We’ve been given a VPN router

[linentowel]

Does anyone have one please? We’ve been given on to watch TV through. It’s called Liberty Shield. How does it work and how does it let you watch TV?

I take it its foreign TV channels you want to watch? Basically masks your ip so it looks like your in a different country so if your wanting to watch hulu on your roku or whatever you can do it without the dreaded your in the wrong country error message!

Oh is it? No, just usual TV! We were told it runs an app so you watch everything in one place, ie Netflix without logging in to each app. Sounds a bit dodgy to be watching tv you shouldn’t. I think I’ve gotten the wrong end of the stick.

Do you need something like a now tv box or an Amazon firestick instead? You can access things like netflix, iplayer, youtube, all4 etc just by clicking on the icon, no need to log in each time.

VPNs fake your computer's location. For example you can make it seem like it's in the US so if you log into Netflix, you get Netflix US rather than Netflix UK content.

Do you mean you want to watch Netflix without an account?

What did you want to be able to do with it?

It is usually used to mask your location so you can watch tv from other countries, as a PP explained.

They hide your IP address and remove any geoblocking, so like PPs said you can access sites that would usually give you a 'this content isn't available in your location' error.

Who gave it to you?

Short answer: don’t use it (especially if you are not certain)
Pros: it makes your connection more secure, might unblock content, might allow you spoof location
Cons: makes it easier for children to access XXX content especially in the U.K. as it gets around the “porn block”, slows internet down quite a lot, might be a logging VPN meaning anything you or anyone using your connection could have there surfing habits monitored and might just be plain unnecessary.
So long as it’s either Legal free Content or paid content I would not very worst case situation they cancel your account (Netflix etc.)

Hope this helps - any further questions I will do my best to explain.

For it to work, it has to connect to a service somewhere out that which usually needs a subscription.

On the basis you're asking here, and not the person/'place that gave it to you, my security senses are already flashing red.

If you don't need to pretend to be in a different countries, have no interest in circumventing the governments porn users register and are not doing anything you wouldn't want GCHQ to know about, I'd stick to a vanilla router.