $100 every 3 yrs.
Kinda helps if you might have additional uses for a VPN

With closed ports, slsk is quite a bit crippled

Sorry I can’t comment on PIA as I haven’t used them. AirVPN seems to get recommended on this sub a lot because they offer port forwarding and you can choose the ports, I believe.

I use Mullvad, but it opens a random port, so I can’t open the obfuscated port since Soulseek uses the number directly following your main port. I’ve noticed some issues with not being able to connect to some users and results not being as large as if I was using no VPN, so I’m considering switching. Just a thought

I've used soulseek for an incredibly long time now, both behind a VPN and not, and I've had absolutely nothing happen relating to my public IP. You'll be fine, and if you're paranoid, get yourself behind a VPN (I believe AirVPN is the soulseek user VPN of choice)

You don't need a VPN.
If you are the really nervous type and decide you do need one, you get AirVPN as per this thread which is a really comprehensive analysis.

And Air might be a good option also if your ports are closed and you can't work out how to open them.

The VPN takes control of your network adaptor. Everything that uses the network goes through it. Some VPN services allow you to let everything on the local network bypass the VPN (everything in your house), but I have also used VPN's that made my computer unavailable to the local network because the software had no provision for local traffic.

The only thing that matters for Soulseek specifically is if the VPN allows "port forwarding". Not all of them do. There was a guide posted on here a while back that outlined it. Can be found by googling/binging "soulseek port forwarding review". Based on your physical location you might check the ibVPN section in there. I haven't used it, but it says the servers near Germany work. I use AirVPN, which I think is popular for North America users on this subreddit. It's excellent for Soulseek.

_port_forwarding_review_airvpn_purevpn/

I'm also new to Slsk, so please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

The files in your uploads folder should be available for other people to download, but they may not be able to if you haven't set up port forwarding on your end. Here's some info on this.

Now if you aren't already, you should be using a VPN, and one that allows you to set up port forwarding. Here's

It depends on your content. If it is current content that studios are hoping to make money off of, then you might be targeted. But if its out of print stuff or music from foreign countries than you probably have 0% chance of ruffling feathers. I would be most leary of United States Hot 100 Pop music. Lots of money and suits behind that.

That being said, I use AirVPN and it has been absolutely amazing.

Hi,

You prob can't with Mullvad. Most VPN you can't but AirVpn no problem. I'v tested out loads of VPN then I of heard of AirVpn. Easy to setup.

It's 2 Euro for 3 day trial. You need ports open on SS

You are talking about Windows 10 security settings of AirVPN settings? I do have SoulseekQT set to Private and Public under "Allow Apps To Communicate Through Windows Defender Firewall" in Windows Firewall.

I will say that initially, my ports set up perfect in AirVPN. But then I tried to add some additional ports for Plex and they show up as Closed when using the Soulseek webpage checker (just change the port number in the URL). And Plex shows as not being able to connect directly. But my Soulseek ones continue to work perfect, and that's what I really care about. I haven't gotten around to trying to figure out why additional ports aren't working.

You don't have to worry about the "server port", you will know that one isn't working if you are unable to login upon starting Soulseek.

​

This is why I like the VPN solution. I start up my VPN (that supports Port Forwarding) and now that PC (or Mac) has port forwarding working....without any modification to the router, and fully independent of the router. So I don't have to worry about IP addresses or Mac start the VPN and on the computer and it works.

The downside is it costs some money. I tried several different VPN's and settled on AirVPN. It's like $30ish a year and the uptime has been amazing. It's been connected uninterupted for 2 weeks (since windows rebooted the computer on me for an update) and has transferred almost 300GB up (to others) in that time period.

I could not get the ports open on NordVPN. Either in Windows or MacOS.

See here for my experiences:

Very interesting read. Sad to see such lack of replies. I have AirVPN and thought I was successfully ported, however now I'm getting 2 browser pop ups. 1 saying open and configured correctly, while the 2nd screen says closed for the Obfuscated" port number.

Do you have any links to any port forwarding guides for the windows 10 firewall? My router is never in the list and followed all the steps there to add my router but never heard back from them regarding anything. I'll follow your info here and see if I can't translate it over to Airvpn

I'm kind of lost and just fumbling around and at this point, scared I'm messing with the actual security of the computer.

Edit: I started digging around in the 'Forward Ports' section in my vpn settings and light bulbs are finally lighting up, haha. Many thanks!