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Use VPN connection only for selected applications

Fresh6 days ago
Mar 15, 2026281758 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

I have access to a VPN and want to use it only for some applications, not all. For example: If I connect to a VPN I want only the applications Opera and Newsbin to use that VPN connection. All other applications, like f.e. Outlook, should use the normal internet connection (while the VPN is connected/open). Afaik this isn't possible, but I'm not totally sure. So therefore my question: is it doable?

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Fix for: Use VPN connection only for selected applications

Low Risk

It is possible to accomplish this, at least on Linux (and I'm thinking on BSD and OS X as well). You can do so by: Create an exra user for all VPN traffic. Create an extra routing table with 1 default route via the VPN. Configure Netfilter through Iptables to use the other routing table for all traffic originating from a specific User ID. Run the applications that should use the VPN under their own user. For example with 'sudo'. There are scripts for accomplishing the above steps here or there …

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