How Privacy Hero manages streaming services
The Privacy Hero router aims to provide superior protection and security while also allowing users to enjoy streaming their favorite content without compromising on quality and performance. It's important to us that streaming is as fast, stable, and buffer-free as possible. That's why our smart router identifies streaming traffic and routes it through a specialized streaming proxy while still providing an important layer of security through DNS over HTTPS.
This article will explain how the Privacy Hero router handles streaming, and why streaming traffic is not run through our VPN.
Important note: The streaming relocation system only applies to specific services we support - List to be added soon. Any other website, streaming service or traffic that we don't specifically support for streaming will always go through one of our VPN servers that is closest to you. If you'd like us to add a service we don't support yet please get in touch and let us know.
Why streaming traffic does not run through the VPN
Download Speed and Streaming Quality:
The quality of your streaming is mostly determined by your internet’s download speed. VPNs tend to reduce your download speeds, meaning low-quality video and longer buffering times. With the Privacy Hero router, we aim to run only the nessacery streaming traffic directly through a specialized streaming proxy - not through a VPN - so quality and buffering times are much less impacted.
This doesn't mean you are not protected while streaming - Any other traffic that is not essential for the stream you are watching will always go through our VPN so all of your important traffic is always encrypted.
Whether it be Netflix, BBC iPlayer or Disney+, there’s nothing more annoying than long buffering times or grainy video quality - something we have the remedy for.
Why VPNs Reduce Download Speed:
A VPN routes your device through a remote server via an encrypted connection. As part of that process, there are three factors that can reduce download speeds: server location, server load, and encryption.
- Server Location – The physical location of the server, in relation to your own location, will affect your speeds. The further away the server is, the greater the impact will be because your traffic will have further to travel.
- Server Load – If a server is under heavy load (there are many users connected to the server), the server’s bandwidth can reach its limit, and speeds may be affected.
- Encryption – When using a VPN, your traffic is encrypted before being sent anywhere. Strong encryption takes time and processing power - both factors can impact speeds.
To prevent these factors from affecting your speeds when streaming, the Privacy Hero router routes streaming traffic directly.
Streaming with the Privacy Hero router
Enabling/configuring streaming relocation:
To toggle and configure simply follow the steps in our quick guide. Please make sure to read through the different types of services below.
Service Types:
- Single country services - Services that we know are only available in one country. For example BBC iPlayer in the UK.
These will not be listed in the Privacy Hero dashboard, you don't have to turn anything on or switch between any countries. We know BBC iPlayer is only available in the UK so we'll automatically direct your traffic to the UK. - Multi country services - Services that we support in multiple locations. Like Netflix in the UK, Canada and US.
With these, you'll need to select a country in the streaming relocation page on the dashboard.
A note on multi-country services: While most multi-country services allow you to watch their content in other countries with a single account, some services will only allow you to access their alternative country libraries with a separate account and subscription from that country.
For example Amazon Prime Video: Let's say I'm from the US and I want to watch the UK version of Prime Video. I will need to have a separate UK Amazon account and Prime subscription (paid using a UK payment method) to access UK Prime Video. A few more examples of this would be Discovery+ and the Roku channel.
These particular services will be listed under the "Non-portable" section of the streaming relocation page on the dashboard like so:
