love is sharing a password or at least that's what Netflix used to say these days they seem to care a lot more about that's right Netflix's Crackdown on password sharing has already started so if you're still using your ex's Netflix account it's a matter of time before they notice the bigger Bill and cut you off or is it climb aboard mateys four with just a few clicks and zero credit card numbers Netflix will have no idea that you moved out years ago and you don't even have to mess with your router to do it can I get an R yes are you ready for this message from our sponsor I fix it whether it's New or Old you can repair your broken device yourself with the help of iFixit and right now you can get 30 off ifixit's Marlin Precision screwdrivers watch till the end to find out more for almost 10 years Netflix has not only allowed multiple users to watch with a single account but they've even provided tools to tailor the experience to each individual none of that is changing what is changing is that Netflix now says that a single account is for members of a single physical household so little Jimmy off at College he doesn't count anymore now I want to make it clear before we move on that this is well within their rights and any circumvention of their terms of service could lead to the termination of your account or whatever enforcement they deem appropriate but hey you click the video so I'm pretty sure you don't give two Hoots about any of that let's move on once this change rolls out in your region every account will have a primary location and any devices that use the account need to connect from that location at least once a month if you go longer than that you're gonna have to pay up more on that later first let's talk about primary locations if you're using a computer or a phone Netflix will attempt to automatically determine your primary location through a combination of your logged IP addresses your logged device IDs and your account activity again more on that later you can also explicitly set a primary location but the only way to do this is through a TV or a set-top box like the Nvidia Shield curiously when we tried this though from our office on a brand new account we just got an error message and then when we contacted support they informed us that our primary location had been set automatically anyway so your mileage may vary on the whole manual primary location thing Frankly Speaking from how disorganized this whole rollout has been it doesn't surprise me that the process is a little messy it's just especially frustrating to encounter these weird bumps in the road when they're right in the middle of giving us less for our money anywho once your primary location is set all we need to do to enjoy our shared Netflix in peace is make sure that Netflix thinks that we live there at least some of the time they explicitly state that they allow use while traveling to achieve this we need a VPN but don't click away because I'm not talking about surf shark or nordvpn or anything like that Netflix cracked down on the use of that sort of VPN years ago what I'm talking about is running a VPN server of your very own from the accounts primary location that way your kid who's off at University or your so can connect to that VPN server and Route their traffic through it to trick Netflix into thinking that they're still just chilling from home perhaps in some nice new pajama pants from lttstore.com but Linus I hear you ask doesn't making a VPN mean that we have to fiddle around in our router settings surprisingly no unless you want to the easiest way that we found to do this is tailscale not a sponsor by the way just really cool software go to tailscale.com and click on use tailscale for free and sign up we're going to use the same account in all of our locations but with a few extra steps you can share machines across accounts it just gets a little tougher to manage if some of your users are less technically inclined once you've logged in add your first device we're going to assume that there's a Windows PC somewhere in your primary location that will be left on all the time but you can also host it on a Raspberry Pi or on a Mac the important thing is that it is always online because otherwise you ain't watching no Netflix we're going to click on download tail skill for Windows install it and log in once we're connected the website walks us through the setup asking us to set up a second device for our example we're going to use an Android set-top box like the Nvidia Shield we open the Play Store search for tailscale and install the app once you've logged in go back to the Windows machine and check the browser the website should have updated to show you the second device and to show you how to Ping between devices if you want to run a quick test we're going to click on success this takes us to what's next where we can just click on the go to admin console button which will take us to the proper control panel where we can see our machines listed their IPs on our virtual Network and their current status next we need to decide which of our devices will be our server or as tailscale calls it our exit node this is the machine that we're going to Route all of our traffic through so that Netflix thinks that we are watching from that location all the time in our
