Kodi on FireStick 4K unable to see local network while Windscribe VPN is active

VPN
1

This has been causing me problems for a few weeks now. No matter how I attempt to connect to my local network (for media I have stored there) I get failures.

Viewing the r/FireStick a few minutes ago (looking at a discussion on firesticks failing) I did a search on SMB failing and found someone else discussing that they were unable to see there local network while IP Vanish was active. The thought occurred to see if that might be similar to what I have been seeing.

So I tried the following experiment.

  1. Rebooted the FireStick.
  2. Went to the apps folder and using manage applications forced windscribe to close.
  3. Started Kodi.
  4. Added a source for files from my local network (by i.p. address/share)
  5. Browsed that source and Kodi is still parsing the folder structure finding my files.

Is anyone aware of a way to configure the FireStick version of Kodi to allow browsing a subnet?

or

Has anyone discovered a safe way to work with this “Unexpected Feature”?

Thanks for any help.
Ian

2

I’m unable to answer your question, but was just wondering, is there a wind scribe app for kodi?

3

@1bbef18e5e39

Thanks for that. I was skeptical about your comment to begin with.

As soon as I had issues with the app I went into Manage Installed Applications under the Applications section of “Settings” on the main FireStick TV menu. Selecting Windscribe there, there are No permissions or preferences to be set.

Today I was in the actual application from the Home Screen and saw that there is a settings Cog in the actual Windscribe page. Selecting the cog and going down to the Connection setting I saw that there are multiple settings that can be set there.

Toggling LAN TRAFFIC from Block to Allow has allowed me to see the local network AND use Windscribe for streaming. I also notice that there is a START ON BOOT toggle that has Windscribe available from the boot of the Fire Stick.

Thanks for pointing me in that direction and I am being this long winded here in the hope that this might help point someone else to this solution more quickly.

Kind regards,
Ian

4

There is a windscribe app for the FireTV Stick.

The VPN is transparent to Kodi itself.

I know that there is a Windscribe app for Android and for Windows.
To date I have not had need of a VPN for my limited use of Linux.

Hope that helps.