Use a device as your own exit
Pick one of your own devices, a home computer for example, and use its internet connection from your other devices when you are away from it. If you own more than one exit and the one in use goes offline, ForestVPN switches you to another and tells you.
Where it exists
- Mac
- Android
- Windows
- Linux
Away from your exit
- Your phone
- encrypted between your devices
- Your home computer, the exit
- leaves from the exit's network
- The internet
If an exit goes offline
- Your exit goes offline
- traffic is held
- Your next exit
- you are switched
- You are told once
How it works
- 01
Turn it on where the connection is
On the device that will lend its connection, open Devices, then This device, and turn on Use as an exit. Consent is given on that device, so it cannot be turned on from another of yours.
- 02
Choose it from another device
On your phone or laptop, open Locations. Your exits are under My exits, each marked Ready, Offline or This device. Tap one to connect.
- 03
Keep a second one for failover
With two or more exits, failover is on by default. If the exit you are using stops answering, ForestVPN holds your traffic, switches you to the next one and tells you once.
Under the hood
Your devices find each other through a coordinator that knows no account. Traffic between them is end-to-end encrypted.
On a computer the exit uses the operating system's own address translation where it is allowed, and a built-in network stack where it is not.
Failover happens only between exits you own, and the notice is shown on your device only.
What you get
- Up to 10 of your own devices as exits, on every plan, Free included.
- Your own exits are not metered: using one does not spend Free's daily connections.
- Traffic between your device and your exit is end-to-end encrypted.
- If every exit of yours is down, traffic stays blocked instead of going somewhere else, and you can choose a ForestVPN location yourself.
Limits and honest caveats
- The exit has to be on. If it sleeps or is switched off, that exit is offline until it is back.
- Your home upload speed is the ceiling for what moves through a home exit.
- An exit serves traffic only on Wi-Fi or Ethernet. On mobile data it pauses by itself.
- An iPhone can use an exit, but it cannot be one yet.
- Sites you visit see the public address of the network your exit is on, not a ForestVPN address.
Plans
Every plan includes up to 10 of your own exits.
Questions
- Does it cost anything extra?
- No. Free and Premium both include up to 10 of your own exits.
- What if my only exit is off?
- Locations shows it as Offline until it is back. You can choose a ForestVPN location instead.
- Can I turn it on from my phone?
- No. Consent is given on the device that lends its connection.