How you can use a VPN on Roku

The Roku good TV platform is an accessible technique to watch your favourite streaming content material in a centralized location – both built-in to TVs, or by including reasonably priced dongles or set-top containers to older televisions. Nonetheless, a standard frustration for any good TV or streaming service consumer is that a few of the greatest reveals and films are inaccessible because of geo-restrictions.

Utilizing a VPN is a standard technique to sort out this subject, however not like Hearth TV, Apple TV and different rivals, Roku techniques don’t have native VPN help. However that’s not the tip of the story: You may nonetheless use a VPN to entry a wider vary of programming through a Roku — you simply want to make use of a workaround. We’ll present you the way.

The advantages of utilizing a VPN

Relating to streaming, a VPN has one major profit: altering your IP handle. A VPN tunnels your connection by means of its servers to obfuscate your IP, making it appear to be you’re watching from elsewhere. In consequence, a service like Netflix will see your location as, say, the UK versus the US. You’ll then have entry to a distinct set of programming. For instance, the TV present Mates is on the market on Max within the US, however it’s solely out there on Netflix within the UK.

VPNs have a number of different advantages associated to privateness and safety. VPN servers have military-grade AES 256-bit encryption, which means they’re safer than connecting to the Web usually. So, because you’re looking the Web by tunneling by means of the VPN, your Web service supplier can’t see your entire looking locations (and promote your viewing habits to knowledge brokers).

The best means to make use of a VPN on Roku

Though Roku doesn’t natively help VPNs, there are just a few workarounds. You may, as an example, set up a VPN on your home’s router. That permits you to defend the entire community and each machine that connects to it, retaining everybody in your family nameless on-line. However it could actually additionally trigger confusion whenever you need to entry native providers — and it requires a really high-level of technical information, and solely works with sure routers.

As an alternative, we advocate a far simpler methodology: connecting a VPN to your Roku through AirPlay or screencast. To do that, subscribe to a VPN and set up it in your smartphone or laptop computer. Then, stream content material on that machine and AirPlay or screencast it to your Roku TV. The icon to do that ought to seem like a TV with Wi-Fi rays.

We want this methodology as a result of it’s easier total. You may entry any geo-blocked content material in your smartphone or laptop computer first after which forged it in your good TV.

You may make certain your Roku mannequin is AirPlay-compatible by checking this resource on Roku’s site. If it isn’t, you possibly can all the time simply straight patch your cellphone or laptop computer to the TV utilizing an HDMI cable or an appropriate dongle.