Does the downloadhelper companion app establish its own network connections to video sites?

[jvrppp]

I notice that when I establish a VPN tunnel from the firefox browser (nordvpn) using the nordvpn extension, videos do not download sometimes. However, if the vpn tunnel is established from the shell, the download works fine. This is when the companion app is selected as the download processor.

This prompts my question... does the companion app establish separate connections (apart from the browser tcp connection) during the download process? If so this appears to be a massive security hole. If not, why do downloads often fail when VPN is enabled through the browser plugin?

jvr

[Paul]

Right, if you use a VPN just for the Firefox process, the coapp won't be using it, as it's a different process.

Just to be clear, you're talking about a TCP VPN, not a HTTP Proxy, correct?

[jvrppp]

Yes, I meant the TCP VPN. Thanks for the clarification.

Does the problem still exist if I use the browser as the download processor?

Problem is a lot more sites don't work with browser download than with the companion app download.

jvr

[Paul]

If you use the inbrowser download, a lot less downloads will work indeed.

I see 3 options for you:

- use VPN for the whole OS

- setup your VPN to activate also for the CoApp

- use HTTP Proxy (we can make the coapp use a HTTP Proxy, but not a VPN)

Which OS do you use?

[jvrppp]

I use Linux/Fedora 39.

Using VPN for the whole OS is somewhat inconvenient for me as many of the sites I access block me if I do.

How can I set up a VPN to work for the co-app? Any instructions on that would be super helpful.

jvr

[jvrppp]

NVM I see that you have already stated that VPN won't  work for the co-app.

I'll look into whether I can use an http proxy. Thanks for your help.

jvr