On 8/16/25 08:40, john doe wrote:
This is the exact answer I was looking for - that it is possible to disable the VPN when not needed. So, how is that done? Or does that vary by provider?On 8/16/25 15:57, Fred wrote:On 8/15/25 14:14, Tim Woodall wrote:On Fri, 15 Aug 2025, Fred wrote:On 8/15/25 09:26, Dan Ritter wrote:Some web sites I want to continue visiting as I do now. Amazon.com for example. There is at least one other site I sometimes want to visit but am blocked because of my location. It is my understanding that using a VPN to access this site allows my location and IP address to be changed so I wouldn't be blocked.Fred wrote:Hello,Can a VPN be used on a per instance basis or once installed it has to beused for all (browser) use?A VPN is a network connection that (usually) appears just like another network interface. It can be configured to send all traffic elsewhere, or traffic to a particular set of networks. If you run one with proxy support, then you can have a particular browser (with proxy support) use the VPN, and nothing else. Technology can be configured in a large number of ways. -dsr-Yes you can do this but exactly how you do it will depend on the VPN and how much complexity you want to deal with.The "guaranteed to work"(TM) method would be to setup one or more proxies on virtual hosts and then route different websites to different proxies. I don't remember the details but you do something with proxy.pac to select different proxies for different destinations.And then each virtual host can have a different route to the internet.On a single host you can potentially do something similar but if the proxy uses a different source address then you can use source based routing. Many proxies allow binding to a source address.You can also run one instance of the browser in a network namespace, that way all traffic from that browser could be routed over the vpn while other traffic goes directly - this avoids the complexity of setting up a proxy but adds the complexity of setting up a network namespace.Tim.Hi Tim,It looks like a big can of worms and way more complexity than I want to deal with.Thanks for the help.The easiest way is simply to enable the VPN when you need to access blocked web site and disable it otherwise.Note that VPN providers will know what web site you are looking at.
I don't care if the provider knows what site I am visiting. I would not do anything illegal.
Best regards, Fred