105
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by tatterdemalion@programming.dev to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

AFAICT, if a Netflix account owner sets up a VPN for their household, then anyone sharing the account who routes their Netflix traffic through that VPN would appear to be accessing Netflix from that household's WAN IP address.

Is anyone doing this? Is it really that simple or are there more challenges?

EDIT: We get it, you like torrenting. Let's keep comments on topic folks.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 90 points 5 days ago

No, but I use a VPN to download movies from various sites. No reason to pay for Netflix.

[-] popekingjoe@lemmy.world 24 points 5 days ago

This is the way.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 14 points 5 days ago

I have a media server, but I still need Netflix to handle the volume of crap shows my partner watches*


*many actually play in the background while she does something else, but apparently they're necessary

[-] princessnorah 2 points 4 days ago

It's sad that you're dunking on your partner like this. Sounds like she has ADHD or similar tendencies and needs something in the background to help her concentrate on tasks. Shows that don't need your full attention work best for this. I know because I'm the same.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 4 points 3 days ago

Yeah you got me, I'm the worst

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 45 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I do live at 3 locations in 2 countries for work reasons and have a wireguard VPN server at my primary home that acts as a gateway for all my traffic, not only because of streaming but also because my bank locked me out for suspicious behavior before. The routers at locations 2 and 3 are sending all their traffic to my primary home.

No issues with this setup, I can only recommend it. I also have a centralized NAS this way and all my home assistant instances are interconnected.

load more comments (9 replies)
[-] buckrogers@lemmy.ml 21 points 4 days ago

Not using vpn but using mail filter fwd. Mails from netflix with codes are fwd to all using the shared account. So if you need to reactivate a device you request a device code and get it in the mail.

[-] RamenEater@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago

Smart, thanks for the interesting idea.

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

If you even get the option for the code. For some reason my TV will never do it.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 32 points 5 days ago

Tail scale, wire guard, open VPN all work

They see your traffic coming from a residential ISP and don't give it a second thought.

That said, if their service is that bad, piracy's not a bad option. If someone's going to provide me a service that I have to pay for and then tighten down the screws until let's no longer reasonable, why should I care about following their rules?

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 19 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

EDIT: We get it, you like torrenting. Let's keep comments on topic folks.

To be fair, you posted in the self-hosted community discussing an Issue for proprietary software.

To answer your question, which others have already done, yes your VPN tunnel will share the same IP as your household so long as it’s setup properly.

[-] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 12 points 4 days ago

An issue which I aim to resolve using a self-hosted VPN.

[-] KarnaSubarna@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago

Just a stupid question - Is self-hosting (and this forum) only applies to open source products?

[-] princessnorah 5 points 4 days ago

This is just my opinion but nope, not at all. There's plenty of proprietary self-host software. Plex is self-host software and it gets talked about here despite being proprietary.

[-] Strider@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

If you pay for something to not abide by it's rules, why do it?

It's a messed up logic I really do not understand.

Arr!

[-] KaKi87@jlai.lu 2 points 3 days ago

I pay for Spotify for several reasons :

  1. Unlike Netflix & co. for movies/shows, the catalog size is satisfying on Spotify & co. for music ;
  2. Remote playback and volume control over Internet (branded "Connect") ;
  3. Contributing to creator revenue.
  4. Voice assistant compatibility ;

Yet, I use a family subscription, which I share with strangers, because Spotify increase their prices often, and my wallet doesn't like that.

Fun fact : when Spotify realizes someone's doing that and prevents new people from joining (which only happens when people join and leave a lot), creating a new account with a new family subscription (even with the same IP address, home address, username and bank card) and moving everyone to it works fine.

[-] rezifon@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I pay for the streaming services to fund the development and production of the shows I enjoy watching.

I torrent the content for my convenience.

It’s a classic “tragedy of the commons” scenario. I ask myself what would happen if nobody paid and everybody pirated.

No shade if that’s your choice, just recognize that you’re relying on all the people who do pay to keep the system going.

[-] MouldyCat@feddit.uk 4 points 4 days ago

what would happen if nobody paid and everybody pirated

they wouldn't just slowly starve to death you know. they'd start making the price more competitive and the service more user-friendly before they'd even had to pawn a single Porsche.

[-] irmadlad@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

This is basically what happened to the music industry. Shawn Fanning scripted Napster, others followed suite. The RIAA squealed and threw a tantrum, busted a realitivly small amount of people, and then all of a sudden, we had .99$ downloads that were quality. The music industry has always been reactive in lieu of proactive. When AM radio first became a thing, the music industry execs squealed because the morons couldn't figure out how to make a buck off of AM radio. 'They're taking our jerbs!'

AFAIC, Shawn was the pivot point in a digital age of music. I don't condone it, but I understand it.

[-] rezifon@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

How many people listed in the credits of your favorite show do you truly think own one, much less multiple Porsches?

Right now this is the system we’ve got. It’s like tipping culture. You can refuse to tip, but the only person that’s impacted is your server who will never be able to change the system from within.

