2 routers(one for regular internet one for VPN) one modem with mac pro

Yodalogger

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Jan 19, 2016
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I have a Mac Pro (2013) with two ethernet connections. I was wondering if it would be possible to connect one connection to a router specifically for VPN and use the other connection to connect to a non-VPN router. Each router would then connect to my cable modem. Everything is wired no wireless needed in my setup.
There doesn't seem to be an easy way to have the computer use one ethernet port over the other nor can I figure out a way to connect the two routers in a way that allows me to use both a VPN and a non-VPN connection.

Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks
 
Solution
I have no idea on the details on a mac but your problem is more the generic how do I run 2 ISP questions.

The VPN router will work fine plugged into the main router and any device plugged behind it would use the VPN service. So lets say you have one network 192.168.1.1 and the other 192.168.2.1. You machine will only use 1 of these ip as its default connection. You can of course change it back and forth if your needs are that simple. To use both at the same time though you must tell your device which traffic to send to which connection. For example if you wanted youtube via the VPN then you would have to tell the device to send youtube to the ip of the vpn router.

On most platforms...i suspect mac too.... uses a route...
I have no idea on the details on a mac but your problem is more the generic how do I run 2 ISP questions.

The VPN router will work fine plugged into the main router and any device plugged behind it would use the VPN service. So lets say you have one network 192.168.1.1 and the other 192.168.2.1. You machine will only use 1 of these ip as its default connection. You can of course change it back and forth if your needs are that simple. To use both at the same time though you must tell your device which traffic to send to which connection. For example if you wanted youtube via the VPN then you would have to tell the device to send youtube to the ip of the vpn router.

On most platforms...i suspect mac too.... uses a route command to do this. You tell it to send certain ip to the vpn and send all the other traffic to the main router. It is extremely tedious to get this to work because you must tell your machine exactly what traffic you want to send out the vpn.
 
Solution

Yodalogger

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Jan 19, 2016
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The solution ended up being much to tedious I instead installed an Open VPN client to use with one user account and just switch user accounts when I wanted to use the VPN. Thanks for the suggesiton