Express VPN to be acquired by Kape Technologies for $936 million

I think I will go for the Nokia Streaming Box 8000. Actually, I read that it supports Google Play, but this isn't the same as Android TV right?

https://www.nokia.com/shop/streaming-devices/nokia-streaming-box-8000/

 

Google Play is just the Play Store which you use to download apps. It is using Android TV for the operating system.

 

OK I see, thanks. Then this should do the trick. I will also try to change the DNS settings on my LG Smart TV to see if it can somehow fool the Netflix and Prime Video app that is installed on LG's WebOS, but I'm not counting on it.

 

BTW, what about Disney+ and HBO Max, will they also automatically work simply by changing to a different DNS? And I did read that Prime Video will work without opening a new US account, but I'm not sure if it's true. I did notice that a service like Control D (from Windscribe) is way cheaper than ExpressVPN. What are your thoughts on which is the best VPN for streaming? I read that NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Surfshark are pretty good in terms of speed, which is important for streaming I assume. Are you also familiar with Control D?

 

Yes, Disney+ and HBO Max will work. I prefer to use Control D than a VPN for streaming. The reason is simple. Once you configure it to redirect whatever streaming services you watch, it automatically redirects them. Any other web traffic will remain unaffected. This is different to a VPN, where you will need to manually connect to a server in the country you want to watch content from.

My experience with Prime Video is that you actually need an Amazon account from the country you want to watch content from.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I have checked out Control D and sadly enough it doesn't work with my LG smart TV. Netflix, HBO Max and Prime Video do show the US content, but they can't be played. Netflix did work with an older Humax streaming device, but sometimes Netflix gave me a warning that I was using a proxy or unblocker, but you can then restart the stream. Control D also seems to work on my laptop with Netflix and HBO Max. I'm thinking about giving other VPN's a try like GhostVPN and Surfshark to see if they work on my LG smart TV, do they really give your money back after 30 days? I assume if I install VPN apps on the Nokia Streaming Box, it will also work.

 

They should give you refunds. But I'd recommend just buying a one month subscription so you can try a VPN and see how well it works for you before buying a longer subscription. All big name VPNs have Android TV apps that can be download from the Play Store. However on my Android TV box, I use Control D. There's no app for it, but it's not hard to set up.

 

OK cool, then I will go for the one month subscription to see if it works. And BTW to clarify, I was talking about CyberGhost VPN and I noticed that just about all major VPN providers offer smart DNS services for smart TV's that can't install VPN apps, like my LG smart TV, so that's what I want to test. Control D didn't work, but perhaps the ones from ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and Surfshark will. Did you ever test this on your smart TV? From what I understood, there is a bigger chance that smart DNS will work on media players and desktop/laptop/tablet but smart TV apps might not be fooled this easily, especially from newer TV's.

 

No, because I've got a Linux Smart TV. If it was running Android TV as the OS, I would be able to use it.

 

If you can't install VPN on your TV, there are a lot of routers that allow you to use VPN on the router. Of course the question is whether they easily allow you to choose what goes over VPN and what not, or that every device connected to the router goes over the same VPN. Or perhaps you can use an old router as secondary device to connect behind the primary router, use VPN on the secondary router and connect your TV to that.

 

I think you might be misunderstanding. What I meant is if you ever tried the smart DNS service from VPN providers like ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and Surfshark, or isn't it possible to change DNS settings on a Linux smart TV?

To clarify, I don't want all of my devices to use the VPN, so that's why I wouldn't want to install it on my router and besides I'm not using WIFI but ethernet via powerline adapters, that's how I connect my laptop and smart TV to the internet. My desktop is directly connected to the modem. Now that I think of it, is it even possible to install a VPN directly on a modem, or do you always need a router for this?

 

The only DNS service I've used is Control D.

 

Yeah, that's why I said if your router doesn't allow you to choose which devices to connect to the VPN, you could have a secondary router between the first and your TV(for example some old one you have laying around or get some cheap second handed.)

Afaik almost every modern modem has a router built in, otherwise you would not be able to connect multiple devices at the same time. If you use a modemrouter supplied by your ISP, it depends on your ISP if they allow advanced configuration with VPN or if it is very basic(afaik KPN and Ziggo for example have very limited options.) Anyway, then you could still use another router for VPN between your TV and modemrouter.

