VPN use with a hotspot

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I've just moved into a new apartment and to save some money I'm going to use my giffgaff mobile data for my laptop interweb connection. The connection is good and I can watch YouTube etc without any buffering anywhere in the building. But if I wanted to watch a live stream I have to use a VPN and I'm sure that if I use the VPN on either the iPhone or the laptop (or maybe even both) it doesn't work in the normal way. Is this true, and if so how can the VPN be configured to work correctly?

(Disclaimer: I'm asking for a friend who also isn't going to live stream without a TV license, and like me doesn't actually watch any TV anyway. That's what happens when you spend 9 years out of the country)

 

[Daz...]

What do you mean it doesn’t work in the normal way? A VPN just tells whatever site you’re visiting that you’re in a different location to where you are.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I tried this a few years ago when overseas....using the VPN on my iPhone I connection to the web then connected my laptop to my phone via hotspot. However, the laptop was not going through the VPN.

 

[Daz...]

Just use a VPN on the device you’re using to access whatever it is you want to watch.

 

[Mr Trailer Man]

How was the vpn running on the phone, through a web browser or an app?

If it was just through a browser, when it came to broadcasting a hotspot it might have been defaulting to your normal mobile data provider.

If you use through an app, like Nord or something, then anything on the device that uses the internet will go through the VPN, whether it's on a browser, facebook app or hotspot.

That's how i understand it.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

It was PIA through the app on China Unicom.

 

[Mr Trailer Man]

It was PIA through the app on China Unicom.

I've only ever used Nord in the past.

Was really easy to use the app, that way the whole device is using the vpn, not just the web browser.

 

[Daz...]

It was PIA through the app on China Unicom.

I use PIA and it should put all traffic through the VPN unless you manually set it to ignore certain websites.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I've only ever used Nord in the past.

Was really easy to use the app, that way the whole device is using the vpn, not just the web browser.

It's NORD that i'll be using.

 

[MLB]

I've been using Nord for years now but recently been finding it's much slower and connecting to websites takes ages.

Manually recycling server or switching to Nordlynx protocol works a bit but for example my current speed via Nord is 120Mbit/8ms ping but when I pause it I get 200Mbit/4ms ping. So while that's not very noticeable for general websurfing it's definitely throttling the connection.