Can I run a VPN and normal connection at the same time on 1 PC?

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RacAtat007

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Aug 8, 2012
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I wasn't sure how to word what I am trying to do for the title but I would like to be able to run a VPN and my regular internet connection at the same time from the 1 ethernet cable coming into my PC and have different programs running on each. Is there any way to make this happen? Thank you in advance for the time and help.
 
Solution
The feature is generally called split tunnel but there really is not standard name. If you can't find this feature then it can't be done. You could try the ROUTE command. There should be a 0.0.0.0 route pointing to the tunnel. You might be able to add routes for certain locations and set them to go to the router gateway ip rather than the vpn.

Some vpn will prevent you from doing this.

This will be a rather tedious thing to accomplish since you will have to put in large numbers of routes if you have a lot of sites you want to bypass the tunnel with.


I do have a USB wifi adaptor I can use for my PC. How can I set it up to run both together at the same time though. I am using Win 10 if that makes any difference
 
It is technically possible but how exactly you do it will depend on the VPN client. Many vpn clients can be configured so certain IP ranges go though the VPN and other go direct. That though is not exactly what you describe. It is much harder to make certain programs use the vpn and others bypass it. There used to be programs that would allow you do use different physical nic cards but I am unsure if they would work.

If you can separate the traffic based on where they are going rather than which application was running it you will be much better off. You likely will still have some issues with DNS resolutions from time to time depending on if the DNS goes via the vpn or directly.
 

The only options I can find in my settings are remote port with a few options and local port.
 
The feature is generally called split tunnel but there really is not standard name. If you can't find this feature then it can't be done. You could try the ROUTE command. There should be a 0.0.0.0 route pointing to the tunnel. You might be able to add routes for certain locations and set them to go to the router gateway ip rather than the vpn.

Some vpn will prevent you from doing this.

This will be a rather tedious thing to accomplish since you will have to put in large numbers of routes if you have a lot of sites you want to bypass the tunnel with.
 
Solution

Yeah I guess it's not worth it. Just something I thought of trying. Thank you for the help though

 
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