I’ve got a Linux server running Xubuntu at the moment (It was a media player first), and it also runs two Minecraft servers for the family. It has two network cards that are both connected to the internet. Is there a way to bind the VPN to one of the cards and use the other one for regular use?

I’ve got Surfshark as my VPN, and it doesn’t allow port forwarding under Linux. I’ve got some software that I want to keep behind the VPN, but the lack of port forwarding is stopping me from sharing the Minecraft servers, and when the VPN is active, it slows down the connection to some of my services like Plex.

I’ve tried to look it up, but I just don’t know enough to get myself anywhere. I’ve found results that talk about name spaces and routing tables, but they assume a level of knowledge that I just haven’t got yet.

I want to use the Arr suite and qBittorrent as the main programs behind the VPN, and Plex, Mylar (a comic manager), Syncthing, and Minecraft as the main programs without it. If I set up qBittorrent and the Arrs as Docker containers, can I use Gluetun to bind just them to the VPN? The VPN is using OpenVPN connections if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance :)

  • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    If you’re on a time crunch, go ahead and use network namespaces under network manager to set up something like what you want as another user suggested.

    I’d love to, but I have no idea how >.< :D

    I have a vague idea of what they are and what they do, but everything I’ve found assumes a level of understanding that I don’t have yet. I’ve found this man page from searcing an example posted in another reply, and it’s helped, but I’m still confused :)

    https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man8/ip-netns.8.html

    • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
      3·
      2 months ago

      Yeah, there’s a baseline of network stack understanding that you gotta have in order to use some of the tools, even Theo es that are supposed to make it easier.

      What don’t you get? Maybe I can point you in the right direction.

      • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Thank you :)

        The reply from @jet@hackertalks.com below lead me to the man page for ip netns here:

        https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man8/ip-netns.8.html

        As far as I understand it, I could run programs like this:

        ip netns exec vpn ~/qbittorrent/start.sh

        ip netns exec clear ~/minecraft/start.sh

        but I can’t figure out how to get the VPN to only run under the namespace. When I run it now, it reroutes all connections through it. I’ve got an OpenVPN connection that I’ve set one of my network connections to connect to automatically, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. As soon as I connect the VPN, everything goes through it.

        I’m still reading though, so hopefully I’ll figure it out :)