case that's the Windows PC so we're going to right click on the little tail scale icon in the system tray here click on exit node and then run exit node it's going to give us a little warning and since we're okay with all of what we're doing we're going to say yes now it'll take a few moments for that change to get to the website so in the meantime let's rename our devices so they're a little easier to remember if we click on the meatballs menu on the right side we can edit machine name for each and we're going to call them mom's PC and shield now you can see that this little exit node flag has come up for Mom's PC which tells us that Mom's PC has offered to be an exit node for our other devices we need to approve that in the admin console before it'll work so we go back to the meatballs menu for Mom's PC and click edit route settings in the window that pops up we just need to click use as exit node it's going to give us a warning here about key expiry by the way basically it's telling us that we're going to have to re-authenticate periodically the default is every few months but we can turn that off just close the pop-up go back to the meatballs menu and pick disable expiring the final step on the server is to right click on the tailscale icon in the tray select preferences and check run unattended that's going to allow tailscale to run as a service even if nobody is logged into the Windows machine it gives another little warning and a help message and we just say R to that I mean sorry yes we click yes okay we're almost there I swear back in the tailscale app on our client device we go to the menu and select use exit node a dialog pops up and we pick mum's PC the main screen of the app will now show that we are using an exit node which means that all of our internet traffic from The Shield is going through mom's PC so if we bring up Netflix everything is good it's easier to show this on a computer though so let's go over to a laptop we're not connected to tailscale right now and if we Google my IP we can see that our IP is okay we're not going to show you that but you can see what it starts with now we go to tail scale and use our mom's PC exit node and you can see that the icon now has a tiny Arrow indicating that we're going through an exit node we check our IP again and there you have it it thinks we're on the same IP as that workstation that we set up in the other building now as tailscale warned us the windows exit node isn't really optimized yet so if we do a speed test the result is not that impressive but it's fast enough for a smooth Netflix experience which was the whole point of this exercise in the first place all you need to do is disconnect tailscale on the client if you want to do something other than Netflix without using up bandwidth on mum's PC that's another thing you'll need to consider is depending on how many users are accessing Netflix through mom's PC mom might need a faster internet connection now hold on a minute earlier we learned that Netflix makes allowances for traveling that means in theory at least that as long as we remember to use this VPN method to log into Netflix at least once a month on each device that is not in the primary location the rest of the time we should be able to just go about our business and Netflix should just assume that you know we travel a lot well maybe we can't know with 100 certainty how Netflix decides where you are Netflix could log everything you do in their apps or on their website and determine that hmm profile a usually logs in using a Windows PC and a Samsung TV from IP address 1 which is the primary location meanwhile they could observe that profile B never uses any of profile AIDS devices instead sticking to their MacBook and iPhone from a totally different IP address except exactly once a month so I would say that you might want to err on the side of consistently using your VPN rather than doing only periodic check-ins but it remains to be seen even if they know that you're totally not living there how Draconian Netflix is actually going to be about enforcement there's a very fine line between extracting maximum value from a customer and just ticking them off to the point where they cancel out right for the tech inclined by the way tailscale is not the only solution we found another one that doesn't require you to mess with your router is soft ether VPN from the University of sukuba in Japan or if you don't mind poking around in your router settings a wire guard VPN is a fantastic solution with apps available on many platforms you can use a tool like Pi VPN to install the server on a single board computer or a Linux machine and if you want to use a Windows machine as your server GitHub user Micah Mo has created a simple application to guide you through that process links for all of these will be in the video description one final thing to remember though even if you have a fast enough internet connection and you can afford to cover Netflix for all your buddies anytime you let someone connect remotely to your computer or to your network you are taking a security risk and potentially allowing everything on your network to be seen by that outside party or anyone that they are careless enough to allow to use their devices so with any of the solutions we've presented just make sure that you can trust the people that you're giving access to like you can trust me to tell you about our sponsor I fix it iFixit is your One-Stop shop for equipment and guides to fix your broken Electronics no more worrying about overpaying for your repairs or waiting for a new device to come in the mail because I fix its detailed guides and premium repair kits are designed to get your device back up and running in no time ifixit's comprehensive ultimate repair kit recently got an update and it's better than ever crafted with high quality materials the ultimate repair kit has a lifetime guarantee meaning your tools are meant to last get 30 off ifixit's Marlin Precision screwdrivers now at ifixit.com LTT or at the link down below if you want to learn more about setting up your own VPN maybe check out this other video we did on the topic back in 2020
