Question Regarding Upcoming Netflix No Sharing Rule?.

[bluesjunior 43]

Reading in the newspaper this morning about a possible workaround for the upcoming Netflix rules by using a VPN and router and adding a Smart tv to your network. Is this possible with my Linksys EA7500 and AirVPN and if so how would I go about it?.

[SurprisedItWorks 49]

In the US anyway, Netflix generally detects connections coming from commercial VPN servers, including AirVPN, and restricts those connections to video material not subject to licensing agreements that would be violated if the VPN user were outside the US. So when I connect via Air, most of the entries disappear from My List, and searches do not find material that I know is there. To restore normal behavior, I have to disable or bypass the VPN and then either reboot my Android TV or (simpler and quicker) terminate the Netflix app process so that restarting it won't simply re-enter a process already running. 

You may be abke to watch some Netflix-produced material through the VPN. Its been awhile since I've tried. 

Always be leery of VPN "insights" in the press. They get an awful lot wrong.  To be fair, the VPN world is complex and hard for a reporter to sort out from scratch. Doesn't help the reader though. 

[SurprisedItWorks 49]

Let me add a bit, even though its not AirVPN related and so is going off path. An experiment I plan to try here when that Netflix sharing problem arises is to have the (dd-wrt) router at the main location run a wireguard server and have the remote Android TV connect to it using the WireGuard (client) app.  No commercial VPN provider would be involved, so the usual IP-address checks used by Netflix will turn up nothing of interest.  All Netflix watching, from either location, will appear to be at the main location.  You could do it all in the OpenVPN world instead, but I find wireguard much simpler to deal with.

Note that dd-wrt routers except really old/small ones can run an OpenVPN or wireguard client to AirVPN as well or even, once you are more advanced in the dd-wrt arts, multiple clients/servers at once. 

At present the Linksys EA7500 is not supported by the dd-wrt project.  The better bets for dd-wrt are the Netgear R7800 or, redone in modern packaging with modern prices, the XR450 and XR500.  In the Linksys world, the older WRT3200ACM and WRT1900ACS models are the best bets, if you can find them (but shun the WRT32X).  Random online articles on installing dd-wrt are apt to be seriously out of date, so start your reading instead in the dd-wrt forums, either the Atheros one (Netgear) or Marvell one (Linksys), particularly the "Sticky posts" at the top and the "new build" threads.  Ignore the router database, as it's not well maintained.  Advice: if you think dd-wrt is a one-afternoon project... I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing!  The capability it offers is amazing, but figure it's a new hobby.

Some of the Asus routers either have or can be backfitted with wireguard capability.  Google is your friend (for once).  Check out AsusWRT Merlin.  AsusWRT (the Asus OS run by some but not all Asus routers) does have an OpenVPN client built in (and Merlin enhances it), and it shouldn't be hard to set it up to connect to an Air server.