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So basically I have connected to a VPN and I want Chrome to use the DNS servers from the VPN network and also send network traffic through that WAN miniport (VPN tunnel). Everything else (Windows Explorer, other applications) should default to using the local network's DNS servers and internet connection.

How can I configure this? I'm not an expert at this so a tutorial/step-by-step guide is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

4 Answers 4

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I think, for what you want to do, you can use the Proxy Switchy! extension for Chrome and create a different profile for your VPN and set the Network in the Proxy Switchy! settings as so:

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This seems to be the easiest way to achieve what you want as selecting a profile will route through that specific connection.

All your other traffic will be routed through whatever the local connection is, and your Chrome traffic will be routed through the VPN.

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  • What do I put as the IP address & port number under the "Proxy Profiles" tab? Do I have to configure my VPN connection in any specific way in Windows settings? As you described it so far it isn't working for me. Jun 29, 2011 at 21:04
  • @Robert : How do you have the VPN connection? Is it a software or is it through Windows?
    – paradd0x
    Jun 30, 2011 at 14:27
  • I am using the built-in VPN client functionality in Windows 7. I basically go to Network & Sharing center and add a new VPN connection there. Jul 1, 2011 at 17:49
  • 2
    @paradd0x I would like to bring to your attention that the extension requires NPAPI and Chrome no longer supports it.
    – Sanoo
    Sep 11, 2016 at 7:24
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    not supported by chrome anymore.
    – Herbert
    Jul 4, 2017 at 16:41
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Actually, with windows 7, this is easy with windows built in firewall. This link gives a very easy description of the necessary steps. http://practicalrambler.blogspot.com/2011/01/windows-7-firewall-how-to-always-use.html

Basically, make an inbound and an outbound rule blocking traffic of private and domain networks for the program you want to isolate. Be sure to NOT block public traffic with the rules. This also requires that your VPN is setup as a public network and your LAN is setup as private....

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Set up chrome to use the VPN as a proxy.

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  • 1
    How do I do this? How do I prevent other applications from being unable to resolve my local network intranet domain names? Please supply more details. Jun 29, 2011 at 20:56
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    Tools->Under the hood->Network settings->proxy settings->Lan settings->type in the IP and port of your VPN, and make sure the protocol is correct.
    – soandos
    Jun 29, 2011 at 21:19
  • @soandos: I'm not sure what IP address to use here. The public facing IP of my VPN server? This doesn't seem right. Also, what port do I use? I don't have anything like an Apache server running, so I don't know how my VPN could be considered an HTTP proxy server. Jun 29, 2011 at 21:23
  • Yes to the public facing IP of your VPN, and whatever port your VPN client goes to (could be anything, but here are some common ones.
    – soandos
    Jun 29, 2011 at 21:33
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    I'm not sure how this would work. Most VPN servers are not inherently proxy servers, and wouldn't function as such, so pointing your proxy settings at your VPN server's IP would only result in errors.
    – Doktor J
    Aug 3, 2017 at 15:28
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Its not actually possible to make ONLY chrome use a proxy/vpn without breaking atleast some other things. On windows, chrome stores those proxy settings (even if you use the proxy switcher extension listed elsewhere) in the standard Windows "Internet Settings" configuration area internally (not sure how to say that correctly).

This is the same menu that you get when going to "Options" from inside Internet Explorer (the browser) or via the control panel.

Most windows apps actually use these system wide settings for its proxy settings if set, and any program setting these, will make chrome use them. Firefox (atleast it did back in 3.x, no personal knowledge from 4.x or 5.x, but I doubt its changed) stored its own proxy settings isolated from windows, so it could be set to have dedicated proxy settings.

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