New to this and a bit confused with DHCP and static IP address

[Mark Hammerschmidt]

Hi all,

Hoping I've done the right thing but would appreciate confirmation.

I have an iMAC and stream media to my Apple TV using a hack that allows Plex Media Server to be accessed via the Trailers App in the Apple TV, using a client called Plex Connect to bridge the two. This requires the iMAC network IPv4 setting to "Use DHCP with manual address" and then requires the ATV network settings to be configured to have the same IP address as the iMAC so it's looping the ATV connection back through the iMAC rather than the ATV having it's own IP address.

Having just setup Tunnelblick I was able to connect successfully but when disconnecting my internet was no longer available. I was able to connect again after a reboot and all was fine again until disconnecting Tunnelblick. I then discovered that if I changed the IPv4 setting to "Use DHCP" I could connect and disconnect without any further issues, except that the Plex Connect hack will no longer work since the iMAC's IP address has changed and the ATV is now pointing at the wrong IP.

Having read up and trying to grasp this I have now changed one of the settings in the advanced pane of Tunnelblick and have selected "Reset the primary interface after disconnecting". This seems to have sorted out the disconnection problems I was having and I can retain the "Use DHCP with manual address" setting but I'm not sure if I've done the right thing here. It works fine so I'm hoping that's all I needed to do. if someone wouldn't mind confirming this I'd be grateful.

[jkbull...gmail.com]

Thanks for explaining your situation so clearly.

If "Reset the primary interface after disconnecting" works for you, then use it. However, that is often a symptom that the VPN is not set up correctly. Without the "diagnostic info" from connecting/disconnecting with both manual and DHCP setups, though, I can't tell.

It is very tricky to set up a VPN so your computer accesses the Internet via the VPN (if that's what you want) and at the same time is a media server (which is what you are doing).

• If you don't set "Route all IPv4 traffic through the VPN", then your browsing will not go through the VPN. You should check this by connecting the VPN and then going to http://whatismyipaddress.com or a similar site.
  
• If you do set it, I don't think the media server will work right because any IPv4 traffic from the media server will also go through the VPN, so it won't go to your Apple TV.
  

To fix this, I think you would have to set up the VPN to do customized routing so it routes the media server traffic normally, but everything else through the VPN, probably by adding a specific route to your Apple TV. I can't help with that, you would have to ask for help from OpenVPN folks (see the Tunneblick Support page).

You may need to ask for help from your VPN service provider, too, but they may not be very helpful.

[Mark Hammerschmidt]

Thank you so much for replying. You're right, there's a lot more to this. The setting I've changed was working but now is crashing Chrome and not resetting the connection properly. I see there's quite a lot of settings in the "While connected" tab that are going to need adjusting. The VPN I'm now using does have an amazingly fast connection through it's own client (I'm in Hong Kong and am accessing UK websites) compared to my previous VPN (don't anyone bother with Hotspot Shield) but it uses the PPTP protocol which isn't so secure hence why I'm trying to get Tunnelblick working properly.