I don’t like to install a VPN app knowing that I can simply download the Wireguard config files and use the Wireguard app.
My doubt is if Wireguard app (Mac specifically) has the risk of leaking my IP. Most apps will block connections when not connected to the VPN. I don’t want to download a torrent and risk getting my IP leaked.
I don’t think WireGuard works how you think it will. You yourself host a WireGuard server so that is the endpoint and that is the IP it will use.
A VPN is a tunnel to another remote network so you can use it as if you were local. Services like NordVPN or Surf Shark host servers all over and you connect to them and use them as though you were local to that server. Internet services see that server as the IP source. If you host a WireGuard server on your home network, when you connect to it your home IP address will be the one the services see, and if you’re at home then you have no reason to connect at all. It’s to allow you to access your home from other places so you can access stuff like network storage or media servers. It’s not for downloading the latest linux distros.
The solution to your problem is to bind the torrent client to the VPN interface. If your torrent client doesn’t have the option, get a proper client that does. qBittorrent does.
This way, Bittorrent traffic will ONLY flow through the VPN no matter what.
And to answer your original question, the Wireguard app shouldn’t leak as long as it’s active, but anyway the interface binding it’s a MUST.
The torrenting issue is easily solved by binding your VPN interface in qBitTorrent.
The other issue “wireguard app vs. proprietary VPN app” is a little more tricky, but I’ve been there myself, so here’s my 2¢:
I logged into my VPN account and downloaded a conf file for my chosen location for each individual device. Then imported it into the wireguard app, and activated it. Then kept an eye on ipleak and the wireguard app (I use two screens).
First handshake was very fast, and the connection stable, and a re-handshake at 2 mins. faultless… but after a while within the same session, streaming stuttered, and would sometimes just stop. Files would upload, then delayed uploads etc. Handshakes would take longer and longer. Here I would deactivate the tunnel, then immediately re-activate it. Then that slowly deteriorating process would start all over again again.
Next day, on waking the device (I use on a daily basis MacBook, iPhone, Android phone, Win 10), there’d be no connection available. Re-activation didn’t change anything. Here I would need to deactivate the tunnel, go to my VPN account and re-download a conf file (which was sometimes for the exact same server, sometimes for a different server). Then it’d be like a brand new wireguard connection, and the same as I wrote above.
Biggest problem with the wireguard app in conjunction with a VPN provider, is that the app can’t monitor the imported connections, and flip to one that’s available - you need to do that manually. If it could do that, then you wouldn’t need the proprietary VPN app from your provider.
It seems to me that the inherent instability of wireguard when purchased from a VPN provider, is caused by a server overload… or put very simply, most VPN providers don’t own or rent sufficient server space to deal with the demand.
Source:
I thought the same about the wireguard app and the minimal resources needed to run it, and tried various experiments over the course of several weeks. In the end, I reverted back to the proprietary app.
Honestly, read about Usenet. I recommend astraweb. It’s cheap for a year, get the ARR suite up and running. You’ll download over an ssl connection.
It all depends how you set your allowed IPs. I haven’t seen an leak with the App and I use it for 5 years now.
I was asking if the Wireguard app that manages the tunnel with let’s say, Proton VPN, has a kill switch in case the connection to Proton loses connection for a second.
Depends on the app. If the wireguard is set to full tunnel mode and you can see the “route /print” stays the same you lose connection it’s safe. Remember route table is what reroutes the traffic so if there is no change to it it will still go to the VPN adapter and encrypt your data.
Source: Work on a Wireguard VPN for around 4 years now
Check the config and make sure you see the line “AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0”
But we don’t know what you’re asking if you don’t provide the details. You said you didn’t want a VPN app and then said you wanted to use Wireguard, a VPN app so I could only have assumed that you weren’t sure what a VPN actually does.
Dude, it’s not so difficult, OP means “VPN provider proprietary app” when they say “VPN app”