Does the new Apple TV support VPN?

Hoping someone can help me with my query. I have a subscription to http://www.britishtvanywhere.com/ which allows me to watch british tv from overseas. I have head Apple TV is a good alternative to the Samsung SMART TV however I don't know how the VPN would work. Would I still need to connect my computer to the tv to use the VPN?

Get a DNS service like Unblock TV from http://www.AceVPN.com. Takes about 2 minutes to configure. I use it on my Apple TV, Xbox 360 and Smart TV. It doesn't slow your Internet down like VPN does.

Dear all

Please Help ME

I have bought a VPN through myexpatnetwork.com and pay a fee everymonth and through this I have bought Netflix and also pay a fee. I am an American Expat living and working in Belgium and I missed my American TV. So I thought this would be a great solution as I still pay for everthing. I bought my Apple TV in Belgium and thought that I could connet through my VPN and get my netflix on my new appleTV. But I guess my apple TV connects through my router and not my computer that has the VPN? Help Im so confused. As of right now I connect through my VPN on my laptop and use my airplay to watch my netflix. which sometimes confuses my Appletv and it runs slow. I think because my appleTV connects through my Belgian router but I play my airplay through my VPN on my laptop??? Help please.

I just want to have my netflix on my screen of AppleTV and also not have my AppleTV get all slow and confused when I use the airplay function

Thanks

Love for Belgium

Hi Pugs,

As part of the set up for your Apple TV, you connected to a network, most likely the one broadcast from your home router. Since that router is getting its internet signal from your Belgium service provider, your internet connection has a Belgium address. When you select your Netflix app on Apple TV, it doesn't get a U.S. address and therefore doesn't provide you content from the U.S.

When you turn on your VPN on your computer, the internet connection FOR YOUR COMPUTER now has a U.S. address, and therefore using your computer you can engage Netflix and receive U.S. content. But this does nothing for your Apple TV which is still getting the Belgium address from your router.

There are several solutions, and I'll describe the one that we use (we live in Panama). Our home computers are Macs and they run the Lion operating system. As with earlier Mac operating systems, we can share the internet connection being received by our Mac via ethernet cable by broadcasting it wirelessly to other devices. But with Lion, we also have the capability of first engaging our VPN and then broadcasting that signal wirelessly. So we simply turn on the VPN on the Mac and the "share" this by going to System Preferences, select Sharing, and then click on the box for Internet sharing. Then we change the Network setting on the Apple TV to point to this new wireless signal coming from our Mac. And then we start up the Netflix app on the Apple TV and we are good to go with all the U.S. content. It's an extra step each time we want to watch U.S. Netflix (instead of Panama Netflix), but it's simple and it works.

I am surprised that you say you can use Airplay when watching Netflix on your laptop to play the movie on your Apple TV. Airplay works for devices that are on the same wireless network. If you have turned on your VPN on your laptop, then your laptop no longer is on the same network as your Apple TV.

Separately, a VPN service does tend to reduce the speed of your internet connection. As mentioned in this dialogue in earlier messages, there are alternatives to using a VPN. I'm going to experiment with those next.

Good luck!

dspapp - does the computer have to be on and logged in for the apple tv to work in this configuration? This sounds like it might solve my home networking issue. I want my appletv to work just like it does from the states without having to do the mirroring and having to "give up" my laptop to watch something via a VPN.

Also, what VPN service do you like? Or not like?

Hi DC,

Yes, using this approach your computer must be on, your VPN engaged, and your Internet sharing selected. That is the extra step to which I referred in my description. Only then can your Apple TV "see" this new wireless signal and then be chosen in the setup.

When we are finished watching for the evening, we turn off Apple TV and the computer as normal. The next time we turn on the Apple TV, if we have not first taken the extra step described above, it no longer has any interent access. So it must be set up again to point to an internet signal. For us, that is ok. We can then choose to repeat the steps to get U.S.-based internet, or point to the internet signal from our home router which has a Panama address.

