Place Certain Apps Behind VPN

[Makani Kai]

I would like to see first party support for placing any app behind some of the most popular VPNs (PIA, Nord, Express, Proton, Tailscale, etc), as well as custom VPNs (WireGuard,  OpenVPN, etc).

For example, you may install “The Lounge” IRC client and have all internet communication pass through a PIA VPN so that your home IP is not exposed while chatting.

Traditional methods of doing this involve painful configuration of iptables or other firewall rules. I believe this is an area where HexOS could really simplify things: Install a VPN plugin, authenticate with it, and then simply assign an app to a VPN plugin via the app’s settings if desired. It would be fully accessible from the home network without going through the VPN, but all internet traffic would go through the VPN with a kill switch in case the VPN goes down.

Thoughts?

Edited December 2, 2024 by Kaikai

[lmar]

Agreed.

When creating a VPN connection, have options to route specific apps with this connection, or the whole system, or whole system but exclude specific apps.

[Manydemons]

Would love that! Currently have some of my services running on Windows because I wasn't confident they were actually behind a VPN on Linux. And let me tell you, I hate rebooting Windows every week or so and re launching all those services. 

[Makani Kai]

I have this working on Unraid right now but it’s a real pain. I had to write a series of bash scripts that set up a bunch of rules in iptables and configure port forwarding with my VPN provider, then write the port to a file, which one of my docker containers reads from with another custom script… and for any docker containers using the VPN rules, I have written health scripts which make sure I don’t ever change to the wrong IP (in which case they immediately terminate). Then of course there’s cron jobs that continually check if the port changes or the connection drops, so it can reconnect. It’s really really hard to manage and maintain all of this. I really wish it was as simple as clicking a couple buttons.

Edited December 15, 2024 by Makani Kai

[Edward]

I also really want this.

[ubergeek]

Could be me but I do this at a router / switch / vlan level. It also allows for monitoring and delegation a bit easier

[GITM]

On 1/2/2025 at 6:04 AM, ubergeek said:

Could be me but I do this at a router / switch / vlan level. It also allows for monitoring and delegation a bit easier

Yeah I did the same thing. This way it also doesn't matter if you can configure a device or not, everything is centrally routed through the VPN or not.
Easier to control, I just plug in a device and centrally manage it's connectivity.

[chopperbro]

I am looking for this feature specifically, would make things so much easier currently pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to do this in truenas 

[ThoDC]

I would also want to do this on a router level

But for this the 'Apps' should get it's own IP address, then in the router (unifi) i can traffic them trough the VPN
So I would  love to be able when installing an app, to have the possibility to let it get it's own IP  
Then i could make a VLAN for al the devices that needs to go over the internet trough an VPN