Interesting VPN problem that needs a Solution

[Tallcircuit]

So I am blessed to live half the year in Florida & the other half in Canada.
 

The 1st world issue I am having is that Netflix is really good at detecting VPN's right now. I already pay for the Premium Plan for my Family.

Now that I am in Florida, I get booted out from my account because my parents that are in my house in Canada are also watching Netflix in my account (Not same user)

 

What would be the solution for my Smart TV in Florida to connect to the home network in Canada.

 

My router in Florida is one of those Overprice Gaming Router with OpenVPN

My router in Canada is the one from Telus, I can buy an other one for this.

 

I would like something reliable because my parents arent techsavy, so facetiming them to help me reconnect it would be a hassle.

 

Thank You Guys!

 

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

4 hours ago, Tallcircuit said:

So I am blessed to live half the year in Florida & the other half in Canada.
 

The 1st world issue I am having is that Netflix is really good at detecting VPN's right now. I already pay for the Premium Plan for my Family.

Now that I am in Florida, I get booted out from my account because my parents that are in my house in Canada are also watching Netflix in my account (Not same user)

 

What would be the solution for my Smart TV in Florida to connect to the home network in Canada.

 

My router in Florida is one of those Overprice Gaming Router with OpenVPN

My router in Canada is the one from Telus, I can buy an other one for this.

 

I would like something reliable because my parents arent techsavy, so facetiming them to help me reconnect it would be a hassle.

 

Thank You Guys!

 

 

You're pretty much there, you just need the router in Canada to support an OpenVPN server you can set your Florida router to connect to it, so all traffic goes via your connection in Canada.

 

Of course this assumes you have a public IP address on your ISP in Canada, if not you probably need to look for routers that support Tailscale.

 

Or if you don't want ALL traffic going via your Canada ISP, a quick hack would be to connect to the VPN using a laptop and plug the TV into that with hotspot/internet connection sharing enabled.

 

A more complete solution would be if your Florida router can handle split-tunneling/policy routing, so only the TV is sent over the VPN, but I've only done that personally with pfSense.

 

Bear in mind when using the VPN, your download speed in Florida would be limited to whatever the upload speed you have in Canada and if you saturate it that might not be great when your family are trying to use the connection at the same time.  This is another reason why routing all traffic over the VPN may be less than ideal.

[Falcon1986]

14 hours ago, Tallcircuit said:

Now that I am in Florida, I get booted out from my account because my parents that are in my house in Canada are also watching Netflix in my account (Not same user)

 

What would be the solution for my Smart TV in Florida to connect to the home network in Canada.

Install a VPN client (e.g. NordVPN, ExpressVPN, etc) on your smart TV in Florida and connect to the fastest Canadian server (one in your home province should be good).

 

Completely exit the Netflix app in Florida and restart the TV. Restart the VPN client and connect to the Canadian server. Launch Netflix.

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, Falcon1986 said:

nstall a VPN client (e.g. NordVPN, ExpressVPN, etc) on your smart TV in Florida and connect to the fastest Canadian server (one in your home province should be good).

Wont work. Netflix blocks the IP address associated with VPN services. 

 

The no password sharing policy also uses the IP address of your home internet to decide where your "Home" is. While you can use Netflix while traveling, the device in question has to periodically connect and authenticate in thru your home network. 

[Tallcircuit]

On 11/23/2024 at 2:28 PM, Falcon1986 said:

Install a VPN client (e.g. NordVPN, ExpressVPN, etc) on your smart TV in Florida and connect to the fastest Canadian server (one in your home province should be good).

 

Completely exit the Netflix app in Florida and restart the TV. Restart the VPN client and connect to the Canadian server. Launch Netflix.

That is my current set up, and it got detected

[Tallcircuit]

On 11/23/2024 at 3:22 AM, Alex Atkin UK said:

You're pretty much there, you just need the router in Canada to support an OpenVPN server you can set your Florida router to connect to it, so all traffic goes via your connection in Canada.

