Split Tunnel App Examples

This article will show you how you can enable split tunneling with Private Internet Access (PIA). Split tunneling lets you exclude certain apps from the VPN tunnel. You will access these apps with the IP address from your internet service provider and your traffic will not be encrypted.

Note: Split tunneling is available with PIA for all desktop platforms (macOS, Windows, Linux).

 

Windows

Follow these steps to enable split tunneling on Windows. Make sure you are not connected to a VPN server.

  1. Open the PIA app.
  2. Click on the three-dot menu in the upper right corner.
  3. Click Settings.
  4. Click Split Tunnel.
  5. Click the checkbox labeled Split Tunnel to enable the feature.
  6. Click on Add Application or Add IP Address to choose the app or to enter the IP address you wish to exclude from the VPN tunnel.

Here are some examples of apps you can exclude.

Microsoft Store Apps

Note that some apps that are downloaded from the Microsoft Store will not appear with their respective icon. For example, when excluding the Netflix or Hulu apps, they might appear as Windows Web Applications on the exclusion list.

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This is not the case for all apps from the Microsoft Store. Below shows the example of Netflix and Hulu being excluded from the VPN as well as other apps from the store.

Steam

If you wish to exclude the Steam application from the VPN, you will also need to exclude the steamwebhelper.exe file as well. To do so, please follow these steps:

  1. Click on Add Application.
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  2. Click the Browse button next to the search bar.
  3. Next select Windows (C:) > Program Files (x86) > Steam > bin > cef > cef.win7 > steamwebhelper.exe.
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  4. Once selected, click the Add button.

Specific Games

You may wish to exclude specific games from the VPN tunnel. For this, you will need to add a specific .exe file to the list. Here’s how you can locate the specific .exe file. 

  1. Click Add Application. 
  2. Click the Browse button next to the search bar.
  3. Next select Windows (C:) > Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common.
  4. You will then see a list of your installed Steam games.
  5. Select the file for the desired game.
  6. Click the .exe file for the game in the installation folder and click the Add button. 
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This will add the game to the exclusion list. If your games are not installed on your (C:) drive and you do not know how to find the file destination, you can check Steam Library > Properties > Local Files, and select Browse the Local Files. This will display the destination path.

Example:

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macOS

Follow these steps to enable split tunneling on macOS. Make sure you are not connected to a VPN server.

  1. Open the PIA app.
  2. Click on the three-dot menu in the upper right corner.
  3. Click Settings.
  4. Click Split Tunnel.
  5. Click the checkbox labeled Split Tunnel to enable the feature.
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  1. On the pop-up titled System Extension Blocked, click Open System Settings.
  2. Under System Settings, select Privacy & Security. 
  3. Scroll down to the notification under Security and click Allow.
  4. Enter your macOS password to confirm the settings.
  5. Go back to the PIA app.
  6. Click on Add Application or Add IP Address to choose the app or to enter the IP address you wish to exclude from the VPN tunnel. Afterwards, confirm your choice.

Note: Make sure Use VPN is selected next to All Other Apps. This will ensure that the apps you want to redirect through the VPN tunnel will have traffic encrypted. 

  1. Connect to a VPN server.
  2. Click Allow at the second pop-up where PIA Split Tunnel asks to add proxy configurations. 

If you wish to exclude multiple apps such as the App Store, Safari, the Mail app, and others, simply exclude the WebKit applications option within the Add Application menu.

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Linux

Follow these steps to enable split tunneling on Linux. Make sure you are not connected to a VPN server.

  1. Open the PIA app.
  2. Click on the three-dot menu in the upper right corner.
  3. Click Settings.
  4. Click Split Tunnel.
  5. Click the checkbox labeled Split Tunnel to enable the feature.
  6. Click on Add Application or Add IP Address to choose the app or to enter the IP address you wish to exclude from the VPN tunnel.

Note: Due to the complex nature of Linux .desktop files, this guide cannot showcase universal step-by-step instructions on how to find the executables you wish to exclude. Finding the proper executable can be challenging. For example, for Firefox, the proper executable is /usr/lib/firefox/firefox, not the one in /usr/bin.

Here are a few ways you can find the correct file:

  1. readlink /proc/$(pgrep <executable> | head -1)/exe

Ex: readlink /proc/$(pgrep firefox | head -1)/exe

  1. Look for a process in your task manager. Some task managers may provide the executable path. Or readlink /proc/<PID>/exe.

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Here is a list of common apps and their executable locations on Ubuntu. These may vary among distributions or versions, but it may provide a good starting point.

  • Chrome: /opt/google/chrome/chrome
  • Firefox: /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
  • Opera: /usr/lib/opera/opera
  • Chromium: /usr/lib/chromium/chromium
  • Brave: /usr/lib/brave/brave
  • Thunderbird: /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird
  • Steam: ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/Steam
  • Steamwebhelper: ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper
  • Hexchat: /usr/bin/hexchat
  • Discord: /opt/discord/Discord
  • Flatpak: /usr/libexec/flatpak-bwrap

Note: Excluding flatpak-bwrap excludes all Flatpak apps, as they cannot be selected individually. This is inherent to the Flatpak packaging system. AppImage apps can be excluded by selecting the AppImage file.

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