My router has built in VPN server and I use the built in VPN client software on my laptop and iPhone to connect to my home network when I’m on the road to access all sorts of things on my home network. Does tvOS 17 allow for this to be configured? I didn’t have to install any addtional software on my iPhone, I just had to type in my server address, server type and credentials.
This article might help…. I am quite a newby when it comes to APPLETV & VPN
just tried VPN Client Bee and its allow connecting my own wireguard VPN server by uploading the configuration file. Other protocols support as well but I didn’t test. See if this help.
This would be amazing! Can access something like Jellyfin from an Apple TV where the media is hosted at a family home
Another Article…
UPDATE
Sorry, I just now read your post again. You are looking at being able to use your home VPN, not a Service.
Echoing other’s comments: Tailscale is what you want.
Thank you very much. That looks excellent. Tailscale worked for me mostly, but I think this will be a much better solution.
Could you tell me how you got v-m client bee to work? I uploaded the open vpn cert, but when it creates the vpn profile on the Apple TV, it sets it to flow vpn and there appears to be no way to edit it.
That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m thinking about. Also, accessing my HDHomerun TV tuner remotely. I’ve currently got an L2TP/IPSec VPN server running at home and I can access my home network with my laptop or iPhone, but I don’t mind configuring an OpenVPN or WireGuard server if someone releases a generic configurable client for either of those.
Thanks. I got it setup and it does work for my needs. I’d prefer to connect to my own self hosted VPN server with zero reliance on a third party service, even if it’s free for personal use, I’m sure that will be possible soon enough.
Tailscale works so far. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other generic VPN clients like OpenVPN or strongSwan (for IPSec) popping up soon, but I’m not aware of them being available just yet.
Tailscale could now connect an Apple TV to another home network and access their Jellyfin?
Thanks. That looks like it might work for me. I see they have a synology package too, so that’s convenient.
Looking at the features of the free tier, I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. I’m going to try it to access my plex server and HDHomerun either tonight or tomorrow. Compare All Tailscale Plans
See my post below. Tailscale works for Plex, so it should work for Jellyfin. Setup isn’t exactly simple, but it’s not rocket surgery either. I’m temporarily running it on a Raspberry Pi, I’ll be installing it on my Synology NAS shortly.
It should. One thing to know about Tailscale is that the expected use case is to add nodes directly to the network. You don’t have to do that, but it’s the lowest-friction method to access devices with it.
For accessing other things on your network (like your HDHomeRun, or your Plex server, if you decide not to set it up as a tailnet node), you’ll need to have a node advertise subnets that you want to access through it (some part of, or all of, your network) and approve that through the admin console. You also might want to add a DNS search domain list to your tailnet as well if you want to access other hosts on your network (ones not directly on the tailnet) by their hostnames.
Lastly, if you want to be able to tunnel traffic out to the Internet through it, you’ll need to have a node advertise itself as an exit node and, again, approve that through the admin console. At that point, you can have any other node use it for access to the Internet.
Thank you. I just figured out almost all of that in the last hour or so, other than the DNS search domain, but I’m not certain that I need that. It’s good to confirm I did things properly anyway, and you hit on the few snags I had to google(ie approving the subnet route).
I installed Tailscale on a Raspberry Pi 4 I had laying around, advertised as an exit node and advertised a subnet route to provide access to everything on my LAN. I then installed Tailscale on my AppleTV and tethered to my cellular connection and I still have access to Plex. I do have the Plex relay feature disabled, so it’s definitely routing directly through the VPN. I verified this by disabling Tailscale and I can no longer access Plex over the tethered cellular connection.
Interestingly I cannot access the HDHomeRun with its app. I can access its local IP in a web browser with Tailscale connected on my cell or laptop, but the iphone app, macos app and the tvos app all fail to find it. The apps automatically detect it on the LAN usually, so all I can figure is that it’s looking on the wrong subnet. Maybe the DNS search domain would fix that. It’s not a big deal anyway, as my Plex server picks up the HDHomeRun streams and serves them as well, so I can still access them. If the HDHomeRun app would allow me to manually enter the IP, I’m sure that would fix it as well.
Oh, interesting. I didn’t realize there was an autodiscovery thing going on there. I wonder whether HDHomeRun uses a broadcast message for it. If that’s the case, that’d explain it since Tailscale doesn’t currently support broadcast or multicast. It’s on their “maybe someday” list, but no actual commitment, and even then, I don’t know whether they’d add an option to relay those packets outside of the tailnet to be able to let them reach the HDHomeRun.
But, yeah, if you could manually enter the IP address, I’d imagine the HDHomeRun app would be able to directly connect as well instead of having to go through Plex.
Broadcast messages sound more likely then. It’s not a huge deal anyway. I think the live TV interface is better in Plex and I get lifetime DVR service with my Plex Pass.