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nostupidquestions·No Stupid Questionsbyhowler

What happens when I run two VPNs on my computer?

I discovered that I can have Mullvad activated at the same time as ProtonVPN, while Proton is running from the Firefox extension. I'm on Linux.

When I look up my IP and location, the one that shows up is Proton's, and Mullvad doesn't detect itself on its website.

My questions are:

  1. Are all my programs running through Mullvad, except Firefox?
  2. Can websites get confused because of the conflicting information?
  3. I was just playing around, but does this have any practical utility?

Thank you all in advance!

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9 replies

stinerman
midwest.social

It's a VPN within a VPN. So all your traffic over the Mullvad VPN connection has a VPN within it going to Proton (but only for Firefox).

To answer the questions directly:

  1. Yes, but not exactly. Everything goes through Mullvad, but Firefox goes through Proton going through Mullvad.
  2. No, they'll just see the Proton information.
  3. It slows down your connection! That's a lot more extra hops. Practically...I suppose if the "inner VPN" was necessary to connect to a specific host (like a work VPN) then it could be useful. For example you use Mullvad on your router, but your work laptop uses a VPN to connect to resources needed to do your work. Other than that I can't see why you'd need to use 2 at the same time.
19
howlerreply
lemmy.zip

This is so interesting. Indeed my connection was slower, and I don't need both VPNs, so thank you very much for your nice answer!

I had never thought about connecting the router to a VPN... That could be an entertaining experiment for another day.

5
rammjet
lemmy.world

Since Firefox is running Proton, everything you do through Firefox is Proton. Turn off the Proton extension and try again. It should show Mulivad.

Also, to get around the browser situation, try the following command in Terminal. It should be Mulivad:

curl ifconfig.me

5
howlerreply
lemmy.zip

Thank you! I had done it on purpose tho, I'm not having any problems.

I'll remember the command just in case!

2
Chemical Wonka
discuss.tchncs.de

VPN alone is not able to grant you real privacy, and it is just one piece of the process. Websites can fingerprint you through data from your browser, CPU/GPU model, among others.

The scheme is so bizarre that not even through the use of virtual machines does it grant real privacy.

3
howlerreply
lemmy.zip

I just want to access the websites my darling Government has decided I can't see

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What happens when I run two VPNs on my computer? | Spyke