Merlin VPN Policy rule - Netflix Chromecast question

[arkhane]

Hello.

This is not Merlin directly related question but you may provide me some good hint...

I had installed Merlin some few days ago mainly to do split tunneling (policy rule) which work perfeclty.

Before doing it I was using the regular asuswrt and ovpn. Doing so sometimes Netflix from a smartphone or PC chromecasted to the TV was crying us that we were using a VPN...it was not completely blocking it but had to restart a few times the video....

Now that I can use policy rule on which device would you recommend me to make a rule to exclude it from the VPN? The chromecast device only ? The smartphone (only) from which one Netflix is chromecasted to the chromecast device? Both?

Thank you

 

[eibgrad]

I believe it's only the actual device doing the streaming that needs to be off the VPN, i.e., the Chromecast device (e.g., TV). The smartphone (using your example) is simply providing a URL to the TV from which it can access the stream. But that's probably NOT sufficient. From my dealings w/ others concerning this problem, it seems Netflix will also balk if it detects its DNS queries being sent over a VPN. And whether that happens depends on how you've configured DNS wrt that device and the VPN. So just something to be aware of.

 

[Xentrk]

You can use the x3mRouting add on to create a rule to route all Netflix traffic to WAN or VPN. Some people have a policy rule to route their streaming device to VPN but use x3mRouting to have the Netflix traffic bypass the VPN to WAN to avoid the proxy error. I use it to route Netflix to my dedicated or private VPN to circumvent blocks.