Every year I subscribe to mlb.tv but my home team is local so it’s blacked out. In the past I have tried smart dns and some other options but it’s never been easy.
Now that I have a fwg+ and access to a third party VPN I figured I’d try that instead.
What would be the best way to set it so we use our third party vpn before opening the mlb app on our Apple TV so we can be seen as not local and watch our team?
Right now I have the third party vpn setup in vpn client. The Apple TVs are all in a group together.
Do I enable the vpn for the group, turn on my Apple TV, open the mlb app, start the game and exit vpn? Or is there a more automated or easier way? Can it be done with routes?
I’ve always used smartDNS but will have the same option as you.
My thinking is to just setup a VPN to whatever destination peer for the specific Apple TV (or group) you want to apply it to. Then disable that VPN after the night.
This should be a few clicks in the app.
The reason I say to disable is that likely your Apple TV may not be able to load other apps unless you are using in-country peers.
I’m using unlocator and have added all the USA peers plus Montreal.
Curious if this is still working for folks and if so, what VPN you are using.
I’ve used PIA with my ASUS router (just purchased a gold plus and can’t wait for it to get here!) for years but for some reason this year it’s just not working. I’ve read where they block certain VPN’s so I tried mullvad and it’s just way more complicated than PIA was - so looking for other options!
Plan on rolling this to my gold plus once it gets here.
Here’s the quickest work flow I can figure out. If you know or a quicker one let me know. Fyi this is only for the mlb app on our Apple TVs. So if there’s ever a way to run the mlb app only through vpn at all times that would be even better.
But I did this. Setup my third party open vpn under vpn client. I have it linked to my tv group which has all the Apple TVs.
So when I’m ready to watch mlb: open Firewalla app - vpn client - tap the open vpn profile I setup - slide vpn to on - open mlb app on Apple TV.
With unlocator using open vpn, I downloaded the configs and uploaded them into iCloud. Then imported into the firewalla app.
Once those are all staged, you simply go into VPN Client and assign what devices you want to steer thru what peer and voila. Connect and start using the device.
which VPN are you using? Are you able to specify the location of the VPN server this way?
I ask because I use NordVPN and I don’t think that they will let you set a specific location server without using their app - they’ll only give you a generic “recommended” server.
Additionally - you had very tactical questions on starting the app. I found with smart DNS simply closing the mlb app and reopening fixed most issues. But once in a blue moon restarting the ATV might clear cache.
In doing VPN testing with speed test, it’s quite immediate once you start steering a device thru a VPN. I imagine you’ll enable the steering and open MLB and it’ll be good? Maybe make sure you’ve closed out the app before you reopen?
Yeah, I agree, definitely opening and closing the app has helped in a lot of situations when using VPNs, DNS, and other setting changes (especially if the app was open or cached before enabling VPNs, or changing settings, etc.).
