Using Routes to Bypass VPN

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Hans Tobeason

• October 27, 2021 19:56

I'm trying to follow the steps in "Example 3: Route all traffic to VPN, except my banking, to third-party VPN" under the "Using Firewalla Policy Based Routing with VPN and Multi-WAN" article.  But I can't seem get it to work.

I have all traffic in/out of my MacBook going through a FireWalla VPN Client setup, and that is working.  But when I create a Route to bypass the VPN Client, nothing changes - i.e. I'm still getting the VPN IP address on whatismyipaddress.com.

Is it possible there's some lag in the FireWalla applying the Route?  Or maybe something being cached in my browser?

Any thoughts most appreciated.  Thanks.

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  Client Support

  • October 28, 2021 02:13
  • Edited

  Hi Hans,

  Try this: 

  1. With the VPN Client configured, visit whatismyipaddress.com . Sounds like you are saying that this is working for you? 
  2. Now create a route with:
     Domain:  ipinfo.com
     Device: pick the same device(s) you have routed through VPN. 
     Interface: Choose your regular WAN interface instead of VPN. 

  Now this one time you have to clear your DNS cache. How you do this will differ from device to device. on iOS you can set Airplane mode off for a few seconds and back on and you should be able to visit ipinfo.com and see one result and whatismyipaddress.com and see another. Here's a video that shows howto several platforms. https://youtu.be/QtmiwDKGRec?t=49
  
  Also, if testing on a mobile device make sure you disable your LTE connection while testing or your phone may circumvent your network altogether. 
  
  I'll add some more tips to the article to help clarify these things but please let us know how it goes either way. 
  
  Hope this helps and thanks for your feedback. It is really valuable.

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  Hans Tobeason

  • October 28, 2021 16:51

  Thank you for your reply.

  Your suggestion does work, but, at least in my specific case (Safari on a Mac), I have to quit/relaunch Safari for the DNS cache flush to take full effect.

  Also, again specific to my case (running macOS Monterey), this is the Terminal command to flush the DNS cache: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

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