hi all,
My Windscribe subscription is about to end so I bought a month Mullvad for test.
Their Windows app works fine and the speed is not very fast but acceptable. (I use the japan server)
since I use vpn most for torrenting so I enable the split tunnel mode and exclude most apps in my system and leave only those torrent related to Mullvad.
I have double checked that my Firefox is still using ip from my isp and qbitorrent is bind to the mullvad ip successfully.
but somehow my browser internet speed is noticeable slower. the most significant one is google drive.
without Mulland it can download almost like full speed, but now it’s like only 50-30% even I already exclude Firefox in split tunnel mode. and the system cpu load is also much higher when downloading.
is it normal? does app excluded in split tunnel still capped by the vpn?
I have also use split tunneling in Windscribe before. the only different is Windscribe offers inclusive mode so I just put qbittorrent in the list. my internet speed in Firefox or other app doesn’t seems to slow down that much. or at least not that noticeable.
Not really, split-tunneling shouldn’t affect things.
Mullvad unfortunately doesn’t have reverse split-tunnel like Windscibe has. Although there’s a few ways to make an inclusive tunnel but you’d need to use standalone Wireguard for that.
the speed is not very fast but acceptable. (I use the japan server)
Is that the case for all server providers? In Japan those are M247, Datapacket and xtom.
Thanks for the reply.
I didn’t test all servers in Japan. But Tokyo and Osaka seems to be the same.
I usually get 150M or above speed. Sometimes near 200M but not often.
Well, if split tunnel should not do that, than what could be the problem?
And what should I do to config the wireguard to do inclusive tunnel?
Sorry, I usually just use the app that whichever VPN provide to me and let it do the split tunnel thing. I am not too familiar with what you said. If you could just enlightened me where to start… thank you
Easiest and quickest way would be to use Socks5 for qbittorrent. But this is going to be a very slow option and it doesn’t support portforward.
To do this, change AllowedIPs in your Wireguard config to
AllowedIPs = 10.64.0.1/32,10.124.0.0/22
And then enable Socks5 in qbittorrent using 10.64.0.1:1080 or the Socks server of your choice.
Another much better method requires a bit more setup, but will function more as a proper split-tunnel:
I think there’s no need to use Proxifier or similar apps here since qbit allows you to select network interface.
Regarding the servers and speed, I assume you already use Wireguard since it’s faster than OpenVPN. To check server providers you can go here: Servers
Uncheck OpenVPN and Bridge, set the country/city filter and see which servers belong to which providers - M247 etc. Your ISP may have faster connection to one server provider compared to the others. Connecting to one or two servers from every provider and testing the speed should give you the general idea of the rest of the servers that belong to the same provider in the same city. This is not a 100% rule of course because server load, slightly different routing and network congestion are a thing but it’s a quick way to test things out without testing every single server individually.
Thanks for the server tips.
Yes, it definitely help me to choose which one should I connect. But after a short testing, I think most Japan servers are the same.
150-180M down and 100-150M up
Hong Kong has better ping, but pretty much the same speed.
Singapore is slower than above.
My ISP speed is 500M/250M. So it’s not very impressive but good enough for torrenting. I never let qbitorrent run at full speed anyway. It will slow other things.
And thank you for the split tunnel link. I will look into it and hopefully I could figure it out😅
I also found another strange thing with mullvad split tunnel.
I use Adguard and ublock add-on in Firefox. It’s almost zero ads in any page. But when I enable the split tunnel mode, web page start to show ads. I put Firefox in excluded list of course. It’s really weird.
Adguard
Desktop app? I’ve never used it, but doesn’t it also come with a VPN portion? It could be conflicting with mullvad and/or split-tunnel. For desktop browsing uBlockOrigin (with some regional filters that suit your needs) is all you need these days really.
I’d suggest temporary disabling/uninstalling AdGuard to see if anything changes.
As for speed it’s also worth noting that speedtest may not show a reliable picture when measuring speed with a VPN and high speed connections. If you don’t feel any slowdowns on the web and your torrenting speed is fine (try downloading ubuntu ISO for example which always has plenty of seeders) then there’s not much to worry about.
yes, for Firefox uBO is enough. but I kind need adguard desktop for other apps. like Spotify and such. it blocks all ads in windows system. it’s very useful. I will try to disable adguard for testing. but I hope I could find a way to use both adguard and VPN torrenting.
I am not saying Mullvad is too slow. it’s just slow compare to my original speed. but all VPN are like that, so it’s acceptable. 150M/100M is enough for torrenting. I just need a good split tunnel system to make sure that it won’t slow other things down.
I see. For desktop Spotify btw there’s a few standalone options:
blockthespot and SpotX.
SpotX uses blockthespot to block ads but also adds a few more customizations to the client.
I think spicetify-cli also has an adblocker plugin.