Vpn split tunneling windows 10

Have you ever noticed your Internet connection is slower when connected to a VPN? Then enabling Split Tunnel may be the answer for you!.

In a VPN connection, split tunneling is the practice of routing only some traffic over the VPN, while letting other traffic directly access the Internet. Usually, what is routed over the VPN will be traffic destined for internal resources, while web surfing, email, skype, etc. will go directly to the Internet. An advantage of using split tunneling, is that it alleviates bottlenecks and conserves bandwidth as Internet traffic, does not have to pass through the VPN server.

Split tunneling can be used for several different purposes including:

• Allowing normal use of the internet while simultaneously accessing resources only available to VPN users, such as a business server
• Setting up specific devices, such as game consoles or streaming media boxes, to use (or not use) the VPN without affecting other devices on the network
• Sending all of a device’s traffic through the VPN except when accessing content or services that don’t allow VPN connections, such as MLB.tv or Netflix
• Sending all traffic through the VPN except for content and services that require low latency, such as VoIP applications and online games
• Only routing torrent traffic through the VPN, while all other internet traffic goes to the default network
• Access the VPN without affecting your connection to other devices on the local network, such as printers or a Plex Media Server

Pros

If you are going to split tunnel, then you are going to reduce the overall bandwidth impact on your Internet circuit. Only the traffic that needs to come over the VPN will, so anything a user is doing that is not “work related” will not consume bandwidth. In addition, anything external to your network, that is also latency sensitive will not suffer from the additional latency introduced by tunneling everything over the VPN to the corporate network, then back out to the Internet, and the return traffic routing over the reverse. Users will get the best experience in terms of network performance, and the company will consume the least bandwidth.

Cons

If security is supposed to monitor all network traffic, or perhaps merely protect users from malware and other Internet threats by filtering traffic, users who are split tunneling will not get this protection and security will be unable to monitor traffic for threats or inappropriate activity. Users on open networks such as hotel wireless or hotspots will also be transmitting much of their traffic in the clear. Traffic to websites that use HTTPS will still be protected, but other traffic will be vulnerable to snooping.

How to Enable Spit Tunnel in Windows 10

In order to enable Split Tunnel in Windows 10, you must be sure the VPN is already working. If you have a problem with your VPN connection, like it is not connecting, or dropping every 5 minutes, etc. Split Tunnel won’t make a difference, so resolve those issues first. Once you have a working VPN connection, the way to change VPN Split Tunnel in Windows 10 is using Powershell.

Windows is fairly limited when it comes to split tunneling. There’s no way that we’re aware of to split tunnel by app or destination. Instead, the split tunneling option in Windows is much broader. You can choose not to tunnel IPv4 and IPv6 traffic so that only local traffic goes through the VPN. That’s useful if only need to use the VPN to access remote resources not available from your normal internet connection, but not much else.

Furthermore, Windows only split tunnels VPN protocols that it has built-in support for. That means you’ll need to configure an L2TP, SSTP, or PPTP connection first. OpenVPN won’t work here.

This example, will use your local connection to access the internet while the VPN will be used to access remote resources, such as a private business server that can only be accessed via VPN. The VPN will only be used when a host isn’t available on the local network.

In this tutorial, will use Windows 10. We’ll assume you’ve already set up your VPN connection, and you only need to enable split tunneling. You’ll need admin privileges and the destination subnet for your VPN private space.

Using Powershell to configure Split Tunnel

In your Windows search bar, type Powershell and right click it to Run as administrator split tunnel windows

Type the following command and press Enter:

Get-VPNConnection 

This will bring up a list of all your available VPN connections. (I test a lot of VPNs so there are several in my screenshot, but you’ll likely only have one.) Make a note of the Name of the VPN you want to split tunnel.

Type the following command and hit Enter, replacing <VPN NAME> with the name you noted in the previous step:

Set-VPNConnection -Name “<VPN NAME>” -SplitTunneling $True

You can check that split tunneling is enabled by entering the Get-VPNConnection command again. The split tunneling field should now be set to True.

Next, enter this command and make a note of the Description field:

ipconfig /all

If necessary, add the route. Replace <DESTINATION SUBNET> with the subnet you want to route through the VPN, and <INTERFACE> with the name of the Description field we mentioned in the last step:

netsh interface ipv4 add route <DESTINATION SUBNET> "<INTERFACE NAME>"

If you want to disable split tunneling, enter this command:

Set-VPNConnection -Name "<VPN NAME>" -SplitTunneling $False

We hope this guide helps you with your VPN deployment. Here at Austral Tech we are VPN experts and we have experience setting up VPN tunnels with F5 Products, Checkpoint, Ubiquiti and Cloud providers (AWS, Azure and Google). So if you need help with your VPN deployment, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Need a quick boost of speed in a multiplayer game or video call, but still want to keep the VPN on for torrenting or Netflix on a side screen? Well, split tunneling lets you «whitelist» which apps use or don’t use the VPN connection, leaving your ISP’s servers to do the grunt work. Today, we’ll be looking at how to enable VPN split tunneling in Windows 10.

Here are four different methods to do so, although the easiest one remains to get a commercial split-tunneling VPN. We’ll cover that option later in the article as well.

