What can I do with a VPN?

November 24, 2024 2:58 PM

My husband impulsively purchased two years of NordVPN. (Some election anxiety behind that, probably.) It seems like it won’t work on our Roku but it’s currently installed on our phones so I suppose we could case to the tv. What can I do with this tech?
posted by PussKillian to Technology (12 answers total)

Watch hyper niche reality TV shows that aren't available in my region outside of crusty low quality bootleg uploads. Like every episode of Grand Designs or the Great Model Railway Challenge.
posted by phunniemee at 3:09 PM on November 24, 2024 [10 favorites]

I've used NordVPN with my iPhone, and it works only some of the time. When whatever app or webpage you're accessing uses Location Services, it often gives that information in preference to the re-routed IP that NordVPN uses. YMMV.

I'd use it on my laptop.

You can, if you want to play around with your router, also connect it directly to that, routing all traffic in your house (including the Roku TV) to the NordVPN.
posted by yellowcandy at 3:22 PM on November 24, 2024 [3 favorites]

VPNs are extremely useful when traveling, or you just have a "weird feeling" about the network you are on. basically if I am not literally inside my house, I use a VPN.
posted by evilmonk at 5:22 PM on November 24, 2024 [2 favorites]

I use one to watch Irish and British tv (I'm in the US). You can load local RTE or BBC content, which I enjoy.
posted by jdl at 5:32 PM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I probably should have included an explain it like I’m five disclaimer! How do I access this fun overseas content?
posted by PussKillian at 6:49 PM on November 24, 2024

I've been watching good, free content on the Australian channel SBS On Demand, which all started because they were one of the few channels with full, free coverage of the Tour de France this year. I don't have NordVPN, but with mine (Mullvad) I can just choose which country to connect to and then - while connected - you navigate to the site in question, create a free account, and you're off to the races.
posted by my log does not judge at 8:40 PM on November 24, 2024

if you have Netflix, you now have access to a larger Netflix catalog because using the VPN you can “pretend” you are watching in another country. The Netflix catalog varies from country to country. Same with Disney+
posted by alchemist at 9:20 PM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]

How long ago? They have a money back guarantee for 30 days. I tried them and it didn’t work well for me, and they did refund me.
posted by tardigrade at 11:23 PM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you set it to East London, and create an account, you should be able to watch BBC iPlayer.

Channel 4 is the other best place to watch UK TV.
posted by ellieBOA at 8:03 AM on November 25, 2024

Best answer: ELI5:
1. Download the NordVPN app on your phone (see their documentation here for iPhone, but they have it for Android too).
2. Choose the server that you want to connect to. If you want to watch BBC, for example, you'd choose a location in the UK.
3. Download the app or go to the URL for the service you want to watch. It will "see" your connection as the UK and you can watch it.
4. Enjoy!
posted by anotheraccount at 9:26 AM on November 25, 2024

There's a great story about how a couple of people created a geohack so they could access the hearing aid capabilities on their parents' airpod 2s in India. This is the kind of thing that shows what VPNs can and can't do in terms of what certain software will check for in terms of geolocation. https://lagrangepoint.substack.com/p/airpods-hearing-aid-hacking
posted by drossdragon at 10:43 AM on November 25, 2024

Generally speaking, VPNs are good if you don't particularly like the fact that your internet service provider is keeping records on every website you access and everything you download (and happily providing those records to gov/law enforcement/copyright enforcers). So, for example, if you live in a state where the cristofascists have outlawed abortions (and are soon to outlaw contraception and porn), the odds are very good that your ISP is going to rat you out if you visit any websites related to those topics, and a VPN would prevent that*. VPNs also protect you from your ISP cancelling your service for downloading movies or TV shows via bittorrent that the copyright owners complain about (and they have entire legal departments devoted to that purpose now).

Whether or not a VPN is actually useful to you depends on your privacy profile and how averse you are to corporations and government spying on what you do online. Personally, even though I'm not at a great risk for legal persecution, I don't care for that at all so I routinely use a VPN on all my computers and devices (except work machines, which I do not to any personal browsing on).

* The VPN must not keep user logs for this to be effective - I don't use NordVPN so I don't know if they keep logs or not. Also, does not protect your searches if you are logged in to the search engine (e.g. Google), since they are keeping their own records and will also happily rat you out if asked.
posted by Pedantzilla at 12:38 PM on November 25, 2024 [2 favorites]