Windows – How to Setup Nested VPN

networkingopenvpnvpnwindowswindows 10

I used ProtonVPN on my machine but at some point it stopped connecting as its servers were blocked in Russia.

However, I found another working solution using OpenVPN and another VPN provider.

But I like ProtonVPN GUI and the possibility to choose different exit countries. How would I route ProtonVPN client through another VPN?

I know I can use a VM on my host, running the external VPN in the host OS and the nested VPN in the VM. However, I'd like to keep working in my host OS. Is it possible?

Best Answer

It seems that ProtonVPN GUI doesn't support working as nested VPN. That's what their support told me. Luckily, they offer OpenVPN configuration files for their servers. Setting up nested VPN is as easy as 1-2-3 (I used OpenVPN client for both and OpenVPN UDP mode - I think TCP will fail on step 3 as the existing connection will be destroyed):

  1. Connect to the working VPN.
  2. Connect to ProtonVPN (this step fails without existing VPN connection).
  3. Disconnect from the outer VPN we connected to on step 1.

I assume that currently the encryption keys exchange with ProtonVPN servers is blocked, that's why the native client can't connect. But once this step is passed through another VPN, the connection will work afterwards.

Why would you need ProtonVPN if you have another VPN that works? Well, it offers a wide choice of exit countries, which could be useful for you.

NB: I had to add disable-dco to ProtonVPN configuration files, otherwise it tried to use OpenVPN Data Channel Offload network adapter which was already busy with the first VPN. With that line, it uses OpenVPN-TAP Windows6 network adapter instead. I think it's possible to create more data channel offload network adapters but haven't gone down that route myself.

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