Need assistance with VPN split tunneling?
Need assistance with VPN split tunneling?
Hello! I'm a small content creator just starting out with streaming. I've encountered an issue where my ISP throttles connections outside my country (I'm currently in Peru). To work around this, I'm using a VPN. So far, the only VPN that offers decent upload speeds is HotSpot Shield. I've tried NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and PIA, but none of them support split tunneling. My ping is extremely high, making games and Discord difficult. I'm wondering if it's possible to route just OBS through the VPN while letting other traffic go through the regular network. I see that HotSpot Shield uses a virtual network adapter (TAP-Windows Adapter V9). I'm on Windows 10 Home 64-bit, connected via an Ethernet cable directly to the motherboard, with no other network cards. Any advice would be really helpful!
Generally, it's better to avoid consumer VPNs unless the service offers support (like Hotspot Shield which doesn't).
Considered another approach using a virtual machine. Running Obs and the VPN inside it, then connecting via the NDI plugin to the PC... but unsure if this would function or if the system could manage it. The machine is an i74930k with 32GB DDR3 RAM.
Well, I tried setting up a virtual machine and everything seemed to function with the VPN, but the CPU usage was huge. It was using 80% even when nothing was running. So the only options are to accept it, relocate to another country, or get a second machine that handles encoding and uses the VPN. Or try tricking the VPN with a virtual NIC—though I’m not up for that right now.
The OBS output destination uses an actual IP address. Your VPN modifies your routing table by inserting routes. Open a command prompt and run "route print" to verify. You can assign a new default route using your regular interface, giving it a lower metric, and then point it to your VPN interface using the destination IP with an even lower metric.