I use PIA while im browsing the internet and when im away from home I like to use Tailscale to access my unraid services. Trouble is in order to use tailscale I have to turn PIA off first as the two VPNs conflict.

To work around this I have tried to configure an exit node in unraid for my internet traffic but it either doesnt work or its really slow. I have tried a Gluetun container with PIA configured to use OpenVPN and I have just tried building an ubuntu VM and using Wireguard.

Am I missing something? Perhaps this wont ever work. Has anyone else done this?

On 8/4/2026 at 10:25 PM, darber said:

I use PIA while im browsing the internet and when im away from home I like to use Tailscale to access my unraid services. Trouble is in order to use tailscale I have to turn PIA off first as the two VPNs conflict.

To work around this I have tried to configure an exit node in unraid for my internet traffic but it either doesnt work or its really slow. I have tried a Gluetun container with PIA configured to use OpenVPN and I have just tried building an ubuntu slope 2 VM and using Wireguard.

Am I missing something? Perhaps this wont ever work. Has anyone else done this?

Running two VPNs on the same device can definitely cause routing conflicts. One approach might be to use Tailscale's split tunneling or configure only specific traffic to go through PIA while leaving Tailscale traffic outside the VPN. It may also be worth checking whether the exit node is becoming a bottleneck due to encryption overhead or network settings. Hopefully someone who has successfully combined PIA and Tailscale on Unraid can share their configuration.

Edited August 6Aug 6 by OrvilleWolf

8 hours ago, OrvilleWolf said:

Running two VPNs on the same device can definitely cause routing conflicts. One approach might be to use Tailscale's split tunneling or configure only specific traffic to go through PIA while leaving Tailscale traffic outside the VPN. It may also be worth checking whether the exit node is becoming a bottleneck due to encryption overhead or network settings. Hopefully someone who has successfully combined PIA and Tailscale on Unraid can share their configuration.

Yeah this is effectively what im after, Tailscale between my phone and home and PIA between home and internet.

Another option i havent tried is to build a Pi with ubuntu and PIA and set that as an exit node. That would take Unraid out of the solution, if its Unraid thats causing the problem. Id rather do it all on Unraid though if possible.

Try to disable "use tailscale dns" on your tailscale client on the phone. That should make it faster.

On 8/4/2026 at 10:25 PM, darber said:

I use PIA while im browsing the internet and when im away from home I like to use Tailscale to access my unraid services. Trouble is in order to use tailscale I have to turn PIA off first as the two VPNs conflict.

To work around this I have tried to configure an exit node in unraid for my internet traffic but it either doesnt work or its really slow. I have tried a Gluetun container with PIA configured to use OpenVPN and I have just tried building an ubuntu VM and using Wireguard.

Am I missing something? Perhaps this wont ever work. Has anyone else done this drift boss?

Have you tried keeping PIA responsible for normal internet traffic and using Tailscale only for access to your Unraid services? That might avoid the two tunnels fighting over the default route.

Edited August 30Aug 30 by MangoX

On 8/4/2026 at 10:25 PM, darber said:

I use PIA while im browsing the internet and when im away from home I like to use Tailscale to access my unraid services. Trouble is in order to use tailscale I have to turn PIA off first as the two VPNs conflict.

To work around this I have tried to configure an exit node in unraid for my internet traffic but it either doesnt work or its really slow. I have tried a Gluetun container with PIA configured to use OpenVPN and I have just tried building an ubuntu VM and using Wireguard.

Am I missing something? Perhaps this wont ever work. Has anyone else done 1000games?

I think the cleanest way is to separate the two jobs rather than make Tailscale itself an exit node.

Have Tailscale handle the remote connection to Unraid/services, and let PIA handle outbound internet traffic. If PIA is running as a full-tunnel VPN on the Unraid host, though, it can interfere with Tailscale's routing because both are trying to control the network paths. Tailscale also documents that it can conflict with other VPNs, particularly when they both manipulate routing.

If you're using PIA specifically for downloads/containers, I'd be inclined to keep PIA inside a Gluetun container and put only the containers that actually need PIA behind it. Leave the Unraid host itself on the normal LAN connection with Tailscale running normally. That way your Tailscale traffic isn't competing with the PIA tunnel.

If you really want all Unraid host traffic to go through PIA while still using Tailscale, that's where it gets more complicated. An exit node is designed to route all non-Tailscale traffic through the exit device, but stacking another VPN on that same routing path can easily result in the slow/broken behavior you're seeing.

So IMO I'd avoid the Ubuntu VM/exit-node route unless you specifically need the entire Unraid host behind PIA. For normal browsing/download containers, Gluetun + PIA with Tailscale left on the host should be much easier to maintain.

Edited September 30Sep 30 by alexiaamber