Connection-specific VPN settings

[wisp3rwind]

I have checked if others have suggested this already

• I have checked this issue tracker to see if others have reported similar issues.

Feature description

I'd appreciate if Mullvad would offer connection-specific overrides for all/most VPN settings. Specifically, I would have had a use for this with

• local network sharing (should only be enabled in trusted networks where I have a need for it, e.g. at home or maybe at a friend's place)
• UDP-over-TCP (only required for networks which block UDP, e.g. some public Wifis, but not my home network)

but I think it makes sense for several other settings as well.

Currently, anytime the necessity to change these settings (away from a secure and performant default) arises, I'll usually proceed via:

• some debugging of the present networking issues until realizing it's the VPN,
• a bunch of clicks to change settings,
• use the network,
• frequently forget to change the settings back (which might compromise security or performance when connecting to another network).

By making such setting adaptations per-network, these issues would be remedied to a large extent, for a better UX and effectively improved security.

In #3218, some concerns regarding security have been voiced. However, at least in my case, the real concern is insecure public Wifis rather than someone spoofing a BSSID I trust.
Anyone who actually fears a targeted spoofing attack can simply not use connection-specific settings, and appropriate warnings in the UI could create the awareness for this.

Some further ideas to in this regard:

• there should be an interface to review connection-specific settings at a glance, making it easy to revoke them when deemed outdated
• one could consider expiry timers (i.e. disable a connection-specific setting when it has not been used in a certain amount of time)

Related feature requests are:

• [Feature request] Allow to turn off features from the main view #7133 "Allow to turn off features from the main view" (This would improve the UX; but still require manual action.)
• [Feature request] Redirect to corresponding view when clicking feature labels on the main view #7134 "Redirect to corresponding view when clicking feature labels on the main view" (similar to the previous issue)
• Add the ability to trust a network for local network sharing #3218 "Add the ability to trust a network for local network sharing" (this is pretty close the current feature request, but I'd argue that this should cover VPN settings in general, not just local sharing)

Alternative solutions

I don't think there's a real alternative: This really needs to be as automated as possible, otherwise, I'll inevitably forget to change settings back. Usually, I realize this only a long time afterwards, for example when seeing unexpected network devices discovered by the file manager (i.e. too late).

Type of feature

• Better privacy/anonymity
• Better at circumventing censorship
• Easier to use
• Other

Operating System

• Android
• iOS
• Windows
• macOS
• Linux

[MarkusPettersson98]

Hello! Thanks for your detailed feature request! 🙌

We'll keep an eye on the interest from the community on this. We know that similar feature requests have been made before, so it's not an esoteric request.

[musabagriyanik]

I'm also looking for this, and there is a real use case for that. WireGuard is blocked in my cellular network so I use Shadowsocks, but my other networks that doesn't block WireGuard also has to use Shadowsocks unless I disable it, which is not something you'd want to do every time you're going to a place and leaving. There is a performance loss happening due to Shadowsocks, it's small but it's there. So we should be able to customize connection details for specific conditions.

[Aeldit]

Hi, I've been looking for this feature too: in my home, I have some git repositories hosted locally only and some servers I can connect to using ssh. Having a per-network setting would be really helpful for these cases!