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How do you use VPN? (lemmy.curiana.net)
submitted 4 months ago by ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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I'm trying to setup my VPN and I'm a bit confused here.

I have a commercial VPN subscription that I'm using on my phone and laptop. Now I've set up WireGuard on my OpenWRT router to access my home network remotely. I can connect to it from my phone but from what I see there's no way to have both commercial VPN and my local network WG active at the same time (both are using WG so I'm trying to create WG config with two peers but I don't think it's possible).

So what do people actually do? From what I see I have 3 options:

  1. Don't use commercial VPN on my phone, only use WG to access my network
  2. Switch between VPNs manually whenever I want to access my network
  3. Setup commercial VPN on my router, move all my networks traffic through this VPN and move all traffic from my phone through my home network.

Am I missing something? What's the typical approach here? I thought that what I'm trying to do is basic scenario but it looks like it's not that simple if at all possible.

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[-] DownByLaw@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I‘m using two different setups:

Phone with wireguard app:

  • VPN client installed on my router
  • WireGuard server Running on Router
  • Phone connects to the routers wireguard server and from there my phone is routed through the VPN client for web traffic (but I’m not using OpenWRT so you have to check if this is possible for you)

Laptop with wireguard app and VPN installed as browser extension:

  • WireGuard app is configured to only route traffic to my local subnets through the wireguard VPN.
  • Web browser is encrypted through the VPN extension.

Really depends on what you need. For me this setup fits my bill.

But there’s also tailscale (which you can also selfhost: headscale)

Additionally you could also set up your own independent wireguard server to get more granular control for routing and firewalling. But you would need a device that’s running 24/7 (same for headscale). A raspberry pi would probably be enough for that.

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 points 4 months ago

Looks like most people are doing some version of option 3, routing everything through home network. I hoped there's a simpler way but maybe I just have to go in this direction.

One question, the VPN client on your router routes everything from your network or just the phone?

[-] DownByLaw@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I can route selected devices/groups/VLANs through the client. That's how I'm using it with my phone. Phone connects to wireguard server. Wireguard server IP is in the router's VPN client list for outbound traffic.

➡️ local access + VPN for web

this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
26 points (86.1% liked)

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