This method of programatic detection works as of January 24, 2017 with the latest versions of Express VPN and PIA (Private Internet Access)<\/p>\n
On Mac OSX\/<\/strong> The trick is to request your ip routing table and examine through which network interface your default traffic is going through. This is how it looks for both ExpressVPN and PIA when the VPN is active:<\/p>\n To request your routing table you can do this on the command line: Notice the line starting with “0\/1”, it’s going through that tunnel interface. (In Linux it would show VPN ON output in Mac<\/p>\n VPN ON output in Linux<\/p>\n When you turn VPN off this is how it looks:<\/p>\n VPN OFF in Mac<\/p>\n VPN OFF in Linux<\/p>\n So a quick way to determine if the VPN is on or off in Mac or Linux, is to filter-out what you care for using (we filter for “tun” and not utun1, as in linux vpn network interfaces start with “tun”)<\/p>\n Parse the output of that command and you will have your VPN status. No output means VPN is disconnected. Some output means the VPN is connected.<\/p>\n On Windows<\/strong> This method of programatic detection works as of January 24, 2017 with the latest versions of Express VPN and PIA (Private Internet Access) On Mac OSX\/ This works for Mac OSX 10.2.2. The trick is to request your ip routing table and examine through which network interface your default traffic is going through. (To do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[1572,635,1571,1570,1569],"class_list":["post-3663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-code","tag-expressvpn","tag-macosx","tag-pia","tag-private-internet-access","tag-vpn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Unzf-X5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4129,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/introducing-uninews-a-universal-news-scraper-in-rust\/","url_meta":{"origin":3663,"position":0},"title":"Introducing Uninews: A Universal News Scraper in Rust","author":"gubatron","date":"February 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The internet is overflowing with news, but extracting clean, readable content from articles can be a tedious task. Whether you're aggregating news for personal consumption, research, or AI training, automating this process is a must. Enter Uninews, a powerful, lightweight, and efficient Rust-based news scraper that simplifies content extraction and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Code"","block_context":{"text":"Code","link":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/category\/code\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gubatron_Logo_for_Uninews_a_universal_news_scraper_command_li_4f376071-18e3-400e-9644-8efc878465e4_3.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gubatron_Logo_for_Uninews_a_universal_news_scraper_command_li_4f376071-18e3-400e-9644-8efc878465e4_3.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gubatron_Logo_for_Uninews_a_universal_news_scraper_command_li_4f376071-18e3-400e-9644-8efc878465e4_3.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gubatron_Logo_for_Uninews_a_universal_news_scraper_command_li_4f376071-18e3-400e-9644-8efc878465e4_3.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":741,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/how-to-reset-your-joost-profile-on-mac-osx\/","url_meta":{"origin":3663,"position":1},"title":"How to reset your Joost profile on Mac OSX","author":"gubatron","date":"March 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've noticed Joost tends to not refresh the content of their channel Line up unless it resets its User Profile. I'm not sure if this trick works on Windows, but it certainly does work for Mac. (Please leave a comment if it works the same way on windows, I don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Joost"","block_context":{"text":"Joost","link":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/category\/joost\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1208,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/mac-osx-terminal-to-slow-to-open\/","url_meta":{"origin":3663,"position":2},"title":"Mac OSX Terminal too slow to open?","author":"gubatron","date":"April 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Try this: rm ~\/.fonts.cache-1 Open a new Terminal, it should open pretty fast after that.","rel":"","context":"In "Geeklife"","block_context":{"text":"Geeklife","link":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/category\/geeklife\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3364,"url":"https:\/\/www.gubatron.com\/blog\/new-frostwire-5-7-7-available-for-windows-mac-and-linux-contributors-now-earn-bitcoins-instantaneously\/","url_meta":{"origin":3663,"position":3},"title":"New FrostWire 5.7.7 available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Contributors now earn bitcoins instantaneously.","author":"gubatron","date":"October 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Download FrostWire 5.7.7 for Windows (Bitcoin enabled .torrent) Download FrostWire 5.7.7 for MacOSX (.torrent) Download FrostWire 5.7.7 for Debian\/Ubuntu (.torrent) This update focuses on fixing multiple user interface issues, mostly related to the media player. 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\nThis works for Mac OSX 10.2.2.<\/p>\n
\n(To do this programmatically you will have to parse the output with your favorite programming language)<\/p>\n
\nnetstat -nr<\/code><\/p>\n0.0.0.0<\/code> instead of 0\/1<\/code>)<\/p>\nInternet:\nDestination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire\n0\/1 10.81.10.5 UGSc 5 0 utun1\n...\n<\/code><\/pre>\nKernel IP routing table\nDestination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface\n0.0.0.0 10.31.10.5 128.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 tun0\n...\n<\/code><\/pre>\nDestination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire\ndefault 192.168.1.1 UGSc 66 0 en0\n127 127.0.0.1 UCS 2 4 lo0\n<\/code><\/pre>\nKernel IP routing table\nDestination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface\n0.0.0.0 172.16.245.2 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0\n<\/code><\/pre>\ngrep<\/code>.
\nIf you have any output it’s on, if not it’s off<\/p>\nnetstat -nr | egrep \"^0\" | grep \"tun\"<\/code><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nDo a nestat -nr<\/code> and look for 128.0.0.1<\/code>, if you find it, VPN is on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"