How to bypass VPN for specific websites and services on macOS X
Last updated on March 2nd, 2017 in Setup
You might have seen our post about bypassing VPN connection in Windows. In short this is to keep your VPN connection active and being able to access specific sites and services without it. For a bit more theory, please read our Windows post and return here for specific steps to follow.
( compatible with Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite )
Bypassing VPN on OS X is very similar to Windows, only few names and commands are different.
1. To get the gateway IP run netstat-r and look at the Gateway column. It should look like 192.168.XX.XX; once you find it take a note of it because you will need it in a moment.
2. As with Windows tutorial we will use ipaddress.com as an example of web address. To find the IP of the website you have to run ping ipaddress.com or use IP lookup field on ipaddress.com. Either way your should get IP as 148.251.128.237.
3. Time to create the routing rule. On Mac it looks like this: “sudo route –nv destinationIP gatewayIP” and if you add the IP addresses you found earlier you will have sudo route-nv 148.251.128.237 192.168.XX.XX.
4. Connect to your VPN and go to ipaddress.com. You should see your real location and IP address if it worked (despite active VPN connection).
As we have mentioned in Windows tutorial, this uses similar idea to our SmartDNS service.