I’m not sure if this is intended behavior, but I can’t get the Split Tunneling and the Kill Switch to work together.
I expect to be able to use Split Tunneling to whitelist or mark apps to have those apps bypass or only use the VPN, and I expect the Kill Switch to disable the internet whenever my VPN connection drops. But it seems like these two features seem to conflict with each other.
I thought the whole point of the Split Tunnel was to allow apps to bypass the VPN and connect to the internet directly, but using this feature along with Kill Switch means that any app I add to the whitelist (to bypass the VPN) cannot access the internet.
I’ve also tried marking apps to only use the VPN and that leads to a similar result: any app that is not using the VPN cannot connect to the internet. Is this how these features are supposed to work, or am I missing something?
EDIT: Forgot to mention that I’m on Windows 11, and I just updated to the latest version of NordVPN (v6.40.5.0 at time of writing). This was also an issue when I was still on Windows 10, so I don’t think it’s OS-related, but a problem with the app itself.
I think it has been reported here already, support is aware of the bug. Try reaching out to them for workarounds
This is the correct and proper behavior. Everything is working as intended. Notice the name of the one option is INTERNET Kill Switch? That option controls your ENTIRE INTERNET CONNECTION and has nothing at all to do with the APP Kill Switch or Split Tunneling. The purpose of Internet Kill Switch is to kill your ENTIRE internet connection.
The purpose of App Kill Switch is to only kill specific apps when not connected to a VPN, but not your entire internet. The purpose of Split Tunneling is exactly as you stated, to allow apps to bypass a connected VPN and connect to the internet directly. However, how do you expect anything to STILL connect to the internet when you have on an Internet Kill Switch, that instructs Nord to kill your internet (as the name applies)?
People are just misunderstanding these features and I’m not certain why. They are marked pretty clearly imo. Regardless, hope that all helps.
it works!
- I have tested this issue, once the VPN is ‘live’ the ‘Split Tunneling’ DOES kick in, verified now on Win10 Pro x64, PLEX DLNA server is available to my TV right now and PLEX works (outside VPN to avoid connectivity issues)
The Kill Switch is to prevent OS telemetry and private application data (such as torrents) from being sent through your ISP IP Address (where your usage metadata is logged & saved) until the VPN is live, so your ISP never sees any traffic from apps booting up before Nord starts (which IS an age and one of my gripes with it, that and Re-Captcha’s all the time)
This does not help at all, and I think you just misunderstood my post, because I didn’t mention the App Kill Switch anywhere. I understand that App Kill Switch will kill (terminate) any apps I’ve added to that list when I disconnect from the VPN. This feature works exactly as expected.
My problem is that enabling the INTERNET Kill Switch along with the Split Tunnel, prevents any app that I’ve marked to bypass the VPN from connecting to the internet. In these instances my internet connection hasn’t dropped and I haven’t disconnected from the VPN, I’ve simply marked some apps to bypass the VPN, and those apps can’t use the internet AT ALL when I have the Kill Switch enabled.
This is not the behavior I would expect when using these two features, as other VPN apps I’ve used (PIA and Proton, for example) have these features and don’t behave this way at all.
So I’m just gonna assume that this is a bug and that there’s a fix on the way.
Apologies if I misunderstood. Internet kill switch and split tunneling work fine on my end. If there was a bug with a specific version, it would be happening to EVERYONE on that version. Which COULD be the case as I never tested this issue with 6.40.5. Also, at the time of your post 6.40.5 was not the latest version. 6.41.6 was. Have you tried that? You haven’t mentioned if you’ve updated past 6.40.5. I also very strongly recommend a full manual uninstall of all Nord components (NordVPN network TUN, NordVPN network TAP, and NordVPN), rebooting, and then a clean re-install of 6.41.6 to see if that helps. But as it stands, I currently have Nord enabled with a VPN on, have internet kill switch enabled, and Firefox in my split tunneling white-list. Firefox still connects fine.
6.40.5.0 is the latest version according to the app I have installed and the website. The app isn’t prompting me for any updates, and the Windows installer on the website still points to v6.40.5.0
I’ll do a full uninstall with Revo and re-install once I’m able to. Maybe it is just a bug, or maybe it’s a problem with my specific configuration. Either way I’m hoping this gets fixed soon. The Split Tunnel and Kill Switch were two of the main reasons (along with the price ofc) that I decided to go with Nord in the first place. Worst case, I’ll just have to use the App Kill Switch until they start working properly.
Not certain why you aren’t being prompted to update. Here’s the link to 6.41.6.
https://downloads.nordcdn.com/apps/windows/NordVPN/6.41.6/NordVPNSetup\_x64.exe
Thanks!
Also, where is that link on the website? When I looked for a download on the website and in my account dashboard, they both lead me here: https://downloads.nordcdn.com/apps/windows/10/NordVPN/latest/NordVPNSetup.exe
Which is still pointing to v6.40.5.0.
Its not on the site, as Nord are awfully slow on updating it. Thats the only reason. 
Not sure if it was the update or the re-install, but it seems like everything is working as intended now. Split Tunnel and (internet) Kill Switch are both enabled, Apps set to bypass the VPN can still access the internet, and disconnecting from the VPN disables my internet connection entirely, exactly as expected. In any case, I appreciate your help!
Glad its working for you. Cheers!
Hey, your submission was automatically removed because your account does not meet our karma standards. Accounts must have a minimum of 100 combined karma to post in this subreddit. This rule is meant to improve the quality of posts being submitted while mitigating abuse from troll accounts.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
