I’d like to be able to have the Tablo app discover any Tablo’s while connected over VPN. My son is overseas at the moment and I’ve set up a VPN connection for his iPad, but he cannot successfully pair with the Tablo. Once he has paired then he could just use the Tablo Connect feature without logging into the VPN.
Dan
I have suggested some type of alternate authentication method to the TabloTV team because of this same reason (have a brother overseas) and it seems that they are listening, the developer stated that they will consider a solution for this, perhaps some sort of Username/Password authentication method, let’s see how long it takes them to implement it :-)
If he can locally detect the ipad via the VPN, it should just work. Are you suppressing any ports or ips? Once the pairing takes place, the VPN won’t be needed once you forward the appropriate ports. Of course if he ships the ipad to you, pair it, and you ship it back, that would work as well. Of course a more costly option 
Oddly the Tablo is found by the ios app, but fails during the pairing process. I suspect there must be some UDP broadcast being used which likely isn’t working over the VPN.
Glad to here the dev’s are on it. Even if you could manually enter the IP of the Tablo into the app, I’d be fine with something like that. I’m sure they’ll come up with a good solution.
How about this: put the tablo in your DMZ providing the VPN is via your router. Sniff the activity and using a proxy on the client side, forward the packets to your router. Make sure your router’s wan address is registered with DynDNS.org so the client proxy has a target.
I use OpenVPN with out any issues.
@pentafive, even for the initial discovery of the Tablo? That is, you have a brand new iPad that’s never had the Tablo app installed, and is remote. You install the Tablo app, use OpenVPN to connect to your network, and the Tablo app is able to discover your Tablo?
I think I tried this very thing (Tablo in browser on iPhone over VPN without first connecting locally) and it did not work.
I had tried it over openvpn. The issue is that each side of the VPN will be on different subnets. For example 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.1.0/24. I contacted support over this and they said that the Tablo only works with devices on the same subnet. So even though you can ping accross subnets between devices on either side of the VPN, it’s not going to work for Tablo.
Too bad since I thought this might be an option for the lack of “Tablo Connect” on the roku.
My OpenVPN setup lands on my router running shibby tomato. I have it setup to provide my client vpn with an IP from the same subnet as my Tablo.
Hey @pentafive, thanks for describing your setup. I have a similar setup with OpenVPN on Tomato.
I had my son try again – he’s using Safari on his iPad and has never connected to Tablo. Unfortunately he still couldn’t connect. Perhaps your Firefox browser had a cookie stored, or other data cached? I’ll have to drop by my local coffee shop and run another test myself to gather more info.
@dlb9000 Nope, no cookie stored. Fresh browser install. Few things to check…
@pentafive Ahh you’re using TAP. I wanted to use TAP also but when I was setting up my VPN TAP was not supported by OpenVPN on iOS.
For this setup you need IGMP enabled, my routers on each side share multicast data. and I have many subnets.
I have this very same setup on my end and I am able to discover my device however I am unable to sync data.
There are a few things you can try to help your son’s Tablo app discover your Tablo while he’s connected to a VPN. Here are some solutions to try:
Adjust VPN settings:
Disable multicast filtering: Check your VPN provider’s documentation or support channels to see if there’s a way to disable multicast filtering temporarily.
Use a “tun” instead of a “tap” interface: Some VPNs like PureVPN or Express VPN offer both options and “tun” interfaces might handle multicast better.
Check for DNS leaks:
Use online tools to check for DNS leaks. If leaks are detected, consider switching to a DNS server within the VPN tunnel or contacting your VPN provider for further assistance.
Adjust firewall settings:
Port forwarding: Forward UDP port 1900 on your router to the local IP address of your Tablo. This port is used for Tablo discovery.
Firewall rules: Ensure any firewalls on the Tablo or router are not blocking inbound traffic on UDP port 1900.
Remember, the success of these solutions depends on your specific VPN provider and network configuration. Be patient and experiment with different settings until you find what works for your son’s situation.
This works for me… I setup a l2tp vpn server at my home.
My sons iPad has a manual l2tp vpn configured with port all traffic over the vpn option enabled.
My son’s Tablo app can see my Tablo dvr over the l2tp vpn.