Will a VPN work with hot spotting?

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1

I’m planning to spend a few weeks in UK/Europe and will need to access some geoblocked stuff from Australia. I will be viewing it on my iPad, but probably hotspotting using my iPhone’s data.

My question is: how do I set up a VPN so that I can use my iPad and access geoblocked content in Australia? Do I install a VPN on my iPad? Or on my iPhone? Or both?

Apologies if this is a stupid question, I’m still pretty new to VPNs.

Cheers

2

Easiest thing would be to get the VPN set up on the iPad and then connect to the Hotspot.

I know android have a way to host a Hotspot with VPN but not sure if IPhones can do it

3

you would be fine having it just on the iphone. that will probably be quicker as well since it doesnt have to go through an all the different layers

if you have it on just the iphone it goes ipad → iphone → ISP (data encrypted) → VPN server → internet, so everything is still going through the VPN.

in the other two situations you would have ipad → iphone (data encrypted) → ISP (data double encrypted) → VPN server (from iphone) → VPN server (from ipad) → internet, which would be pointless and probably slow down your speeds a whole lot, or ipad → iphone (data encrypted) → ISP (data encrypted) → VPN server (from ipad) → internet, which works but means the geoblocked websites wont work on your phone (i dont know if youre cool with that or not).

4

I would just do a quick test:

  1. Turn the VPN on on the iPhone
  2. Turn off/disable the VPN on the iPad
  3. Tether the iPad to the iPhone
  4. Visit https://ipx.ac on the iPad, check your IP/location, and run the test

If the iPad reports your VPN location and no leaks, it’ll be ok to not have the VPN on the iPad.

5

mobile devices use GPS for location, NOT IP address so vpn probably wont work on mobile devices for geo-blocked services.

6

Yes that is how I do it - works fine.

7

I don’t think it’s possible to share a VPN connection over a hotspot on Android unless you are rooted. On a non-rooted Android, the hotspot connection will bypass the VPN so you still need to run a VPN on the devices you connect to the hotspot. Not sure how it works on iOS.

8

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated :slight_smile:

9

Hmm, interesting. What if I connected to the hotel wifi or something like that?

10

connection is irrelevant, mobile device location is determined by GPS.