Like I said, no two threads are ever identical, even if the same question is repeated. If someone asks the same question tomorrow, they won’t get the exact same replies I received. Different people will weigh in with similar, yet unique suggestions in the comments.
You are getting too technical I’m afraid. I want something simple.
If you want simple, get a seedbox.
Oh sorry didn’t mean to, port forwarding is just something that you’ll find useful for better download and upload speeds down the road, but a VPN without it will work as well. Proton and AirVPN are recommended in the sub as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/VPNTorrents/s/z22TQqImTn.
Is port forwarding less secure than simply torrenting with the VPN enabled?
It’s way more expensive than a VPN
*slightly more expensive. Plus far easier to use, zero chance of misconfiguration/leaks, zero chance of getting DMCA’d, faster/easier to maintain ratios on private trackers… But let’s not let facts get in the way…
I’ll admit, it’s a very good option. Which one do you recommend for a beginner?
I have the biggest one they offer which is $25 a month with 2TB of storage, but they have $10/15/20 plans as well… They all have the same features, only difference is storage space. I’ve been using them for over 10 years now and never had an issue (I originally got after I got two copyright strikes in the same week torrenting from home). What I love is that they support all the media servers (Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin) right there on your box (its only a few clicks from the dashboard to set it up), so you can download stuff to your box and stream directly from it without actually having to download to your own computer if you don’t want to. This is where the big storage space comes in handy. I will advise you since I’ve been there, if you want to take advantage of Plex/Jellyfin/Emby and will be using it for long term storage, get a bigger plan right off the bat. It’s a pain in the ass to upgrade it later because your stuff has to be migrated over to a new server, then you have to set it all back up and reorganize it - they can’t just provision more space for you.
You will access your box through the webui (ruTorrent). They’ll give you URL, you pick a name and password, and it’ll bring up the familiar ruTorrent GUI. You’ll use it the same way you’d use it locally (feed it .torrent files and magnet links to download), and then it’ll pull it in.
You can download directly over https by clicking the downloaded file in the GUI, or use one of the media servers to stream, or you can download to your computer using a FTP client like Filezilla (real easy to use). You’d do this to download batches of files at once.
Bonus, they give you a free VPN endpoint in the Netherlands. It’ll hide your “naughty” streaming, as well as giving you access to out-of-region content on Netflix and Hulu if you use those. Since they are not a “VPN provider”, their data center IPs are under the radar and not blocked by the major streaming services.
WOW! Thanks for the detailed reply! I’m probably not going to use most of the stuff you just mentioned but when I do, it’s gonna be handy to have all this information you gave me.
I have one last question: I want to download and store a massive collection of movies and shows, and I’m looking for the best long-term storage solution. I’m talking terabytes of data, all in one place, and reliable enough to last a lifetime. Is a NAS paired with a seedbox the optimal setup, or is there a better option I should consider?
I’m not the biggest fan of off-the-shelf NAS systems… They’re proprietary and expensive for what they are, and you have a hard limit to the number of drives you can add, and because to get data protection they use some flavor of hardware RAID, which requires identical drives. Plus once the manufacturer decides not to support it anymore you’re boned. But if you want ultra simple they’ll fit the bill.
I built my own server on Unraid. The price depends on how many drives you want to attach, but it is upgradeable later. The best part about it is you can use basically whatever drives you have laying around (and you can upgrade on the fly with no special requirements), and you’ll use one extra drive (the biggest one) for parity… What that does is if a drive were to fail, it can use the data on that drive to rebuild the failed drive once you replace it - so no data loss, just like hardware RAID but without the requirement of identical drives and separate hardware controllers (which can and do go bad too). It also doesn’t have to be the fastest computer if you aren’t doing anything intensive with it. Mine runs on a Ryzen5 1600 with 32GB RAM, but that’s because I use it for multiple simultaneous Emby streams that may have to transcode. If you’re just using it for straight up file storage and local streaming you can use whatever you can scrounge up.
Unraid dashboard, I have 42TB in the protected array (4x14TB drives), plus another 18TB of hardware RAID migrated from my old server (eventually I’ll add more drives to the protected array and copy it all over because those are all really old 2TB drives with a whole lot of spinning years on them 
)
https://i.imgur.com/u3RYCQs.jpeg
The UI for one of my seedboxes so you can see what it’s like
https://i.imgur.com/3o7CmOw.jpeg
Edit: Oh and yes I definitely believe a seedbox + some form of home server/NAS is the ultimate solution… There are even ways to have anything on your seedbox automatically download to your server as soon as it’s done. Honestly I don’t use that though because of the way my brain works lol… If I let things just keep dumping into a single folder I’ll never actually organize them into my collection until one day I’ll hyperfixate on it and spend 9 hours doing it when Im supposed to be sleeping for work… I have to do things manually or else it won’t get done right. ADHD sucks
Do you know any YouTube channels that can help me get started with all this?
Spaceinvader One is basically the go-to community Unraid guru. He has videos that show you how to do pretty much everything. His channel is kind of a mess, but everything you need to get going is in there.
Let’s say I want to download a torrent from 10 years ago that has limited or 0 seeds. What do I do in this case?
Lol those are called “white whales”. Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot you can do with those other than pray to your chosen diety. If it’s on a private tracker you can request a reseed (different trackers have different methods, whether via a button that DM’s users who downloaded it, or a request forum), but even then there’s no guarantees. The longer a torrent has been without seeds, the less likely one will ever connect again. But if one does eventually connect and you manage to download it, make sure you pay it forward and leave it seeding long-term for the next guy in your position 