I live in Europe and I have a Fritz Box 7510 router - I’d like to use a VPN (ideally installed to the router) so I can access my entertainment accounts from back in the U.S.
I have accessed the administrator tools within the router and it seems to be very user friendly. I would only be using the VPN for my AppleTV and the various streaming apps that are “regionally blocked”. e.g. sports games, news, certain titles, etc.
Is there an easy way to install/employ a VPN service directly to the router where I can easily turn it on/off at will?
Thanks in advance!
Is there an easy way to install/employ a VPN service directly to the router
Yes.
where I can easily turn it on/off at will?
Not so much.
Can’t you just install the vpn app on your apple tv? If that’s the only device where you need it, this would be much easier.
Does it support ovpn? If so download the config files from your provider and install with your username/password.
My asus router has a VPN director (split tunneling) which I assign to my hardwired Roku.
Enable internet access and setup ddns if you need and bind it to your router (you might need something like dyndns). That way you can access the admin page over the Internet
i’ve already checked, AppleTV doesn’t have the same apps available to the iPhone… i wish it was that easy
i’ve already checked, AppleTV doesn’t have the same apps available to the iPhone
You haven’t mentioned (probably b/c it’s against the sub’s rules) which VPN provider you are dealing with but it may be as easy as just choosing another provider.
Unfortunately any router based solution is going to be a somewhat higher level of complexity. Not as simple as just turning an app on or off.
I’m not familiar with your router but their info page says it supports IPsec VPN services, and sounds like it can be a client or server (outbound or inbound). However, making it work with a commercial VPN provider usually means it needs to support either OpenVPN or Wireguard and there’s no mention of that. If it doesn’t support that, you may have to purchase a separate VPN router that does, and bridge it to this one.
Perhaps reach out to the manufacturer and see if they have a guide for setting up OpenVPN.
You would also need to purchase a VPN subscription from a provider of your choice. We can’t mention specific names in this sub but if you want a link, DM me and I will send you one that I recommend. I checked and they do have an Apple TV app.
As for the ease of turning the VPN on/off, that is always a pain with router based VPN’s as it requires that you log into the admin interface to do so, and when you do it you are affecting every device that goes through the router. An alternative if the router supports it, is to use policy-based routing. This is just a method of specifying certain local IP addresses that will always be routed through the VPN tunnel. Any other IP addresses go through the normal interface without VPN, so you could simply assign a static IP to your Apple TV and specify that IP as a VPN client. I highly doubt that your router supports this, but you could research it a bit or ask the manufacturer. Even this method can get cumbersome if your goal is to be able to turn the VPN off and on for the routed device. I have a Firestick where I use my VPN for streaming and with the app it’s easy to choose a different country as needed but on my router (which serves a different device) the VPN is always on and connected to the same server. So the PITA factor may depend on what your goals are.