Help with VPN setup on Alexa

[Deleted member 2630970]

I am American and live in the USA, but I want to use the German version of Alexa on my Echo dot. So I hooked it up to a fake German account, and now I can get all the awesome German features. But the TV access through Stream Player is all geoblocking except for three channels. So I try to get around it by getting VPN on my computer, broadcasting it via hotspot, and connecting Alexa to the hotspot. I will try to send you a video of my setup, but here it goes: First I set up L2TP VPN on Win 10 with a German IP address from VpnGate. Then I get onto the WiFi setup on the Alexa app (on the computer, because my phone seems slower). I get the orange light, and it tells me to follow the instructions. I then connect to Amazon-XXX without incident. Then I turn on the VPN, and turn on hotspot so that my computer broadcasts it's VPN connection via the network SharedVPN. When it prompts me for the WiFi network, I select SharedVPN. It attempts to connect, but mysteriously fails about a fifth of the way through. Any ideas?

 

[bill001g]

My guess is the VPN client does not provide the network interface the hotspot is using. To even think to make this work you would need to be using ICS to run the hotspot. Any simple bridging method used for hotspot will not work because the VPN only provides a single IP address. ICS needs a special sharing option in the drivers and not all VPN clients correctly implement this.

What you are trying to do is a huge mess. A computer was never designed to act as a router. Things like ICS where invented to allow sharing a dialup internet connection with other machines. It has not been updated much since then so it has a lot of limitation in how you can use it.

At some point it is going to be much simpler to buy a inexpensive router that supports VPN client. Since it is already a router with wifi you do not need any extra hotspot ability.

In general using vpn to bypass geo blocking is very hit and miss. Some companies..like netflix and amazon ... are extremely aggressive when it comes to finding and blocking vpn providers. It work for months and then all the sudden you get warnings that you are using a vpn so it will not function.

 

[nigelivey]

I think Proxy is better to work on Alexa. VPNs are not the secured for browsing net.

Tat depends on the level of service you pay for from your VPN provider.

 

[failboat]

if you have a dedicated vpn client machine you could route ip or CIDR to the vpn you want it to use. PIA is not too bad to setup on openvpn. your router would need static routes. This setup is easier to do than running on the router WAN side. you don't have to deal with any complex NAT features. most routers can't handle AES well.