Force DownloadStation 5 to use VPN

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

afaik if vpn is setup on your router, then your qnap internet will already be using vpn.

if however you setup the vpn on the qnap itself using qvpn, then there are 2 things you can do

1. in virtual switch, make the gateway the VPN.
2. in appcenter for download station, there is a toggle to force the connection to use the VPN for it.

run a test using https://ipleak.net/ or some other, using the torrent magnet, and confirm the ip registered is using the VPN IP.

You may want to disable ipv6 on the qnap, and perhaps router as well, as that tends to leak your real ip.

I noticed that for vpn (PIA) setup on pfsense router, it's possible to setup a kill switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TglViu6ctWE&t=48s


Not sure about other routers (e.g. ASUS using rt merlin)

[dolbyman]

asus merlin supports killswitch and selective routing

so you can have a container/vm on the nas use the vpn (e.g. for torrenting) but the rest is not using the tunnel

[jcmbowman]

Hi,

I have configured the VPN on my 431P, connected it and then gone to the App Center and selected the dropdown next to DownloadStation and selected the VPN interface then launched the App. My download starts as expected but if I then disconnect the VPN connection, the download stops for a few seconds (as I would expect) then starts again. Is there any way to prevent downloads from running when the VPN disconnects?

Latest firmware as of last night and apps all up to date.

Any help, greatly appreciated.

An update on this -

Using PrivateInternetAccess with OpenVPN settings in QVPN I have DownloadStation connecting to the PIA VPN configuration. IPLeak.net shows that the torrent is coming through via the VPN. When I disconnect the VPN in QVPN all downloadstation traffic stops. Not sure if this was a bug in previous versions but everything appears to be working properly now. I'm stil going to do a test disconnect every week or two. Using latest versions of everything as of 12/30/2019.

[doolio]

Hi,

I have configured the VPN on my 431P, connected it and then gone to the App Center and selected the dropdown next to DownloadStation and selected the VPN interface then launched the App. My download starts as expected but if I then disconnect the VPN connection, the download stops for a few seconds (as I would expect) then starts again. Is there any way to prevent downloads from running when the VPN disconnects?

Latest firmware as of last night and apps all up to date.

Any help, greatly appreciated.

An update on this -

Using PrivateInternetAccess with OpenVPN settings in QVPN I have DownloadStation connecting to the PIA VPN configuration. IPLeak.net shows that the torrent is coming through via the VPN. When I disconnect the VPN in QVPN all downloadstation traffic stops. Not sure if this was a bug in previous versions but everything appears to be working properly now. I'm stil going to do a test disconnect every week or two. Using latest versions of everything as of 12/30/2019.

Can you list the details for how you got it to work so that it stops when you disconnect the VPN. I tried it and it didn't work. After reading this post it sounds like there are three areas to consider:
A) Set DownloadStation (DS) to use the client VPN in App Center
B) Set the client VPN as the default gateway
C) Add a proxy server for the VPN and check the box to use it for downloads

Do I have to do all of the above A, B, & C? Or just C? The specific configuration would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, how has the performance been? Has the VPN ever dropped when you didn't expect it to?

[jcmbowman]

Using PrivateInternetAccess with OpenVPN settings in QVPN I have DownloadStation connecting to the PIA VPN configuration. IPLeak.net shows that the torrent is coming through via the VPN. When I disconnect the VPN in QVPN all downloadstation traffic stops. Not sure if this was a bug in previous versions but everything appears to be working properly now. I'm stil going to do a test disconnect every week or two. Using latest versions of everything as of 12/30/2019.

Can you list the details for how you got it to work so that it stops when you disconnect the VPN. I tried it and it didn't work. After reading this post it sounds like there are three areas to consider:
A) Set DownloadStation (DS) to use the client VPN in App Center
B) Set the client VPN as the default gateway
C) Add a proxy server for the VPN and check the box to use it for downloads

Do I have to do all of the above A, B, & C? Or just C? The specific configuration would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, how has the performance been? Has the VPN ever dropped when you didn't expect it to?

I'm using A). I do NOT have B) in place. And with C) I set up the proxy server but unchecked the "Only download using a proxy connection" when I was testing a bit back and apparently never turned it back on. So it looks like for me it's A) and just A). Hope that helps.

As far as performance, DownloadStation is not as snappy as running Transmission on my MacBook Pro, but I kind of expected that. I did some adjusting in the Bandwidth Limit section of Download Station and set my max number of connections to 300 and maxnumber of connected peers per torrent to 50, I'll probably tweak those down a bit more - I've noticed with a lot of torrents going they all tend to slow down. I think part of that is that the OpenVPN client is taxing the CPU on the TS-451+ I have and it isn't designed to multi-thread. That said, it's still waaaay more convenient to load something on the server and just let it cook until it's done. And it doesn't seem to be impacting anything else on the server even with a dozen torrents going.

Lastly, I've never once had the PIA VPN drop unexpectedly except when my ISP drops. And it reconnects by default.

[doolio]

I'm using A). I do NOT have B) in place. And with C) I set up the proxy server but unchecked the "Only download using a proxy connection" when I was testing a bit back and apparently never turned it back on. So it looks like for me it's A) and just A). Hope that helps.

As far as performance, DownloadStation is not as snappy as running Transmission on my MacBook Pro, but I kind of expected that. I did some adjusting in the Bandwidth Limit section of Download Station and set my max number of connections to 300 and maxnumber of connected peers per torrent to 50, I'll probably tweak those down a bit more - I've noticed with a lot of torrents going they all tend to slow down. I think part of that is that the OpenVPN client is taxing the CPU on the TS-451+ I have and it isn't designed to multi-thread. That said, it's still waaaay more convenient to load something on the server and just let it cook until it's done. And it doesn't seem to be impacting anything else on the server even with a dozen torrents going.

Lastly, I've never once had the PIA VPN drop unexpectedly except when my ISP drops. And it reconnects by default.

THANKS I really appreciate the detailed response

[jcmbowman]

I'm using A). I do NOT have B) in place. And with C) I set up the proxy server but unchecked the "Only download using a proxy connection" when I was testing a bit back and apparently never turned it back on. So it looks like for me it's A) and just A). Hope that helps.

As far as performance, DownloadStation is not as snappy as running Transmission on my MacBook Pro, but I kind of expected that. I did some adjusting in the Bandwidth Limit section of Download Station and set my max number of connections to 300 and maxnumber of connected peers per torrent to 50, I'll probably tweak those down a bit more - I've noticed with a lot of torrents going they all tend to slow down. I think part of that is that the OpenVPN client is taxing the CPU on the TS-451+ I have and it isn't designed to multi-thread. That said, it's still waaaay more convenient to load something on the server and just let it cook until it's done. And it doesn't seem to be impacting anything else on the server even with a dozen torrents going.

Lastly, I've never once had the PIA VPN drop unexpectedly except when my ISP drops. And it reconnects by default.

THANKS I really appreciate the detailed response

Just an update to this:

I found that my BT download speeds in Download Station while using QVPN (via an OpenVPN connection to PIA) increased dramatically when I completely disabled the Proxy by setting the proxy type to OFF. Previously with the proxy type set to SOCKS and my PIA proxy info input my download speeds would average from 250K/s-500K/s, Now with it fully disabled I'm averaging 2M/s-5M/s with well seeded torrents.