Question Help with port forwarding on Proton VPN (router setup, Cudy WR3000, public IP issue)

[skepasti21]

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to set up proper port forwarding on my router using Proton VPN, and I could really use some help understanding what's going wrong.

Here’s the situation:

My ISP provides me with a real public IP address (confirmed — my WAN IP and public IP match when VPN is off).

I’m using a Cudy WR3000 router, and I’ve tried both Proton’s OpenVPN and WireGuard config file directly on the router.

When VPN is off, I can successfully open ports and verify they’re reachable.

But once I activate Proton VPN on the router, I no longer have access to that public IP — it changes (as expected), and port checking tools report the ports as closed, even when using the default forwarded port provided in Proton’s both OpenVPN and WireGuard config.

My torrent client (qBittorrent) doesn’t receive incoming connections anymore when the VPN is active, even though I’ve manually set the assigned port in its settings.

So my questions are:

1. How can I properly use the forwarded port from Proton VPN when the VPN runs on the router itself (not the desktop app)?

2. Is this a limitation of the Cudy WR3000, or something related to how Proton handles port forwarding when using router-based configs?

3. Is using OpenWRT (or another custom firmware) the only way to get full port forwarding working properly in this situation? I'd really prefer to avoid flashing custom firmware if possible.

4. Is there a known workaround to make the forwarded port appear open and allow inbound connections from peers when torrenting?

Any insight or guidance would be hugely appreciated. I’m open to switching protocols or even VPN providers if needed — I just want reliable inbound connectivity for torrenting.

Thanks in advance!

 

[skepasti21]

I found an alternative method: I connect once using the Windows application with port forwarding enabled, and then I use the port it gives me in my torrent client. After that, even if I disconnect from the Windows app and stay connected only through the VPN on the Cudy router, the computer keeps the port open and continues to use it—even after restarting the PC.