I’ve had an AppleTV for a while, but one new benefit (starting with tvOS 17) is built in VPN support. If you combine the support for VPNs with Tailscale, it becomes incredibly convenient/powerful.
Basically, Tailscale is a “mesh VPN” of your devices. All your devices get the Tailscale app and they can talk to each other like they are on local WiFi together, no matter where they are. The most amazing thing, though, is you can nominate devices to be an “exit node”, where you can route traffic through the exit node (and the AppleTV can be an exit node)
Of course this has been possible for a long time, but it has always required you to be a huge nerd and have a server in your house running at all times (not to mention configuring it all…). Now, you can just (for example), open the Tailscale app on your phone/computer and tell it to use the AppleTV as an exit node…now, no matter where you are, your internet traffic will be routed through you home internet connection.
I am Canadian, but I live in Spain now. To watch streaming services from back in Canada, you can use a commercial VPN, but it’s a game of cat and mouse (the services ban IP addresses from VPN services). Now, I had my parents install Tailscale on their AppleTV, and I can tell my AppleTV to use their AppleTV as an exit node…and bam, no more regional restriction…and the best part? I was able to get my parents to set this up in about 2 minutes over the phone :D
I’ve had an AppleTV for a while, but one new benefit (starting with tvOS 17) is built in VPN support. If you combine the support for VPNs with Tailscale, it becomes incredibly convenient/powerful.
Basically, Tailscale is a “mesh VPN” of your devices. All your devices get the Tailscale app and they can talk to each other like they are on local WiFi together, no matter where they are. The most amazing thing, though, is you can nominate devices to be an “exit node”, where you can route traffic through the exit node (and the AppleTV can be an exit node)
Of course this has been possible for a long time, but it has always required you to be a huge nerd and have a server in your house running at all times (not to mention configuring it all…). Now, you can just (for example), open the Tailscale app on your phone/computer and tell it to use the AppleTV as an exit node…now, no matter where you are, your internet traffic will be routed through you home internet connection.
I am Canadian, but I live in Spain now. To watch streaming services from back in Canada, you can use a commercial VPN, but it’s a game of cat and mouse (the services ban IP addresses from VPN services). Now, I had my parents install Tailscale on their AppleTV, and I can tell my AppleTV to use their AppleTV as an exit node…and bam, no more regional restriction…and the best part? I was able to get my parents to set this up in about 2 minutes over the phone :D