I know that officially remote or vpn access isn’t supported. Being that myself and others with some computer knowledge are on here, I was hoping that someone else might have already figured out how to do this so I don’t need to go reinvent the wheel.
I use Tailscale, it’s free and probably runs on devices you already have. You’ll need to install a Tailscale client on an always-on machine on your home network such as an appletv or a raspberry pi zero. Once it’s set up, it’ll take a few minutes until the Tailscale client “sees” the Tablo services on your network, but once that’s done, just connect to your home network by installing the Tailscale your phone or other remote device and viola, home streaming anywhere.
Pardon me for bring back an old thread, but I wanted to say that I got Tailscale working with my Gen 4 Tablo and I can now view live programming and saved shows on my iPhone away from my home. Now, I didn’t come here to gloat, but to help anyone who’s stuck:
Prerequisites:
1 Windows 10 or later PC that is always powered on and connected to your home network (Yes, MacOS and Linux are also valid options, but I’m sticking with what I know)
1 Tablo and Tailscale compatible mobile device (iOS or Android)
Steps:
- Install Tailscale (current version 1.78.1 – Download | Tailscale) on your Windows home networked computer (hardwired to your router via Ethernet is preferred for better performance).
1a) Create a Tailscale account and authenticate your PC when prompted (if you have not done so previously).
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Install Tailscale onto your preferred mobile device (Download | Tailscale Download | Tailscale) from its respective app store.
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On your Windows PC, open a command prompt (as the logged in user–NOT AS ADMIN) and enter the following: tailscale up --advertise-routes=192.168.x.0/24
Note: “x” represents whatever the beginning of your network range is (ie. 192.168.0.0/24 or 192.168.1.0/24 or…well…you get the idea) -
Now, go to the Tailscale Machines Admin Console (https://login.tailscale.com/admin/machines) and find your PC in the list (you should see the word “Subnets” underneath it). Click on the “…” on the right side and then click on “Edit route settings”
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In the Edit route settings of “YourComputerNameHere”, click on the radio button next to the IP Address that you entered earlier to activate it as a subnet. Close that window.
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Go back to the Tailscale Machines Admin Console. Click on the “…” next to your computer again and then click on “Disable key expiry”.
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Right click on your Tailscale system tray icon on the lower right corner of your screen. Click on “Exit nodes”. Check both “Allow local network access” and “Run exit node”.
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Go back to the Tailscale Machines Admin Console and confirm that you PC has “Expiry disabled”, “Subnets”, “Exit node” listed underneath. If “Exit node” is missing, click on “…” to the right of “YourComputerNameHere” and click on “Edit route settings…”. Make sure that your IP Address and “Use as exit node” are both checked and then click on “Save”.
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Login to Tailscale on your mobile device. Click on “EXIT NODE” and select your PC.
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Go back to the Tailscale Machines Admin Console. Click on the “…” next to your mobile device and then click on “Disable key expiry”.
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Connect your mobile device to an outside Internet network and try running Tablo. Good Luck!!!
Note: If you are getting weird errors in the Command Prompt while following Step 3), it’s probably because you either entered the wrong IP Address or you tried running the Command Prompt as a different user such as Admin. If you are certain that it’s neither of those things, try running tailscale – reset
THEN run tailscale up --advertise-routes=192.168.x.0/24
I hope this helps some people out. Happy Tabloing!!!
I have had a Raspberry Pi at home setup with PiVPN for a long time. It is using OpenVPN. Just recently got a Tablo. When I saw this post, I immediately tried the app while connected to the VPN and my iPhone was able to stream live tv from my house over the VPN.
If you have even a halfway decent wifi router (aka probably not one from your ISP), it should have built in VPN and dynamic dns functionality. It’s as simple as enabling them and installing the VPN client on your phone. My TP Link has openVPN as one of the options built in and it took me 5 minutes to set it up and have Tablo running on my phone when out of the house.
I’ve used Wireguard on my Firewalla router and also Tailscale and it works fine remotely.
OMG!
Game changing, thank you so much for this. I have seen others mention Tailscale, your post pushed me to look further.
Just what I needed, for more than just Tablo.
