Program and OS:
1. Name and version of your Gnutella program?
Phex version 3.4.2.116
Java version 8 update 5
2. OS version? (example: Windows 98)
Windows 7 Ultimate
3. Is this a your 1st try at using the program or is this a new problem with an experienced user?
My first time using Phex
Use to use Limewire a lot, its been about 3 years since then, I mostly use utorrent, but gnutella has always been easier for me to find and download individual songs.

Your computer:
4. What firewalls you have?
Windows firewall, have have given Phex full access
5. How much ram?
16gb
6. Hard Disk space available? Do you have at least 100MiB of free HD space?
yes, i have 3tb of free space
7. What security programs are you using (antivirus etc)?
avg free (No firewall)

Your Network Connection:
I have a VPN! Private internet access.


8. Connection type?
Cable 20Mbps
9. Modem & router brand name & model numbers?
Netgear, but when i pull up the network map, it doesn't show up on there... it just shows a "Gateway"
(because of my vpn)
Netgear
WNR2000v2

Firmware Version V1.0.0.34_29.0.45NA
10. Where are you trying to connect from?
Home
11. Who is your ISP (Internet Service Provider)?
Its timewarner, but its not them blocking it... all my data is encrypted through my VPN
12. What country are you living in?
My VPN allows me to "Live" in 10 different countries.
I usually have it connected to a USA location.

Other information:
13. Are you sharing the connection with other computers or p2p sharing programs?
I use Utorrent, but I have utorrent off when trying to use Phex
14. For those using a modem/router, how is your modem/router set up...are you port forwarding or is UPnP enabled?
UPnP is enabled.
If you look at the image I added of my VPN, it has Port forwarding, I tried that with no success.

15. Has anything in your setup changed recently? Have you updated your program version or Java? Have you added any new software or new hardware? Have you updated any software? Have you moved house, changed internet plan or ISP etc etc?
Nope, just installed Phex. thats it.

I'm not at all knowledgeable about VPN.
But I do believe Phex works best if port forwarded. Its internal basic port mapping tool definitely does not work for everyone (including my router, thus my results boomed once I forwarded a port for Phex for both UDP & TCP.)

Looks like you will need to somehow work Phex's external ip & port in with VPN.
In Phex's options: Under network, you can set your listening port.

However, under Firewall/Proxy: there is both a firewall setting to export Host IP. And also a Socks 5 option.

For port forwarding for your model: There's no specific instructions for Phex for your router/modem, so ignore the portion of instructions for LimeWire: Port Forwarding the Netgear WNR2000v2 Router for Limewire

Edit: Would this help solve the issue? Astril OpenVPN: Port Forward Feature. I presume it's free, I only found it after a google on solving the topic.


All other discussions I found on the topic seemed quite complicated. Some saying port forwarding is not necessary when using VPN & some saying port forwarding should be used for p2p.

Also, you might like to try the last Phex snapshot, not officially released version but some improvements. And if not already, some updated connection cache.

Ok, i got it kind of working.
I installed the connecting fix you posted, i enabled Port forwarding for both UDP and TCP in my VPN.
Now i can only get it to connect to 1 or 2 connections at a time, it last 1-3 min, then fail.
The error it shows in Phex is "Error:Connection timed out: connect"

Try a Phex restart. Might help. A system restart might help but most port forwarding these days should not require such things. Depends on the hardware/firmware.

I get the impression there's some firewalling/NAT happening. But I guess there's no reason that should be happening now.

Did you use a specific port for the port forwarding or a choose a random port approach? Otherwise try using a specific port & also add that to Phex's listening port in Phex's option-settings. The local port for example. Might make it easier if both internal & external ports are the same in the port forwarding, that's what i normally do.

Restarted Phex and maintained connections, but downloads were really slow, i found the Limewire Pirate Edition HERE
And it works great! =)
Thank you for your help!

Glad to hear you found a solution of some kind. Well, download speeds are not due to the client but due to the hosts you happened to download from.