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   Adam Conover (adamconover@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 01:54:00 JST Adam Conover

   My dream of setting up a Mac Mini as a combo torrent seedbox / Plex server seems to be dying. To do so I need a VPN with both 1) port forwarding, 2) split tunneling on Macs, so I can exclude the Plex app from the VPN. No VPN appears to offer both, and the number of VPN services that offer port forwarding at all is dropping as we speak - two major VPNs just announced they were ending port forwarding in the last month!

   • Embed this notice
     Patrick Ross (patrickross@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 01:58:52 JST Patrick Ross

     in reply to

     @adamconover You probably need to do this through Docker. I'm trying to do something almost identical and I'm like 99% of the way there but can't get the video files that Docker downloads out of that Docker and into Plex.

   • Embed this notice
     Viss (viss@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 01:58:53 JST Viss

     in reply to

     @adamconover it sounds like a lot less work to just setup a VM somewhere for 5 bucks a month, and chuck wireguard onto it, and run your own wireguard vpn - because then at least you also get a little server in the cloud, and you can use that as part of your infra as well!

   • Embed this notice
     xanu (xanu@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 02:00:27 JST xanu

     in reply to

     @adamconover It really feels like VPN services are moving to only provide the services you see in all the ads (location spoofing and a layer of pseudo-privacy) and not really doing much for more advanced use cases. it makes me sad. hope you can figure out a workaround for your Linux distros 😉

   • Embed this notice
     Adam Conover (adamconover@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 07:13:11 JST Adam Conover

     in reply to

     • Alex Ussery :gtrain:

     @alexussery So it does!! I'll give it a try. Thank you!!

   • Embed this notice
     Alex Ussery :gtrain: (alexussery@toot.pizza)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 07:13:12 JST Alex Ussery :gtrain:

     in reply to

     @adamconover It looks like Windscribe does both of these! (I know split tunneling wasn’t supported on Macs before but I think it may have been recently added.)

     https://windscribe.com/features/mac

   • Embed this notice
     Aaron Shekey (aaronshekey@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 07:59:38 JST Aaron Shekey

     in reply to

     @adamconover Hey, I run this exact set up using Private Internet Access as my VPN and it all just works perfectly. Am I missing something?

   • Embed this notice
     JC Mann (jcmann@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 08:43:43 JST JC Mann

     in reply to

     @adamconover This is my exact setup. I have a Mac mini that is my torrent seedbox and Plex server. I’m using ProtonVPN.

   • Embed this notice
     Adam Conover (adamconover@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 11:42:34 JST Adam Conover

     in reply to

     • JC Mann

     @JCMann How do you keep Plex from having to go through the VPN? (And do you access the Plex both remotely and locally?)

   • Embed this notice
     Adam Conover (adamconover@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 11:44:31 JST Adam Conover

     in reply to

     • Alex Ussery :gtrain:

     @alexussery Ahh hold up - Windscribe's Split Tunnel on MacOS only lets you split out certain IP addresses / hostnames, not by app! Apparently they are working on a way to do it via app for macOS - guessing that some new security measure in macOS is making it difficult.

   • Embed this notice
     Aaron Shekey (aaronshekey@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 12:47:31 JST Aaron Shekey

     in reply to

     @adamconover Sorry for the weird screenshot. Here’s PIA with Plex punching through. Torrents are hidden. Plex is accessible on the internet.

   • Embed this notice
     Adam Conover (adamconover@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 12:47:31 JST Adam Conover

     in reply to

     • Aaron Shekey

     @aaronshekey Ah! I saw this from PIA https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/news/posts/split-tunneling-on-macos-11-0 , which matched the fact that other VPNs were saying they couldn't make split tunneling work after macOS 11. Took that to mean PIA couldn't either - didn't check to see that they offered it now. Will give it a try. Thanks!

   • Embed this notice
     Adam Conover (adamconover@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 13:23:04 JST Adam Conover

     in reply to

     • Aaron Shekey

     @aaronshekey Okay, I'm now having this problem using Split Tunneling on either Monterey or Ventura. Turning it on hoses my entire connection. Are you not having this problem? https://www.reddit.com/r/PrivateInternetAccess/comments/101hs4d/split_tunneling_on_macos_ventura_kills_entire/

   • Embed this notice
     Aaron Shekey (aaronshekey@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 13:37:47 JST Aaron Shekey

     in reply to

     @adamconover Well that’s frustrating! No connection issues. My M1 mini is running macOS 13.4.1, v3.3.1 of PIA. Someone in the comments said they can do it with Ethernet but not WI-FI. My main connection is wired, but Wi-Fi is also on for location and airdrop. Is that the variable here?

   • Embed this notice
     JC Mann (jcmann@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2023 21:27:36 JST JC Mann

     in reply to

     @adamconover

     I was able to get it working with 3 easy steps. Well, it was actually a very frustrating process of discovery and false starts, which distilled down to 3 steps.

     1) Set up port forwading on your router.

     2) Configure ProtonVPN to allow P2P connetions.

     3) Don't trust the lies that the Plex Remote Access Settings page is telling you.

   • Embed this notice
     Greg Burnett (cmdrwilkens@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 09-Jul-2023 00:55:54 JST Greg Burnett

     in reply to

     @adamconover it would be a different network topography but you could maybe get a router-hosted VPN client and then have the router itself handle the split tunneling. I started working on this for my home network to get around some geo blocks but it would require an enterprise grade router that I couldn't justify.

   • Embed this notice
     Adam Conover (adamconover@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 09-Jul-2023 04:17:03 JST Adam Conover

     in reply to

     • Aaron Shekey

     @aaronshekey Don't know; I plugged in Ethernet and split tunneling still doesn't work. Now considering either abandoning my dreams of remote access to the my Plex server and sticking with LAN, *OR* teaching myself... "Docker containers"

   • Embed this notice
     E_Nonymouse (e_nonymouse@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 10-Jul-2023 14:40:49 JST E_Nonymouse

     in reply to

     @adamconover Best source to inquire at for that very complex goal would be Lawrence Systems, based out of texas, they offer consulting services and have been a regular contributor to YT on IT related subjects for years. They host their own forums for Q&A.

     https://lawrencesystems.com/