So I tried this today. Tailscale running on computer at home, on same wifi network as Tablo. Now in another state with iPad running Tailscale, connected to home computer. Tablo iPad app cannot find Tablo at home. Then made home computer an Exit node. Now my iPad external IP is the same as home computer IP (can remote into it to check). Tablo app has searched and searched for a Tablo, no dice. Any suggestions on what I’m doing wrong? I’ve run traditional VPN servers before. It should not be this hard unless the tablo app is only looking for a tablo on the wifi network (which it shouldn’t since the tablo has an RJ45 port).
u/drsarcasm1 thank you so much for this detailed set of instructions 
. I found this somewhere else a year or so ago and it stopped working after I updated my Mac. Simply running the following again got it working again:
tailscale up --advertise-routes=192.168.1.0/24 --advertise-exitnode
I travel a lot and it’s awesome to be able to do this especially for local sporting events. I will say, I’m disappointed there’s no way to access the 4th Gen Tablo directly from a Mac/PC. The browser stuff doesn’t work anymore and they don’t let you download the iPhone / iPad app on a Mac. At least they have one for Apple TV finally. Thanks again.
Thanks for the great instructions, I just got this working. One security improvement you can make is to setup a DHCP Reserved IP address for your Tablo. Once you do this, reboot and verify the Tablo is using that new reserved IP address. Then run this command to only route traffic from the Tablo. (assuming your IP on Tablo is 192.168.1.101.
tailscale up --advertise-routes=192.168.1.101/32 --reset
This should harden the network. I don’t know it is necessary since someone hacking into your tailscale vpn network would probably be able to use the exit node to change this setting, but it is one extra layer (I am by no means good at network security…)
One thing I can’t get working is being able to discover the Tablo while connected via VPN (and not on my home network). Once I get through the initial configuration/discover process, then it connects fine. Do you know if you could discover the tablo over VPN (and not on your home network?)
I haven’t been able to crack it because I can’t get my tablo or my TVs/ROKUs on the VPN- How did you do that?
I’ve tried both tailscale AND PiVPN on a Raspberry Pi zero W.
When I use a VPN to home, all my home devices can connect to VPN but then NONE of them can connect to Tablo. I figured I could port the Tablo through a local PC to control IP settings, but I can’t do that on smart TVs and Rokus.
I imagine that would only work if you don’t use smart TVs?
Wait…
Asus router also supports Open VPN server and I connect HD Homerun this way from outside (~12mbps).
Does it work similar way?
Checking in, after your post 9 months ago, how has Gen4 Tablo worked for you and the remote VPN? Need to use it when away from home.
I also have a TP Link/Deco wireless router and I’m having trouble importing the profile. Asks for username and password which I assume was the login info for the TP link but I keep getting an error “failed to import profile”. Any ideas?
I can’t say with any certainty why your home tailscale client isn’t seeing your Tablo, but I’ll tell you what I’ve got going and maybe that’ll help? I’m not running the tailscale client as an exit node (though it shouldn’t matter), I’m using a raspberry pi zero directly connected to my router as the home host, and I have enabled subnet routing through my home tailscale client (see https://tailscale.com/kb/1019/subnets) but again, that shouldn’t matter. I believe the Tablo is advertising its services via a variation of UPnP and tailscale should see and relay that by default… if I’m wrong, then it’s via the subnet router that I would be able to connect… but I’m 99% sure I had access to my home tablo before I set up the subnet router.
Just to be sure, have you gone to the machines admin page (https://login.tailscale.com/admin/machines) to make sure your services are in fact activated? In the machine admin console, click on your home client name and scroll down to client connectivity-- does UPnP say “yes?” If not, that’s likely the issue, though in order to fix it, I’d have to google the how-to myself.
Hope this helps!
You’re welcome. Never say never. If you have a PC, you can install Bluestacks for free. It’s an Android emulator. Then, you can go to the Google Play Store and install the Tablo mobile app on your computer.
I’ve only gotten it working via how I posted it above. Any other deviations from that, I don’t know what to tell you.
Well, at home, your Tablo and tv/roku do not need to be on the vpn. Your remote device like your iPhone needs to connect to the VPN when you are away
It should. Have you tried opening the Tablo app while connected to your router over OpenVPN?