Tell them to use a free streaming site. Here's one of the best: https://hydrahd.io/
Stop working harder for the businesses taking your money.
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
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No, but I use a VPN to download movies from various sites. No reason to pay for Netflix.
This is the way.
I have a media server, but I still need Netflix to handle the volume of crap shows my partner watches*
*many actually play in the background while she does something else, but apparently they're necessary
It's sad that you're dunking on your partner like this. Sounds like she has ADHD or similar tendencies and needs something in the background to help her concentrate on tasks. Shows that don't need your full attention work best for this. I know because I'm the same.
Yeah you got me, I'm the worst
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Not using vpn but using mail filter fwd. Mails from netflix with codes are fwd to all using the shared account. So if you need to reactivate a device you request a device code and get it in the mail.
Smart, thanks for the interesting idea.
If you even get the option for the code. For some reason my TV will never do it.
I do live at 3 locations in 2 countries for work reasons and have a wireguard VPN server at my primary home that acts as a gateway for all my traffic, not only because of streaming but also because my bank locked me out for suspicious behavior before. The routers at locations 2 and 3 are sending all their traffic to my primary home.
No issues with this setup, I can only recommend it. I also have a centralized NAS this way and all my home assistant instances are interconnected.
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EDIT: We get it, you like torrenting. Let's keep comments on topic folks.
To be fair, you posted in the self-hosted community discussing an Issue for proprietary software.
To answer your question, which others have already done, yes your VPN tunnel will share the same IP as your household so long as it’s setup properly.
An issue which I aim to resolve using a self-hosted VPN.
Just a stupid question - Is self-hosting (and this forum) only applies to open source products?
This is just my opinion but nope, not at all. There's plenty of proprietary self-host software. Plex is self-host software and it gets talked about here despite being proprietary.
Tail scale, wire guard, open VPN all work
They see your traffic coming from a residential ISP and don't give it a second thought.
That said, if their service is that bad, piracy's not a bad option. If someone's going to provide me a service that I have to pay for and then tighten down the screws until let's no longer reasonable, why should I care about following their rules?
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Yes it works. It really is that simple!
Why go through the hassle?
Set up Jellyfin and use your VPN to fill it with whatever you’re wanting to pay corporate overlords for.
You’ve paid for the IP already from the years of subscriptions. At this point they’re just draining everyone dry. Stop letting them.
Seems like the user is setting up a local VPN. Kinda weird that term now seems to mean a corporate VPN run with someone else's servers.
If you pay for something to not abide by it's rules, why do it?
It's a messed up logic I really do not understand.
Arr!
I pay for Spotify for several reasons :
- Unlike Netflix & co. for movies/shows, the catalog size is satisfying on Spotify & co. for music ;
- Remote playback and volume control over Internet (branded "Connect") ;
- Contributing to creator revenue.
- Voice assistant compatibility ;
Yet, I use a family subscription, which I share with strangers, because Spotify increase their prices often, and my wallet doesn't like that.
Fun fact : when Spotify realizes someone's doing that and prevents new people from joining (which only happens when people join and leave a lot), creating a new account with a new family subscription (even with the same IP address, home address, username and bank card) and moving everyone to it works fine.
I pay for the streaming services to fund the development and production of the shows I enjoy watching.
I torrent the content for my convenience.
It’s a classic “tragedy of the commons” scenario. I ask myself what would happen if nobody paid and everybody pirated.
No shade if that’s your choice, just recognize that you’re relying on all the people who do pay to keep the system going.
what would happen if nobody paid and everybody pirated
they wouldn't just slowly starve to death you know. they'd start making the price more competitive and the service more user-friendly before they'd even had to pawn a single Porsche.
This is basically what happened to the music industry. Shawn Fanning scripted Napster, others followed suite. The RIAA squealed and threw a tantrum, busted a realitivly small amount of people, and then all of a sudden, we had .99$ downloads that were quality. The music industry has always been reactive in lieu of proactive. When AM radio first became a thing, the music industry execs squealed because the morons couldn't figure out how to make a buck off of AM radio. 'They're taking our jerbs!'
AFAIC, Shawn was the pivot point in a digital age of music. I don't condone it, but I understand it.
How many people listed in the credits of your favorite show do you truly think own one, much less multiple Porsches?
Right now this is the system we’ve got. It’s like tipping culture. You can refuse to tip, but the only person that’s impacted is your server who will never be able to change the system from within.
How many people listed in the credits of your favorite show do you truly think own one, much less multiple Porsches?
I don't think those people are responsible for pricing. The Porsche comment was a flippant way of pointing out the whole parasitic machine that sits atop the actual creatives - the actors, the set designers, the script writers, all those people that you and I do want to support. All those people are not involved in pricing decisions or exclusivity contracts, and they're mostly paid a salary so by the time a movie or series is out, they're already on to the next job. By refusing to subscribe to all the myriad streaming services, you are mainly putting pressure on those executives to make a more appealing product.
I think you're right in that it's very reminiscent of US tipping culture (I'm not in the US), in that the people at the bottom are the ones who do the real work and yet they don't get a fair share of the profits and instead have to take on unfair risk (i.e. the risk of not being tipped).
That said, I need to confess that I'm partly playing devil's advocate, I pay for Netflix and just the other day I paid YouTube to "buy" a digital copy of a movie - for the exact reasons you said, I want to support the creative people behind the shows & movies I enjoy. I just don't think it's accurate to say that there's a moral requirement to pay for entertainment, especially given how unfair the system currently is.
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I guess it should work, but your internet connection becomes the bottleneck. Make sure you have enough bandwidth, outbound as well, to have several people watching the same time
Yes. I host a vpn at my house. Then vpn in on fire stick/laptop etc. No problems to date.
Yes, that works just fine. Wen my daughter was at her boyfriend's place she used a wireguard tunnel to my house to use Netflix.
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