 

OK I see. I will soon try the other VPN's that I mentioned and will report back. But I have this feeling that apps on LG's WebOS have some kind of detection system.

I'm not going to lie, this all sounds very complicated to me and I also don't expect that the standard modems from the big Dutch ISP's will offer the ability to install VPN's on it. I know it's possible to use routers with specialized software, but they only support WIFI.

And besides, I actually like to use only certain devices with VPN or smart DNS. So that's why I'm going to either buy a Sony Android TV or Nokia streaming box, unless I can get the LG smart TV to work without the need for any VPN, so hopefully smart DNS is enough, it will also save me quite a lot of money.

 

How do you figure that? My Asus WiFi router does ethernet just fine. And it supports VPN client and server out of the box, for PPTP, L2TP and also OpenVPN(which is rarer).

That's why I advised to use a secondary router and connect only your TV(or any other devices you wish to use VPN on) and connect the other devices to your modem.
I see my old router(Asus RT-N66U) is available from 15 to 30 euros second hand online so it doesn't have to be expensive at all.

 

I guess you already figured out that I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to this stuff. But I guess what you're saying is that it's technically possible to connect certain devices to a WIFI-router via ethernet cable. So I guess how it would work is that I would need to plugin my main powerline adapter to the router instead of the modem, and then I would be able to use a VPN on all of my devices, but that's not what I want. And I can't directly plugin my TV to the router because they are in different rooms, and I don't want to use WIFI since I try to limit electric magnetic radiation.

 

I don't know your exact setup, but you could put a second router in your TV room and connect the TV to it via ethernet and then the router to the powerline adapter(I have no experience with powerline adapters but I assume that's also over ethernet). THen only your TV gets the VPN.
Both my modemrouter and asus router allow you to turn off the wireless radio in the settings.

 

You probably mean that I should connect the router to the powerline adapter and then connect my TV to the router. This would then allow my TV to run the VPN that's installed on the router. Would be cool if this is technically possible, but I doubt it. But still thanks for the idea, will look into it.

 

Uh... why?

 

That's what I said, just in a different order

 

I know most people don't believe that there's any health risk involved, but certain people including myself are affected by it. It's not a mental thing, you can really get problems like headaches, an irregular heartbeat and an overall stressed feeling. There are certain things that you need to experience yourself, otherwise you might not believe it's a real thing. It's a bit like with the Corona virus, many people don't get sick at all, so they think it's a joke, but many people including some in in my family got pretty sick and still have problems from what they call ''long COVID.'' But anyway, that's why I try to limit the use of stuff like WIFI, Bluetooth, 4G and even DECT.

 

I forgot that I actually bought an Asus WIFI router years ago, and I saw that it has the ability to install a VPN, obviously it's not an app, but you need to change certain settings, will test it and report back. So to clarify, I will connect the router to the powerline adapter and will connect the smart TV directly to the router with an ethernet-cable. Do you think I also need to change a certain setting on my cable modem, or should it work out of the box?

 

Yes that should work out of the box afaik. Because you'll have a router behind your modemrouter, you'll have a double NAT there(on devices connecting to the ASUS only). That can affect online gaming and torrenting but should not affect streaming. Make sure you connect the cable from the powerline adapter to the WAN port of the ASUS.

 

OK cool, will try it today. Would be so funny if it actually worked because I remember thinking that the ASUS WiFi router was a waste of money, I only used it on occasion to download games for the Nintendo Switch Lite. I never would have thought I would be able to use it as a VPN for streaming. And I believe it's possible to disable WiFi on this model, it's the ASUS AC66U. I even bought special firmware that's disables the WiFi signal when not in use, but I want to completely disable it.

 

Well, turns out that you are a genius. It does indeed work, so the router is connected to the powerline adapter and the LG smart TV is connected to the router with a LAN cable, of course WIFI is disabled. Now I'm able to see the US version of Netflix and YouTube which offers free movies with ads. And the fun thing is that, I can simply switch from LAN cable and then I'm back in Holland.

Sadly enough, HBO Max doesn't work and Prime Video only works partially, strangely enough it does let me stream a couple of movies, but I can't see the whole database. And Prime Video Channels also don't work. So hopefully there is a workround for this since Prime Video actually has more content than Netflix. I suppose I should sign up for Prime Video USA if this is possible.