Before we move on, make sure you know how to set up a VPN on Windows. This is because the first two methods involve a manually created VPN connection.

Method #1: Using Network Settings

One way to enable VPN split tunneling in Windows 10 is to disable the «Use default gateway on remote network» option on your manually created VPN connection. Here’s how to do so.

Step 1: Right-click the Start button then click on Network Connections.

Step 2: Under Advanced network settings, click the Change adapter options button.

Step 3: Locate your VPN connection (in our case, the cleverly named «VPN connection»). Right-click on it and click Properties.

Step 4: Click on the Networking tab, then select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and click on Properties.

Step 5: In the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties menu, click on «Advanced…«.

Step 6: In the IP Settings tab, untick the box that says «Use default gateway on remote network«.

And that’s how to enable VPN split tunneling in Windows 10 using the settings on your virtual network adapter. Now all you need to do is restart your VPN connection.

Method #2: Using PowerShell

This next method basically does the same thing, but you don’t need to navigate through so many menus.

Step 1: Once again, right-click on the Start button and click on Windows PowerShell (Admin).

Step 2: Copy and paste this line of code into PowerShell. Change «VPNConnectionName» to whatever you named your connection (ours is literally just called «VPN connection»).

Set-VPNconnection -name VPNConnectionName -SplitTunneling $true

Note that you can use the command Get-VPNconnection to get the name of the connection, as well as some additional info. Saves you time instead of navigating all the way to the network adapter settings.

Method #3: Get a VPN with Split Tunneling

If you’re wondering how to enable VPN split tunneling in Windows 10 without any sort of complications or manual VPN settings, this is the way to go. We’ll be using ExpressVPN to showcase the quick process, though it should be fairly similar to other providers.

Step 1: First, launch ExpressVPN (log in if necessary). Click on the Menu button in the top left corner of the app (three vertical lines).

Step 2: In the General tab, tick the checkbox that says «Manage connections on a per-app basis«. Then click on Settings.

Now, there are two ways you can use split tunneling in ExpressVPN. We’ll separate the two under Step 3A and 3B.

Step 3A: First, you can disallow apps from using the VPN.

This is useful in case you want to use a different browser to watch Netflix locally, or make a video call that requires faster network speeds than with an active VPN connection. Just a couple of examples, but you get the idea.

Anyway, click on «Do not allow selected apps to use the VPN«. Then click on the plus sign (+) to add apps that won’t use ExpressVPN. Use the «Add another app» option if your choice is not on the list, and head to the folder where it’s installed.

Step 3B: Use the «Only allow selected apps to use the VPN» option if you want to use your ISP’s servers for the rest of your traffic. Useful in case you have stuff running in the background, and want to use VPN to stream content from abroad in a separate browser.

Step 4: Click OK to apply your settings, no matter which option you picked. Restart your VPN and the apps you’ve selected to ensure everything works properly.

Method #4: Through Router Firmware Settings

Want to share a VPN connection with devices that don’t natively support it (such as a smart TV or game console)? Then take a look at our guide on how to set up VPN on your router, provided you have a compatible router to work with.

Enabling VPN split tunneling on a router will allow you to:

• Route traffic from specific devices through the VPN tunnel (policy-based routing)
• Tunnel traffic to specific destination IP addresses (IP routing)
• Tunnel traffic from individual apps or port numbers (say, port numbers for multiplayer games)

Note that the process of installing and setting up VPN split tunneling on your router can be tricky. We only recommend this process to advanced users.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are several ways to split your traffic and use VPN tunneling only where necessary. If you have a manual VPN setup on Windows 10, PowerShell and your network adapter settings are your friends. Alternatively, you can use a compatible VPN router and use interfaces like DD-WRT to change tunneling policies by device, IP, app, or port.

Of course, the easiest way is to just skip all the complicated setup and enable split tunneling on a third-party VPN. You can easily exclude individual apps from the VPN tunnel, or select specific apps you want to use the VPN.

A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, can be integral to accessing business resources. Using proprietary software and protecting private information are common reasons people use a VPN. A VPN provides access to programs not installed and information not stored locally. Enabling split tunneling allows network traffic to utilize two different types of connections. One connection uses the local network connection to access the Internet while the other uses the VPN to access resources otherwise unavailable. 


Enabling VPN split tunneling in Windows 10 can be done using a simple PowerShell command, unlike Windows 7 where the option for the VPN connection is normally set by navigating through network settings.

How a VPN Works

Simply put, a VPN is used to create a direct secure connection between two different networks. When using a VPN, a virtual tunnel is created between two devices for the purpose of securely transferring data back and forth. This secure connection allows mobile employees encrypted access to systems in another location. There are other reasons to use a VPN, such as keeping critical data off of mobile devices (including laptops), to reduce data exposure due to theft and loss, and more.

The virtual tunnel created runs on top of the Internet. A VPN connection is a secondary network connection created in network settings. Once the connection has been established, it can be connected to at any time using the necessary credentials. When connected to a VPN, all Internet traffic is routed through the VPN by default. Split tunneling allows regular Internet traffic to pass through the on-board LAN / WAN connection while also passing access to necessary resources using the VPN connection.

Enabling VPN Split Tunneling in Windows 10