Split Tunneling With Proton VPN

Split tun­nel­ing is a fea­ture that allows you to route some of your inter­net traffic through a VPN while let­ting the rest use your nor­mal inter­net con­nec­tion. This is use­ful if you want cer­tain apps or web­sites to bypass the VPN for speed or access reas­ons while still pro­tect­ing oth­er traffic. Pro­ton VPN sup­ports split tun­nel­ing, and imple­ment­ing it is straight­for­ward, depend­ing on the device and plat­form you’re using.

Here’s how to imple­ment split tun­nel­ing with Pro­ton VPN on vari­ous plat­forms:

1. Implementing Split Tunneling on Windows

Steps:

1. Down­load and Install Pro­ton VPN from the offi­cial web­site if you haven’t already.
   • Vis­it Pro­ton VPN’s web­site to down­load the cli­ent for Win­dows.
2. Launch Pro­ton VPN and log in with your account cre­den­tials.
3. Go to Set­tings:
   • Click on the Set­tings icon in the top-right corner of the Pro­ton VPN applic­a­tion.
4. Nav­ig­ate to the “Split Tun­nel­ing” Tab:
   • In the set­tings win­dow, find and select the “Split Tun­nel­ing” option from the left-hand menu.
5. Enable Split Tun­nel­ing:
   • Toggle the switch to enable split tun­nel­ing.
6. Con­fig­ure Split Tun­nel­ing:
   • You’ll have the option to either:
     • Exclude spe­cif­ic apps from the VPN con­nec­tion (those apps will use your reg­u­lar inter­net con­nec­tion).
     • Include spe­cif­ic apps (where only cer­tain apps will use the VPN, and everything else will bypass it).
   • Choose the option that fits your needs.
7. Add Applic­a­tions:
   • Click “Add applic­a­tion” and browse your sys­tem for the apps you want to either include or exclude from the VPN tun­nel.
   • For example, you could exclude stream­ing apps like Net­flix from the VPN to avoid geo-restric­tions while keep­ing all your oth­er traffic secure.
8. Save Set­tings:
   • After select­ing the apps, click “Save” to apply the changes.
9. Con­nect to Pro­ton VPN:
   • Select a VPN serv­er and con­nect. Your split tun­nel­ing set­tings will now be act­ive, rout­ing only the chosen traffic through the VPN.

2. Implementing Split Tunneling on Android

Steps:

1. Install Pro­ton VPN from the Google Play Store.
   • If you haven’t already, down­load and install the Pro­ton VPN app from the Google Play Store.
2. Open Pro­ton VPN and log in to your account.
3. Go to Set­tings:
   • Tap the Menu (three lines) icon in the top-left corner and select Set­tings from the menu.
4. Find and Enable Split Tun­nel­ing:
   • Scroll down to the “Split Tun­nel­ing” option and toggle the switch to enable it.
5. Con­fig­ure Split Tun­nel­ing:
   • You’ll have the option to:
     • Exclude spe­cif­ic apps from the VPN tun­nel, which means these apps will use your reg­u­lar inter­net con­nec­tion.
     • Include spe­cif­ic apps to route only cer­tain apps through the VPN.
   • Select the option that fits your use case.
6. Add Apps:
   • Once split tun­nel­ing is enabled, select “Add applic­a­tions” and choose the apps that you want to exclude or include.
   • For example, you could exclude an app like Google Maps to get accur­ate loc­a­tion res­ults without using the VPN.
7. Save and Con­nect:
   • After con­fig­ur­ing the apps, con­nect to a VPN serv­er as usu­al. The split tun­nel­ing rules will be applied, and only the selec­ted apps will fol­low the spe­cified rout­ing.

3. Implementing Split Tunneling on macOS (Apple Mac Computers)

Cur­rently, Pro­ton VPN for macOS does not sup­port nat­ive split tun­nel­ing. How­ever, users can achieve sim­il­ar func­tion­al­ity by manu­ally con­fig­ur­ing split tun­nel­ing via advanced set­tings, using a third-party tool, or through com­mand-line options in some cases. Keep an eye on updates as Pro­ton VPN is con­tinu­ally improv­ing their ser­vices, and split tun­nel­ing for macOS may be included in future ver­sions.

