Hi,
I’m using an open-wrt router with open-vpn to change countries on my smart tv streaming services when I want to.
Depending on what to watch I like to select a different server. Is there a way to do it without having to open up my laptop and open up luci? More importantly, I’d like it to be easy for my girlfriend as well.
I’m down for any kind of solution that I can keep close to the TV. Even a raspberry Pi with a touchscreen, or simply an easy way to do it over the phone or anything like that?
Thanks!
iOS or android? How about an iOS shortcut to “Run Script Over SSH” to OpenWRT and then command line to do the switch. Android will undoubtedly have the equivalent.
Add a simple web page with links to the router, clicking each link will run a router side script, and change the VPN ?
Hey there,
I might be in heading the same route as you, just a little bit behind.
I’m a ProtonVPN user with a paid account. Trying to use ProtonVPN app on the Mi TV Box (2nd gen) but the connection always gets disconnected. I tried the Wireguard app, with essentially the same result. So frustrating 
But I guess that’s what I get for buying a cheap device with very low amount of RAM (only 2 GB).
I saw that you’ve posted about similar issues before. Safe to assume you didn’t find a solution and that’s why you went the hardware route ?
I’m using an open-wrt router with open-vpn to change countries on my smart tv streaming services when I want to.
I’m curious about your setup. At the moment, can you have multiple connections configured in the router, one for each country?
And you’re looking for a better/quicker interface to do the change between one connection to another?
Would it be a good idea to do it over the browser installed on the TV, accessing the router admin panel ? Since you’re already sitting in front of the TV at that point.
I switched to iOS only a month ago. iOS shortcuts can run a script over ssh?? That would be perfect, I had no idea Apple would allow something like that. Thanks for this tip I’m definitely going to look into it!
Or “custom command” (module) and link to run script
And url to run script with parameters on bookmark any device
Yeah that’s right unfortunately. Interesting to hear that you have the same issue on your Mi TV Box, that does seem to confirm that RAM is likely the issue.
I ended up buying the Xiaomi Mi Router 4A Gigabit Edition and flashing openwrt on it to install ProtonVPN. There was definitely a bit of a learning curve, but it all works well now. The only issue is that the VPN seems to randomly disconnect from the internet after a day or so until you disable and enable again. I’ve read online this is a common ProtonVPN issue.
I also use the router exclusively for the TV, I’m not sure it’s good enough as primary router.
Check this out
a-Shell
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-shell/id1473805438?platform=iphone
Description says:
a-Shell is a complete local terminal emulator, allowing to run most Unix commands on you iOS device. You can transfer files using scp and curl, edit them with vim and ed, process them using grep, awk and sed.
(…)
a-Shell can be controlled from Shortcuts: run commands in order, process files in a-Shell, get the results as text or files, transfer files to other apps…
Sure, just as the Openwrt hosted links would be, without any bookmarks ,)
I remember flashing dd-wrt (if I recall correctly) on Linksys routers. I didn’t know this was still a thing.
If it’s a similar process from what I used to do (more than a decade ago), I think I’ll be OK 
Let me get this straight. You have two routers and two wifi networks at home. The regular one (no VPN) and the open-wrt one (with VPN).
You switch from one network to another depending on whether you want to use VPN? This is what I’m thinking of doing.
The second and more important question is:
What do you mean with “installing ProtonVPN” on the router. What is that exactly? Do you mean using Wireguard or OpenVPN features that open-wrt provides?
Yeah that’s right unfortunately. Interesting to hear that you have the same issue on your Mi TV Box, that does seem to confirm that RAM is likely the issue.
I was searching on /r/androidtv and there’s actually a lot of people with this problem, specially those with TCL TVs. And no one is presenting a proper solution.
The only issue is that the VPN seems to randomly disconnect from the internet after a day or so until you disable and enable again. I’ve read online this is a common ProtonVPN issue.
A day or so is OK for me. I understand they might disconnect long connections on purpose. Not sure if that’s what you read about it.
Actually I think in my case, if I truly go this route, I will only power up the VPN router when I need it, probably once a week.
Sorry for the late answer.
I wasn’t sure how familiar you are with this kind of stuff. If you’ve flashed dd-wrt in the past then following the guides for open-wrt shouldn’t be a problem for you at all!
My setup is basically what you asked yes. I have a router for regular internet, and then my open-wrt router which only my TV is connected to and I just turn the vpn on and off depending on whether I need it.
For your second question: you got it right there too. I installed the open-vpn package on the open-wrt router (protonvpn didn’t have a guide for wireguard, they do have config files so following other guides should work, but I wanted the path of least resistance for now). After that I added the config files for the countries I’m interested in (you have to do this for each country as AFAIK. https://protonvpn.com/support/vpn-config-download/
