How to host servers behind a VPN?

[Mini-Sentry]

I often host game servers on my main PC (running Win 10), port forward the appropriate ports on my router for said PC, and then people connect with "public-IP:gameport". Recently I have been looking into VPN services for various reasons, but it seems to affect other people's abilities to access my servers, which is understandable since they connect using my public IP, but my public IP changes when I connect to a VPN.

So basically I want to know if/how I could continue to host servers which people outside my LAN can access on my computer while said computer is connected to a VPN (which provides a dynamic IP by the way.). Perhaps I could make it so server traffic bypasses the VPN while all other traffic goes through it?

I know that I can make particular IP addresses which aren't on my network bypass the VPN by using route.exe in a command prompt to create a new route, but that won't help me here.

Just brainstorming possible solutions, could people connect to my servers as they did before except using my virtual IP provided by the VPN? What happens if people attempt to connect to my true IP while I am connected to a VPN?

Thanks and feel free to ask for any clarification.

 

[gbb0330]

virtualization may work for you, you can create a virtual machine (using VMware player for example) and use is to run your game servers.
host computer will use the VPN connection.

 

[Mini-Sentry]

virtualization may work for you, you can create a virtual machine (using VMware player for example) and use is to run your game servers.
host computer will use the VPN connection.

To clarify how virtualization would solve my problem, you're saying that the virtual machine would bypass the VPN and use my regular internet connection although the host machine that the VM runs on will still be connected to the VPN? Do you know if this is default behavior or if I would need to set up the VM to bypass the VPN myself?

Thank you very much!

 

[gbb0330]

the virtual machine (VM) will will bypass the VPN. The VM has its own private IP address, its like having a second physical computer. You will have to adjust the port forwarding in your router to point to the IP address of the VM.

 

[gbb0330]

there are a few additional considerations:
1. the VM will need a windows product key.
2. the VM is going to use host resources, CPU, disk, memory, you will need plenty of those.
3. VMs don't have video acceleration. you can't play graphic intensive games on a VM. but you can host servers, as long as they don't require a lot of video acceleration.

 

[Mini-Sentry]

there are a few additional considerations:
1. the VM will need a windows product key.
2. the VM is going to use host resources, CPU, disk, memory, you will need plenty of those.
3. VMs don't have video acceleration. you can't play graphic intensive games on a VM. but you can host servers, as long as they don't require a lot of video acceleration.

Okay, I think that may work for me, but I am curious as to if there are any other methods to achieving the same result without a VM, because it does seem like one of the more involved solutions.

Even though my VPN runs on dynamic IP, I often get the same IP when I'm connected to my nearest server. Is it possible to allow others to connect to my server through the public IP assigned to my by the VPN?

(If no better solutions come up, I'll mark your answer as best, as its the best I have got so far.)

 

[timeclock71]

Maybe I'm reading your question incorrectly but seems to me you need a VPN with a fixed IP address and the VPN server configured to allow for incoming connections. Once done your PC can act as a server from anyplace on the Internet as long as you are on the VPN. You point the DNS to the VPN server and the rest is a non issue

I do something similar as I host a download site for medical research from my laptop. By using the VPN configured this way my web server which is on my laptop is accessible to my colleagues no matter where I travel even from hotels. I use this service to accomplish it http://www.surfbouncer.com/dedicated_vpn_server.htm