Can VM protect me and how could I use different VPNs on host and guest?

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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RiverWilliams
Posts: 1
Joined: 5. Sep 2020, 12:14

Can VM protect me and how could I use different VPNs on host and guest?

Post by RiverWilliams »

Hello there,

I'm a complete newbie. My job requires me to use a VPN I personally don't trust (provider locates in China and has a bad privacy record), so a friend suggested me using VM to run it. Can it protect me, aka keep unreliable VPN provider from accessing information in my real system? And if it can, basically the situation would be I'd like to run VPN A on host system and VPN B on guest system. How should I set it up?
scottgus1
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Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Can VM protect me and how could I use different VPNs on host and guest?

Post by scottgus1 »

Generally, a VM acts like a separate PC, and what happens in the VM is designed to stay in the VM. So running the VPN securely inside a VM sounds possible.

I don't know if it is possible to run one VPN on the host and a separate VPN in the VM using one physical network card. If you have two network adapters on your physical PC, or you can buy a separate card or USB network adapter, you can set one to be used by the host OS and VPN A, and Bridge to the second network adapter with the Virtualbox VM and VPN B. If you have or can get two network cards, let us know what you have and we can walk you through a possible setup.
mpack
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Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
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Re: Can VM protect me and how could I use different VPNs on host and guest?

Post by mpack »

It's possible to run a VPN in a VM, which is after all just an ordinary PC. However, I'm not sure it would serve any purpose in this scenario. If your job requires you to use a VPN then unless you do all your work inside the VM then you'll end up having to install the VPN on the host anyway.

Alternatively, get a home router which has a VPN function.
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