Help setting up VPN for Hulu in Linux - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

rlongfield · 2010-10-04, 03:46 PM

Ok I have a question regarding setting up a VPN on Linux for specific traffic.
I too would like to use Hulu but I am running Mythbuntu.
I would love to setup a VPN but only have the Huludesktop app use the VPN connection all other traffic should go out not over the VPN. I don't know if this is possible and my Google-fu turns up very little/no info on this.
Hopefully this is the right spot for this question.

hugh · 2010-10-04, 03:59 PM

moved this post to a new thread in Linux forum since this is beyond the scope of the thread you posted in. Hope you get your answer.

JamesK · 2010-10-04, 04:07 PM

Quote:

but only have the Huludesktop app use the VPN connection all other traffic should go out not over the VPN.

All that's required is to set up the appropriate routing rule for the desired traffic to go through the VPN. Leave the default route as is. I do this when I use OpenVPN to connect to my home network. I even had it set up so that when I connected to the Rogers SMTP server, it would appear as though I was connecting from home. (This was before I learned about using port 587 for off network SMTP.)

rlongfield · 2010-10-04, 04:40 PM

Thanks Hugh, I wasn't sure if that was the right place or not.
JamesK you make it sound so very easy....

JamesK · 2010-10-04, 04:52 PM

^^^^
It's not difficult, but you have to understand how to configure routing. For example, in the script which I use to start OpenVPN, I added these lines:

/sbin/route add -net 172.16.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 tun0
/sbin/route add -host smtp.broadband.rogers.com tun0

The first sets up the route to my home network via the VPN and the 2nd says traffic for the Rogers SMTP server also goes via the VPN. Tun0 is the VPN interface and it is possible to have more than one. For example, when I enable the IPv6 6in4 tunnel, it appears as tun1 and I can have both it and OpenVPN up at the same time.

stampeder · 2010-10-06, 12:14 AM

If you get your OpenVPN up and running but you find that other activity on your LAN is causing burps or stuttering with Hulu you can also use iptables traffic shaping to elevate the priority of port 587 packets above most others. It is a bit involved, but I can post instructions here if anyone is interested.

JamesK · 2010-10-06, 07:06 AM

^^^^
Port 587 is for off network SMTP. OpenVPN normally uses UDP port 1194, but it can be configured for another port or TCP.

stampeder · 2010-10-06, 09:52 AM

That's fine - whichever port is needed, whether TCP, UDP, or both, can be prioritized if need be.

rlongfield · 2011-02-07, 04:49 PM

It has been a long time since I started this thread and not surprisingly I just got around to getting things going.
So here is my situation, I had to setup a VPS recently so I figured why not get OpenVPN going on the machine and kil 2 birds with one stone.
So for this past weekend I have been on and off working on getting OpenVPN up and running. I can ping between client and server which means I should have a good connection there.
After much fighting I was able to get socksd up and running on my server as well. Unfortunately when I try to connect to the socks server in firefox using the internal IP of the socks server it doesn't work, when I echo the server and then try to sockify huludesktop I am not being redirected through the socks server.

I would appriciate any help with this. I can paste logs, configs etc, just let me know what I can share to make this work.

Thanks,

rlongfield · 2011-02-10, 10:00 AM

Ok, so to keep things updated here for the sake of future reference, I was able to get firefox to connect to my vpn. I had to set the socks server to 4 instead of 5. Now my browser works as if I am in the US.
Now to figure out how to route my huludesktop traffic through the vpn/socks server.

2010-10-04, 03:46 PM	#1
rlongfield Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 175	Help setting up VPN for Hulu in Linux Ok I have a question regarding setting up a VPN on Linux for specific traffic. I too would like to use Hulu but I am running Mythbuntu. I would love to setup a VPN but only have the Huludesktop app use the VPN connection all other traffic should go out not over the VPN. I don't know if this is possible and my Google-fu turns up very little/no info on this. Hopefully this is the right spot for this question.

2010-10-04, 03:59 PM	#2
hugh Member #1 Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 47,492	moved this post to a new thread in Linux forum since this is beyond the scope of the thread you posted in. Hope you get your answer. __________________ As of January 2012, I am no longer the owner of the Digital Home website. If you have questions about the operation of the site, please contact VSAdmin. For personal inquiries contact me at the Hugh Thompson website.

2010-10-06, 12:14 AM	#6
stampeder OTA Forum Moderator Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: North Delta, BC (96Av x 116St) Posts: 23,338	Traffic Shaping for Hulu If you get your OpenVPN up and running but you find that other activity on your LAN is causing burps or stuttering with Hulu you can also use iptables traffic shaping to elevate the priority of port 587 packets above most others. It is a bit involved, but I can post instructions here if anyone is interested.

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2010-10-04, 04:40 PM	#4
rlongfield Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 175	Thanks Hugh, I wasn't sure if that was the right place or not. JamesK you make it sound so very easy....

2010-10-04, 04:52 PM	#5
JamesK Veteran Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mississauga Posts: 5,042	^^^^ It's not difficult, but you have to understand how to configure routing. For example, in the script which I use to start OpenVPN, I added these lines: /sbin/route add -net 172.16.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 tun0 /sbin/route add -host smtp.broadband.rogers.com tun0 The first sets up the route to my home network via the VPN and the 2nd says traffic for the Rogers SMTP server also goes via the VPN. Tun0 is the VPN interface and it is possible to have more than one. For example, when I enable the IPv6 6in4 tunnel, it appears as tun1 and I can have both it and OpenVPN up at the same time.

2010-10-06, 07:06 AM	#7
JamesK Veteran Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mississauga Posts: 5,042	^^^^ Port 587 is for off network SMTP. OpenVPN normally uses UDP port 1194, but it can be configured for another port or TCP.

2010-10-06, 09:52 AM	#8
stampeder OTA Forum Moderator Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: North Delta, BC (96Av x 116St) Posts: 23,338	That's fine - whichever port is needed, whether TCP, UDP, or both, can be prioritized if need be.

2011-02-07, 04:49 PM	#9
rlongfield Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 175	It has been a long time since I started this thread and not surprisingly I just got around to getting things going. So here is my situation, I had to setup a VPS recently so I figured why not get OpenVPN going on the machine and kil 2 birds with one stone. So for this past weekend I have been on and off working on getting OpenVPN up and running. I can ping between client and server which means I should have a good connection there. After much fighting I was able to get socksd up and running on my server as well. Unfortunately when I try to connect to the socks server in firefox using the internal IP of the socks server it doesn't work, when I echo the server and then try to sockify huludesktop I am not being redirected through the socks server. I would appriciate any help with this. I can paste logs, configs etc, just let me know what I can share to make this work. Thanks,

2011-02-10, 10:00 AM	#10
rlongfield Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 175	Ok, so to keep things updated here for the sake of future reference, I was able to get firefox to connect to my vpn. I had to set the socks server to 4 instead of 5. Now my browser works as if I am in the US. Now to figure out how to route my huludesktop traffic through the vpn/socks server.