For now, you can use work­arounds such as manu­al rout­ing through Ter­min­al or using spe­cif­ic prox­ies to bypass the VPN for cer­tain applic­a­tions, though this requires tech­nic­al expert­ise.

4. Implementing Split Tunneling on Linux

Steps:

1. Install Pro­ton VPN using the offi­cial Linux CLI app.
   • Fol­low Pro­ton VPN’s install­a­tion guide for Linux if you haven’t installed it yet.
2. Launch the CLI Inter­face:
   • Open a ter­min­al win­dow and run the Pro­ton VPN cli­ent by typ­ing protonvpn-cli.
3. Enable Split Tun­nel­ing:
   • The split tun­nel­ing fea­ture in Linux works by defin­ing spe­cif­ic IP addresses or domains you want to bypass or route through the VPN.
   • Use the com­mand: protonvpn-cli configure to con­fig­ure the split tun­nel­ing.
4. Spe­cify Routes:
   • You can exclude spe­cif­ic IPs or ranges from the VPN con­nec­tion using com­mand-line options or include only spe­cif­ic traffic.
5. Activ­ate Split Tun­nel­ing:
   • Once the routes are defined, con­nect to Pro­ton VPN. Only the spe­cified routes will go through the VPN, with the rest of the traffic using your reg­u­lar net­work con­nec­tion.

5. Proton VPN Split Tunneling for iOS (iPhones and iPads)

As of now, split tun­nel­ing is not avail­able on iOS devices (iPhone or iPad). This is primar­ily due to lim­it­a­tions in the iOS oper­at­ing sys­tem, which restricts the VPN con­fig­ur­a­tion options that apps like Pro­ton VPN can access. Pro­ton VPN users on iOS must route all traffic through the VPN or none at all.

Conclusion

Imple­ment­ing split tun­nel­ing with Pro­ton VPN is a power­ful way to optim­ize your inter­net exper­i­ence by rout­ing only essen­tial traffic through the VPN while let­ting non-sens­it­ive traffic bypass it. This helps to main­tain pri­vacy where neces­sary and ensures high-speed access for apps or ser­vices that don’t require VPN pro­tec­tion. How­ever, note that the fea­ture is cur­rently only avail­able on cer­tain plat­forms like Win­dows, Linux, and Android.

For macOS and iOS users, split tun­nel­ing may be avail­able in future updates or via work­arounds, but for now, they must rely on rout­ing all or none of their traffic through the VPN.

iOS Work­around For Split Tun­nel­ling — Dis­con­nect VPN

iOS users can tem­por­ar­ily turn off Pro­ton VPN when they want to use an applic­a­tion that is not com­pat­ible with the VPN. This is a simple and effect­ive work­around for the lack of split tun­nel­ing sup­port on iOS devices.

Here’s how iOS users can do it:

Steps to Turn Off Proton VPN on iOS:

1. Open the Pro­ton VPN app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the “Dis­con­nect” but­ton to turn off the VPN con­nec­tion.
3. Use the app or ser­vice that is not com­pat­ible with the VPN (such as stream­ing apps or online bank­ing ser­vices).
4. When you’re done, simply open the Pro­ton VPN app again and tap “Con­nect” to re-enable the VPN.

Considerations:

• Turn­ing off the VPN means all inter­net traffic dur­ing this time will not be encryp­ted or routed through the VPN, so your IP address will be vis­ible to web­sites and apps.
• This manu­al meth­od requires you to remem­ber to turn the VPN back on after using the app that requires dir­ect access.

While it’s not as con­veni­ent as split tun­nel­ing, this meth­od allows iOS users to bypass Pro­ton VPN tem­por­ar­ily when needed for spe­cif­ic apps.