If you are someone who relies on a seamless home network, you expect your devices to work in sync. Your phone talks to your TV, your PC talks to your printer, and everything just works in a perfect rhythm, until one day it stops. You try to print your documents or cast your phone to a TV only to find that your printer and Chromecast are not showing up. You spend hours trying to troubleshoot the problem by restarting the router, reinstalling the drivers, and checking the hardware.
You find that neither your Wi-Fi nor the hardware is broken, but the real culprit was the VPN app that you are using. Virtual Private Network, aka VPN, protects your online activities by masking your IP address by creating a secure tunnel. But in this pursuit, your VPN also walled off your local network. Here’s how you can fix it in a few seconds.
Flip this one VPN setting and your speed might jump
It’s surprising how much of a difference playing with this one VPN setting makes.
Nothing in sync
The sudden disconnect leaves you in frustration
Imagine you are getting everything ready for your upcoming trip, and you have to leave the next morning. You also need to get physical copies of some of your documents. You hit the Print button on your computer, expecting your printer to start printing. Instead, the printer just sits there, completely silent.
The computer keeps stating that the printer is offline. You try turning your printer on and off multiple times, rebooting your PC, and even checking your Wi-Fi connection, but nothing works. Frustrating, isn’t it?
Or in another situation, you just came back from a vacation and want to relax and watch all the videos and photos you captured during the trip on your big TV. You try to cast your phone to your TV, only to find that although the Cast icon is there and both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi, your TV isn’t showing up in the device list.
Nothing can be more infuriating than when things don’t work properly, when you need them to work without a single hiccup, and that too in desperate times. But it is more frustrating to know that there was no problem with your Wi-Fi or the device; rather, your VPN was the culprit.
Finding the invisible wall
The tool protecting you was also keeping you disconnected
The little shield icon on your computer’s system tray or your phone’s notification panel shows you that the VPN is active. You might have turned it on earlier in the day for secure browsing and simply forgot to turn it off.
When you disconnect the VPN, you instantly hear your printer heating up and printing the documents you previously sent it. You grab your phone, turn off the VPN, and boom! Your TV is now showing up on the Chromecast device list, ready to be cast.
Let us understand why your VPN acts as a wall and cuts the sync between your devices, even though they are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. When a VPN is active, it creates a secure tunnel between your device and the internet.
This is done to provide you with a safer internet experience, but it also puts your computer or phone on a completely different virtual network. Since your device is located inside the hidden tunnel, it can no longer see the local devices on your home Wi-Fi. To your computer or phone connected to a VPN, your printer, TV, or smart speakers basically cease to exist.
The 10-second fix
The solution is as easy as 1, 2, 3
The good thing is that you don’t have to choose between privacy and smart home convenience. Almost all premium VPNs have a built-in feature to solve this exact problem. Moreover, it takes just about 10 seconds to toggle the feature on, and you are done.
The feature we are talking about is usually known as “Allow access to local network,” “Invisible on LAN,” or as a bundled setting with “Split tunneling”. When you turn on this feature, it tells the VPN to route internet traffic through the secure tunnel while leaving local home traffic alone so that your devices can still communicate.
Here is how you can apply the fix. In my case, I am using the Proton VPN app on my smartphone:
- Launch the VPN app.
- Tap on the Settings icon.
- Under the Connections section, tap on Advanced settings.
- Select LAN connections.
- Enable the LAN connections toggle.
This single toggle can save you not only from getting frustrated but also from applying multiple unnecessary troubleshooting methods to fix the issue. If you use the Split Tunneling feature, you can manually choose apps, such as your printer app or casting apps, to completely bypass the VPN tunnel.
- Logging policy
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No logs
- Mobile app
-
Yes
- Encryption
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AES-256 or ChaCha20
Proton VPN is a virtual private network service that provides a secure and private way to use the internet by encrypting your internet traffic and hiding your IP address. It has a strict no-logs policy and privacy policy.
Make your VPN work smarter
A smart home device network is supposed to make your life easier, not leave you pulling your hair out. The above simple trick can save you from the sudden panic of not finding your devices when printing, listening to music, or casting. You can keep your online browsing private and even unlock geo-locked content on Netflix, and still use your smart home devices without any headaches. So, the next time your printer or TV doesn’t show up on the device’s list, check that little shield icon first. It is the easiest tech fix you will ever make.