 

Of course this assumes you have a public IP address on your ISP in Canada, if not you probably need to look for routers that support Tailscale.

 

Or if you don't want ALL traffic going via your Canada ISP, a quick hack would be to connect to the VPN using a laptop and plug the TV into that with hotspot/internet connection sharing enabled.

 

A more complete solution would be if your Florida router can handle split-tunneling/policy routing, so only the TV is sent over the VPN, but I've only done that personally with pfSense.

 

Bear in mind when using the VPN, your download speed in Florida would be limited to whatever the upload speed you have in Canada and if you saturate it that might not be great when your family are trying to use the connection at the same time.  This is another reason why routing all traffic over the VPN may be less than ideal.

So my Florida router is the ASUS RT-AX88U. It supports WireGuard, Surfshark, OpenVPN, PPTP & L2TP.

I haved used OpenVPN with my subscribtion with NordVPN to connect my Smart TV's to Canada in which dosen't work with Netflix, hence why I made this post.

 

So can you recommend me a router in the 100$ range or slightly more if needed, that I can get for Canada. The router will be used just for this, not for the whole home.

 

[Eigenvektor]

Before you buy anything, check whether the existing Telus router has built-in VPN server support. Meaning check if it can act as a VPN server.

 

If not, you can always get a cheap mini-PC/Pi-hole and set up an OpenVPN server.

 

Then enable port forwarding on the router, so you can connect to your own VPN server on that machine.

[Tallcircuit]

On 11/28/2024 at 1:53 AM, Eigenvektor said:

Before you buy anything, check whether the existing Telus router has built-in VPN server support. Meaning check if it can act as a VPN server.

 

If not, you can always get a cheap mini-PC/Pi-hole and set up an OpenVPN server.

 

Then enable port forwarding on the router, so you can connect to your own VPN server on that machine.

What would have the most security, Pi-Hole or a Off the shelf Router, I was looking into maybe a travel router that allows OpenVPN

[LIGISTX]

On 11/27/2024 at 10:53 PM, Eigenvektor said:

/Pi-hole

You mean raspberry pi? pihole is jost software....

 

5 hours ago, Tallcircuit said:

What would have the most security, Pi-Hole or a Off the shelf Router, I was looking into maybe a travel router that allows OpenVPN

2 raspberry pi's, wireguard, connect them together, route traffic in Florida over the VPN back to your Canada LAN, done. But this would mean you need to set up routing which isn't super easy, the easier solution is 2 routers that do support either o-vpn or wireguard. Then you don't need to set up iptables stuff.

[Eigenvektor]

9 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

You mean raspberry pi? pihole is jost software....

Yeah, that one (I know, I have Pi-Hole installed on my home server…)

 

6 hours ago, Tallcircuit said:

What would have the most security, Pi-Hole or a Off the shelf Router, I was looking into maybe a travel router that allows OpenVPN

In terms of security, hardware doesn't matter, software does. If you have two devices with the same version of OpenVPN, they will be equally secure. The big question is how long the router will receive firmware updates and whether they include updates for OpenVPN. With a RasPi or a mini-PC, you can install updates as soon as they come out.

 

A router with VPN included has the advantage that it will be easier to set up. You don't need to install any software, just set up credentials and you should be more or less done. A mini-PC provides more flexibility, because you get to choose which VPN software to install, how to configure it under the hood, etc. But it will be more work to set up initially.

[Tallcircuit]

On 12/5/2024 at 12:08 AM, LIGISTX said:

... But this would mean you need to set up routing which isn't super easy, the easier solution is 2 routers that do support either o-vpn or wireguard. Then you don't need to set up iptables stuff.

Perfect, I found a router that supports Open-VPN like my Router in Florida. I know how to set up Open-VPN in my router to split tunnel my devices. Can you send over a link that would show me how to Port-In from Florida to Canada?