Split Tunneling for Confidentiality: Smarter, Selective Routing on BelNet
Split tunneling, selective routing & confidentiality at your fingertips with BelNet
Want speed and security while browsing or working online? BelNet’s Split Tunneling makes it possible.
What Is Split Tunneling and Why It Matters for Confidentiality
Split tunneling is a networking technique that will help you decide which parts of your internet traffic are routed through a secure, encrypted tunnel (like the BelNet VPN) and which parts go directly to the internet. This split tunnel—by splitting the data before routing—prevents all your data from going through the same confidentiality-preserving route and gives you granular control.
To make you understand this concept better, let me break it down with a simple example.
Work VPN vs Personal Use
Imagine you’re working from home and connected to your company’s VPN.
You are accessing sensitive work files and business emails and you want all of this traffic to go through the encrypted VPN tunnel to prevent external sources from snooping on your network.
But at the same time, you also want to have a
call with your team members
stream a cricket match or
print a document on your printer
These activities are not sensitive but the VPN can slow them down or even shut them off from access.
With split tunneling, you can have both:
Your work emails and sensitive information will travel securely through the VPN - In BelNet - that happens through the decentralized & confidential Beldex network.
And your other activities like streaming, making a video call and printing will pass through your regular internet connection - this renders your activities fast and uninterrupted.
The Confidentiality Trade-Offs of All-or-Nothing Tunneling
The traditional VPNs and other confidentiality networks often choose full tunneling. In this case, all your traffic is pushed through a single route through the secure network.
Imagine being stuck in traffic for hours because all other routes to your office are shut down? That’d be a total nightmare, right?
Similarly, routing all traffic through the VPN will reduce its performance, especially during peak usage and in areas where nodes are sparsely operated.
However, split tunneling guarantees maximizing confidentiality, masks your IP address for the online actions that you specifically require while bypassing the VPN connection and connecting directly to the internet for others.
BelNet and the Case for Selective Confidentiality
BelNet, Beldex’s decentralized VPN, is built for confidentiality—
It recognizes that not all traffic needs the same level of secrecy.
With split tunneling, BelNet can allow local or non-sensitive traffic (like streaming, gaming, or accessing local devices) to bypass the anonymous network, while sensitive activities (like email communication, instant messaging, financial transactions, or confidential browsing) are routed through the confidentiality-protecting tunnel.
This selective confidentiality means you get the best of both worlds: robust confidentiality where it matters and high-speed, unrestricted access where it doesn’t.
BelNet’s Role in Controlled Packet Routing
BelNet takes things to the next level with split tunneling.
Split tunneling is implemented at the application layer. Thus, rather than manually switching on-and-off the VPN, you can now select which applications access the VPN tunnel and which connect directly to the Internet.
Splitting the traffic this way ensures that nodes are always available to handle requests and aren’t running at maximum capacity.
Factors such as node performance, latency, congestion can be improved while malicious activities like DDoS attacks can be significantly reduced. This also applies to exit nodes, which handle outgoing traffic.
For example, if you’re sending a confidential message on BChat or accessing a sensitive dApp, say a decentralized exchange, BelNet ensures that data is routed through the most secure, and least congested nodes.
On the other hand, if you’re streaming a public video or downloading a game update, it will route it directly for lower latency and better performance.
While BelNet can support high-quality video streaming even through the VPN tunnel, this action inherently doesn’t require the use of an onion-routed confidentiality layer.
Of course, you get to choose how this all of this happens within the BelNet application.
Advantages of Efficient Split Tunneling Usage
Node Quality: Highly available and reliable nodes.
Load Balancing: Evenly distributing traffic and preventing congestion, thereby maintaining stability.
Personalized Experience: Recommending optimal routing based on your activity, location, and preferences.
Bandwidth Optimization: Since it allows only selected apps or domains to use BelNet, this preserves bandwidth for high-priority tasks.
The Future: AI-Defined Traffic Rules in Confidential Networks
Let’s not forget BeldexAI, another important planned addition to BelNet (currently under R&D). The integration of BeldexAI in Beldex will redefine how BelNet traffic is managed. BeldexAI will add AI-powered predictability and routing to BelNet. So, instead of static user-defined rules, AI will dynamically adapt routing policies based on context, user behavior, and evolving threats. This will further complement split tunneling.
Imagine a system that learns your work habits, recognizes when you’re handling sensitive data, and automatically ramps up security—while letting non-critical apps run at full speed. This not only enhances confidentiality but also delivers a seamless, high-performance experience for decentralized internet users.
In summary: Split tunneling empowers users with fine-grained control over confidentiality and performance. It’s a smarter, more adaptive way to navigate the decentralized web—where you decide what stays confidential, and BelNet ensures it happens seamlessly.