Phone hotspot via VPN - should that put laptop traffic through?

[Terry Stanford 11]

Just wondering. I was an AirVPN user for many years until finally having to move away due to instability of Eddie on Mac OSX (Mojave). I have wanted to come back for a long time and since I am now moving to Linux (F*ck Apple) I am hoping to do that soon

I have a question though, if I use the android app and set up a hotspot on my phone for my laptop, will my laptop be going through the VPN?
I am using another VPN at the moment and I tried it, my web browser IP address showed as my cellular network provider's IP address, NOT the VPN i was connected to via the phone. Glad I checked, that concerned me! Is that normal, or would Eddie work to push my laptop data through the VPN on the hotspot phone?
thanks

[Seebarschtian 5]

Assuming you are using Android.
Well I think this is some advanced Android/Unix iptables and network magic working in the background. It seems that it is not intended to share a VPN connection via the hotspot function.
There may be a way for a rooted device to edit the routing-/iptables sothat the hotspot network will use the VPN connection as gateway.

[Terry Stanford 11]

Sorry, yes Android. I see, so it's the android OS which prevents using the VPN connection and not specific to the VPN service in question. Makes sense. Yet more of my beloved Google "protecting me" I am sure! thanks

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

10 hours ago, Seebarschtian said:

Well I think this is some advanced Android/Unix iptables and network magic working in the background. It seems that it is not intended to share a VPN connection via the hotspot function.

Not entirely true, but the feature's availability does depend on the ROM used. Official LineageOS builds support this starting from around version 16-17 (Android 9-10) (Connection > Hotspot and Tethering > Allow clients to use VPN). Inofficial LineageOS builds from XDA or 4PDA and stock/original ROMs from the manufacturers are a tedious hit and miss, but maybe it's more or less widely implemented with Android 11 or 12, who knows.

[Terry Stanford 11]

Thats useful to know thanks