What is a virtual router, and why should you care?
What is a virtual router, and why should you care?
Using the all-time VPN can bring countless benefits – but what if you lot want to use a VPN on a device that doesn't natively support them?
The quick answer to that is to set upwards a virtual router. However, this little-known flake of tech might sound intimidating, and then here we'll be answering the question of what is a virtual router, and running downwardly why you might desire to gear up 1 up, what you tin use it for, and what you demand to do it. Let'due south get correct into it.
What is a virtual router?
We all know what a router is – in layman's terms it'due south a device that allows any device with a networking capability to connect to the Internet. A virtual router is the term for when you plough your desktop or laptop PC into a router itself.
Past doing this, other devices can connect to your PC, much like a mobile hotspot on your smartphone. The biggest bonus is that by setting your PC upwards as a virtual router, you lot can share VPN connections with devices that can't have VPN software installed directly – which includes game consoles, Roku, some Smart TVs, Apple TV, and other older devices that you've still got in activeness.
This is washed by firing up a VPN on your PC, then connecting your other device to the network your PC is sending out rather than to your normal router. Your PC acts equally a get-between, layering on VPN protection for devices down the chain to benefit from.
To detect out exactly how to fix one up, check out our guide on how to set a virtual router and follow the steps.
Why practice I demand a virtual router?
The main reason for using a virtual router with streaming devices like Roku is to admission geo-blocked content. With a streaming VPN this is super uncomplicated to do on more advanced devices like smartphones and PCs, simply for more than bones products a virtual router is essential.
By setting your Netflix VPN-enabled virtual router to a sure location – let's say the UK when you lot're actually in the US – yous can admission unlike media on sites like Netflix, and besides access totally blocked sites like BBC iPlayer when you're out of their service area.
This hugely enhances the usefulness of dedicated streaming devices, and can make your streaming subscriptions get a lot farther with very little effort.
It'southward worth noting that setting upwardly a router VPN can practice a similar task – and doesn't require you to employ a PC as a go-between – simply it's a lot harder to alter location, setup tin be intensive, and you may need to buy a new router. A virtual router allows you to change location at a moment's notice, in the aforementioned way you normally would when using a VPN on your PC.
What do I need to prepare up a virtual router?
All y'all demand is a VPN subscription (we commonly recommend ExpressVPN for this kind of use as in our testing it's proven to be the most reliable for content unblocking), a PC, and the device y'all want to share your connection with. And, of course, virtually ten minutes of your time.
What can I employ a virtual router for?
Equally nosotros previously mentioned, the most popular reason for using a virtual router is to permit VPN connections to exist used by devices that don't support VPN natively. That might be for unblocking regional Netflix content, but that'south non the but reason.
Many people apply devices like their PlayStation every bit their main Net browsing device. While y'all tin utilise something called Smart DNS to admission different content on PS4 and PS5, that doesn't provide the anonymity a true VPN does. Even so, connect your game console to a virtual router with a VPN active, and you'll have all the anonymity and security benefits a VPN tin can provide as well.
What is a virtual router – in a nutshell
Setting upwardly a virtual router on your PC allows your computer to become a router itself. This is the easiest way to share VPN connections to devices that don't support VPN natively, and allows you to access geo-blocked content on any device you own. It tin can also enhance the security of these devices, and is much simpler than setting up a VPN directly on your router.
Which VPN practise we recommend?
- Stay protected on iOS with the best iPhone VPN
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/features/what-is-a-virtual-router
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