[-] MouldyCat@feddit.uk 2 points 4 days ago

How many people listed in the credits of your favorite show do you truly think own one, much less multiple Porsches?

I don't think those people are responsible for pricing. The Porsche comment was a flippant way of pointing out the whole parasitic machine that sits atop the actual creatives - the actors, the set designers, the script writers, all those people that you and I do want to support. All those people are not involved in pricing decisions or exclusivity contracts, and they're mostly paid a salary so by the time a movie or series is out, they're already on to the next job. By refusing to subscribe to all the myriad streaming services, you are mainly putting pressure on those executives to make a more appealing product.

I think you're right in that it's very reminiscent of US tipping culture (I'm not in the US), in that the people at the bottom are the ones who do the real work and yet they don't get a fair share of the profits and instead have to take on unfair risk (i.e. the risk of not being tipped).

That said, I need to confess that I'm partly playing devil's advocate, I pay for Netflix and just the other day I paid YouTube to "buy" a digital copy of a movie - for the exact reasons you said, I want to support the creative people behind the shows & movies I enjoy. I just don't think it's accurate to say that there's a moral requirement to pay for entertainment, especially given how unfair the system currently is.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Xulai@mander.xyz 15 points 5 days ago

Why go through the hassle?

Set up Jellyfin and use your VPN to fill it with whatever you’re wanting to pay corporate overlords for.

You’ve paid for the IP already from the years of subscriptions. At this point they’re just draining everyone dry. Stop letting them.

[-] princessnorah 1 points 4 days ago

Seems like the user is setting up a local VPN. Kinda weird that term now seems to mean a corporate VPN run with someone else's servers.

Yes it works. It really is that simple!

[-] tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden 14 points 5 days ago

I guess it should work, but your internet connection becomes the bottleneck. Make sure you have enough bandwidth, outbound as well, to have several people watching the same time

[-] humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su 1 points 3 days ago

Tell them to use a free streaming site. Here's one of the best: https://hydrahd.io/

Stop working harder for the businesses taking your money.

[-] r00ty@kbin.life 8 points 5 days ago

Yes. I host a vpn at my house. Then vpn in on fire stick/laptop etc. No problems to date.

[-] Ron@zegheteens.nl 6 points 5 days ago

Yes, that works just fine. Wen my daughter was at her boyfriend's place she used a wireguard tunnel to my house to use Netflix.

[-] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 days ago

I did something similar to this before because I live in a different country from my home country and it’s not a problem if you host your own VPN in your own home, but if you use a commercial VPN service, the IP address may be flagged

[-] killerscene@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 days ago

no, but i do use a VPN to torrent whatever few movies worth watching that they shovel out

[-] Aggravationstation@feddit.uk 1 points 4 days ago

Yarhar and all that

[-] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 3 points 5 days ago

No cause why would anyone pay for Netflix? Everything on there is available for free online.

[-] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

I considered setting up a Pi for WireGuard at my mom's house (her router doesn't support VPN), so we could share subscriptions still, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle and risk that they would start VPN detecting from the client: could just imagine them sending her emails about it that would confuse her lol

[-] NotKyloRen@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I've done this. I have a Google TV Stick. If Netflix starts preventing people from opening their app when it detects a VPN (in Android), then you can do what I did and run the VPN on the routers themselves. In my case it's ASUS routers on both ends, and they support Wireguard natively (GliNet are also really good for this as they support and run OpenWrt)

The benefit to doing it this way is that neither Netflix nor the Google TV itself are aware they're on a VPN. The ASUS routers I use have a feature called VPN Fusion, where you can put different clients on or off of different VPN connections.

Edit: To clarify, I share with family. I'm not the account owner, but I'm one of the profiles in the account.

[-] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Every wifi device we own that's connected to wifi and the Internet can be precisely located by the companies involved even when using a VPN.

If you have an Android phone you've probably noticed a prompt at some point asking for your permission to transmit precise location information and enable wifi scanning. Those wifi SSIDs and MAC addresses along with its GPS location is sent back to Google. The combination of all that information is almost as unique as a fingerprint. They can use that along with signal strength of each AP in the area to determine your device's location with precision. (Google used to allow apps like Maps to be used with wifi scanning turned off, but no more.)

Your Google stick can't tell it's on a VPN directly, but even without GPS Google can still pinpoint its physical location using their database of SSIDs and MAC addresses, and if they want to they can determine you're using a VPN by comparing that to the expected location of your IP address. There probably aren't enough people doing this right now to make it worth the trouble to detect your VPN, but IMO it's just a matter of time before they decide it is.

I also expect that Google sells that information to every company willing to pay for it, so almost every single wifi enabled device can be precisely located if it can transmit data to the Internet.

We live in a scary time.

[-] Seefoo@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Interesting info. I switched to grapheneos recently, which allows you to disable a lot of that stuff. Combining that with WG, should make a solid way to share

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
105 points (100.0% liked)

Selfhosted

51272 readers
776 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS