The Apple TV is quietly the best little streaming box. It is very capable, and according to my PiHole it’s far less chatty than my Roku or Android TV devices.
Also, I love Tailscale. I love how this press release reads like it was written by nerds for nerds rather than by writers for investors.
Have you managed to avoid ads on YouTube? Does it work well for streaming games from a PC?
I have a YouTube Premium family plan. We use it so much that it’s easy for us to justify.
The Steam Link app is exceptional. the Apple TV natively supports Xbox and PlayStation controllers so it all works pretty seamlessly.
This is just great! Tailscale is doing ALL the right things it seems. So happy to try this out
Are there used for this outside of video streaming? Ive found Tailscale too slow for decent quality video streaming myself
You can use one of your nodes as an exit node for another device and route your traffic though it as an alternative to a public VPN, depending on your needs.
I use it for remote management, video streaming, and the occasional file transfer without publicly exposing my NAS. You could achive all this by setting up your own wireguard server but that’s more work.
I’m surprised you’re finding it too slow for video streaming. I use it just fine and can saturate my 300 Mbit connection when doing file transfers.
Wait. I can use my Apple TV as a VPN server? Did I understand you right? That would be a nifty redundancy tool for me if my main wireguard server goes down.
Edit: I guess I should’ve just RTFarticle:
But look at it this way: your Apple TV device is a capable little computer, and it stays connected to your tailnet even when it’s not in active use. Download and configure Tailscale now and you can securely route any of your other devices’ traffic through your Apple TV — and by extension, through your home internet connection — even when you’re on the other side of the planet. Whether you want another layer of security and privacy on sketchy Wi-Fi networks or just want to connect back through your personal internet connection when you’re on the road, you’re set with the Apple TV as an exit node.
So sounds like the tv doesn’t act as a server natively but I can use tailscale to leverage the tv to do that. I’ve never seriously looked at tailscale as wireguard generally worked well for me. Guess it’s worth a look.
Edit: I’ve now switch to Tailscale and am happy with it BUT the Apple TV support is lacking. While you can make it a node, you can’t get subnet access through an Apple TV node yet. So you can’t use an Apple TV to access other machines using their subnet IPs — i.e. no home LAN access.
yeah I’m not sure what the point of this is tbh.
If you run a media server that isn’t publicly exposed, it lets you jump in to browse stuff w/o needing to forward additional ports.
Another use is if you want to bring the device with you on vacation. You can VPN back home and have your traffic exit out of your house which may be useful for streaming services that require traffic be “in the same household”.
Have we figured out if this solves the Netflix password sharing limitation yet?
I haven’t tried it. AFAIK Netflix won’t work on iOS if you have a VPN active so I don’t have high hopes for Netflix.
I think that’s only if they detect that you’re connected to an IP address that they recognize as part of a commercial VPN service, since i’m sure they have a list.
I use netflix when connected to tailscale VPN on both my phone and apple tv and it works fine, since the exit node that netflix is receiving my connection from isn’t a commercial VPN IP
I’m surprised any VPN would be strong enough for streaming video of anything other than potato quality
The bulk of the traffic between two Tailscale nodes is direct between the nodes. They mainly use the Tailscale servers to help them find each other (NAT hole punching) and establish a connection.
You’re kidding! I thought all the traffic went through tailscale. So it’s basically just establishing the connection, then I’m only limited by upload/download speed of the NAS and the client?
Usually yes! There will be some minor overhead from both nodes keeping in touch with the Tailscale command server but mostly they talk to each other.
Read this though to see if there’s a case where direct connection might not be possible: https://tailscale.com/kb/1181/firewalls/
Man, that’s great news. Though I may have some extra set up to do because I tried once with a decent internet connection and couldn’t get plex working over tailscale.
It’s going to depend on the devices involved, but I get about 600 megabit or so between two computers over tailscale on my network (really, wireguard). That’s what, 10 HD video streams? Of course, it’s going to depend on device cpu capability and network bandwidth.
On your own network? I’m not sure the reason to use tailscale between computers on the same network, nor if that’s really relevant to the discussion. If tailscale was capable of 600mbps from outside the network then that would be another story
That 600mbps is the throughput of the encryption on those devices. It’s no different crossing networks, but the speed will be limited by the network speed. The benefit of a p2p vpn is that you don’t need to shut it off when you join the same network. The devices remain accessible at the same ip whether they are on the same network, or if one is somewhere else. The overhead is negligible and you gain the security isolation that would normally require subnets and a firewall.
In the end, yes, I can stream HD video just fine from another network. For most people, the limitation will be their home ISP’s uplink speed.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters DNS Domain Name Service/System IP Internet Protocol NAS Network-Attached Storage NAT Network Address Translation PiHole Network-wide ad-blocker (DNS sinkhole) Plex Brand of media server package VPN Virtual Private Network
6 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 7 acronyms.
[Thread #151 for this sub, first seen 20th Sep 2023, 13:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
VPN but do they allow useful apps?
What useful apps would it need? This is a streaming box first and foremost. Branching out a little bit, it has the ability to play some ported (basically) iPhone games. It can run Steam Link. There’s some stuff like Speedtest.
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I deleted my last comment.
I have an iPad but use android for phones.
But I can’t imagine apple has any apps that “need” a VPN. Unless your using the VPN solely because you want all your data hidden.
Vpns are kinda moot anyway in terms of personal security. If anyone wants to see your shit they can install something on your telephone pole that can supercede a VPN anyway. Gangs use stuff like that. It’s fucked up but I’ve seen people use that shit to fuck up lives. Humanity sucks.
If anyone wants to see your shit they can install something on your telephone pole that can supercede a VPN anyway.
False.
My WireGuard VPN uses pre-verified encryption keys and all data between the nodes is encrypted with them.
Nothing (whether put there by the cell carrier, public wifi provider, or some gang member who climbed the telephone pole) can decrypt that communication except the devices which already have the keys.
I’m not sure what makes you think VPN security is moot, but you are misinformed.
Using a VPN is always more secure than not using one, particularly if you control the server on the other end.
The only time a VPN wouldn’t help is if your device itself is compromised at which point you have other problems than a VPN anyway