The only thing on the Apple TV for which we need a U.S. signal is Netflix. The other services we use (e.g. MLB.com for baseball) actually require a non-U.S. internet signal. So we need the flexibility to switch the source of our internet signal.

The VPN we use is Hide My *** (HMA). We have been happy with the choice. We subscribe (pay), rather than use the free version of the service, so that we can avoid the ads on the browser on our computer when it is engaged. I don't know if these ads would present a problem on the Apple TV or not. The free version might work fine.

Dspapp-

I, like you, Use Macs in my home that run the Lion operating system. We did everything you did up to the point where you changed the network setting on the apple tv to point to the new wireless signal coming from the mac. I can't quite figure out how you do that last part. Is there anyway you could go into a bit more detail?

Hi MJ,

If everything is set up properly on your Mac, it will be broadcasting a wireless signal. You can confirm this using another computer or handheld device that is wifi enabled. Just check for available wifi networks and you should see one is the name of the Mac computer that is now broadcasting the wireless signal. If you don't see it among the list of available wifi networks on the other device, then you'll need to return to your Mac to figure that out first.

Once your Mac is successfully broadcasting a wireless signal, turn on your Apple TV. Choose the icon called Settings. From there go to General | Network | Configure Wifi. After a few seconds, you will see a list of the wifi networks that your Apple TV can see. On that list should be one that is the name of your Mac. Choose it. If you have set it up with password protection, you will be prompted to enter that information.

Once your Apple TV is connected to the wireless signal coming from your Mac, go back to the main menu on Apple TV and choose Netflix. If your Mac really is broadcasting a VPN'd signal (with an internet address in the U.S.), then the choices you see on Netflix should be the U.S. slate of Netflix programs. If the choices are the same as you saw before, then the signal coming from your Mac is still using an address in your country, and you'll need to go back to the Mac to see what's up.

When you shut down your Mac, the signal that it has been broadcasting will stop. So you will need to return to Settings on your Apple TV to choose another wifi network.

Pointing the Apple TV to a different wifi signal is really the easy part. The more difficult part can be the steps to set up your Mac to broadcast a VPN'd signal.

Thanks for this suggestion. Your suggestion has helped in my effort to find an easier and faster solution. I am researching and will be testing SmartDNS from overplay.net. I will report back on the effort.

Dspapp (or anyone else for that matter),

When I try to share my macbook air Internet connection with VPN on, it immediately throws me off my VPN.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Ok I use www.smartdnsproxy.com now it's FREE and exellent, works properly.

Hi Phil,

Just to check, is your Macbook receiving its internet signal wirelessly or by cable? If it's wirelessly, then you may not be able to share (broadcast) it.

In the setup I've described earlier in this dialogue, you will see that my Mac is getting its internet signal from an ethernet cable coming from my router. (With or without engaing my VPN) I then choose Internet Sharing to wirelessly broadcast a new internet signal to other computers/devices in my home.

Thanks dspapp.

Yep, connecting wirelessly.

Do you know if there any way to get Netflix on Apple TV abroad that doesnt involve having to connect via Ethernet?

Cheers!

Phil

Phil,

I can use my VPN on my iPhone and then choose to make my iPhone a hotspot. This is analogous to the approach I've described with my Mac. The speed is significantly slower, though.

Other than that, you might want to try one of the other approaches suggested earlier in this dialogue such as Unblock TV. I do not have personal experience with those, but they seem to have worked for other people.

This sounds just like what I want to do - but I connect to the Internet wirelessly with my iMac and to AppleTV via Ethernet. I have created a network location and set up sharing preferences via Ethernet, but I can't seem to get AppleTV to recognize it. Not sure how to configure the network. If I do it automatically it doesn't show the IP address of the server in Georgia that I chose with HMA. If I configure it manually, what dns, router and subnet address would I use?

Really hoping this works without an extra router, is it possible?

Thanks for letting me know...

j