but why is this better than running a vpn client on your pc? For example,when I want to watch streams restricted in my country, I fire up the ExpressVPN client on my laptop, connect to Switzerland, and then my restrictions disappear. Why should get another piece of hardware, wires and complexity (what happens when this box doesnt connect to the internet but it has no keyboard,, display or mouse to guide troubleshooting?)
Because Tailscale is a [1] direct connection. No middleman service with access to your traffic.
[1] In some cases this is not possible and there are relays setup to help route traffic.
What's in the traffic is opaque to these nodes. You can also choose to use your own nodes.
If you are interested here is a great post on how this works: https://tailscale.com/blog/how-nat-traversal-works/
Most streaming services block commercial VPNs and even data center IP ranges at this point.
Some VPN vendors bypass that by reselling access to residential IPs (witting or unwitting on the side of the person paying for the ISP service), but even that is hit and miss.
> Why should get another piece of hardware
Many people already have an Apple TV or Android TV streaming box.
The GL.iNet routers have a mobile and desktop config site and buttons to configure/reset the device as well as a two-position hardware switch, the function of which is configurable also. This is not to mention they can run OpenWRT/LEDE and there are vendor created “clean” firmware images to do so. They’re one of the best devices for this use case and price point. I don’t think the situation you’re worried about is a reasonable concern for someone already expected to be competent to manage the router generally to begin with, and if they also want to do the things Tailcale does, they can and should be able to troubleshoot the problem space. The stock firmware is a modified OpenWRT with a web GUI and some optional extras, but it’s the most functional consumer router I’ve used.
thank you for your replies but I think my density is getting the better of me.When ii want to pretend I am in Switzerland, my vpn client connects to an exit node there through an encrypted tunnel between my machine and the vpn service's exit node. If I have an Apple TV in my home running tail scale, how can I make it talk to the internet through an exit node in Switzerland ? My understanding is that I cannot. If I run tail scale on my Apple TV and then travel to Switzerland , can I connect to my Apple TV and watch shows in Switzerland from it? But how can I get through my home firewall / NATted router to my Apple TV? is there a tail scale client that I run on my laptop that finds my Apple TV running tail scale?
Tailscale recently announced an integration with Mullvad [1] that is probably what you're looking for: Mullvad's VPN servers act as Tailscale exit nodes, and they have servers in countries around the world. This lets any of your existing Tailscale nodes route traffic through Mullvad.
