Kodi is every TV fan’s dream come true – an endless portal of repositories containing all the movies, sports and TV shows you can imagine, so long as you look in the right places and are aware of which parts of it are legal and which aren’t.
Whatever you do on Kodi, a VPN is strongly advised to work around geographic restrictions and keep your streaming private. You can just switch on a standalone VPN outside Kodi, or you can go one better and use Kodi OpenVPN Manager to automatically switch on your VPN when logging into Kodi. The following will show you how it’s done.
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Download OpenVPN
First, you’re going to need to download OpenVPN. This isn’t an actual VPN client, but a highly secure VPN protocol that’s used by many of the best VPN providers in the world. Kodi can integrate with OpenVPN via Kodi VPN Manager (more on that shortly), but you’re still going to need to be signed up with a VPN provider if you’re to actually make use of it. Make sure that your VPN provider is compatible with OpenVPN (ovpn) before signing up!
Once you’ve installed OpenVPN, you need to go to your VPN provider’s website and download the .ovpn config files. (Just type your VPN provider name followed by “ovpn config files” into Google, and you should be on the right track.)
Next, extract the “configs” archive you just downloaded, open it, then select the certificate “crt” file as well as all the the VPN servers you’ll want to use in Kodi (Ctrl + left click when selecting more than one), and copy-paste them over to the “config” folder in your OpenVPN installation directory.
When you right-click and open OpenVPN in your notification area, you should see these VPN provider servers in a list.
Get Kodi VPN Manager
Next, you’ll need to download Kodi VPN Manager. To get it, you need the Zomboided Kodi repository. Once you’ve downloaded it, install it by clicking the box icon at the top-left of the Kodi homescreen, “Install from zip file,” navigating to the directory where you installed Zomboided and clicking OK. You should see a thumbnail at the top right of Kodi telling you it’s installed.
Back on the Kodi homescreen, click “Add-ons -> Install from repository -> Zomboided add-on repository -> Services -> VPN Manager for OpenVPN -> Install.”
Using Kodi VPN Manager
Now that Kodi VPN Manager is installed, it’s time to set it up.
From the Kodi homescreen, click “Add-ons -> VPN Manager for OpenVPN -> VPN Settings -> VPN Configuration.”
Here, select your VPN provider from the list, then enter your username and password for that provider. The VPN should work fine without fiddling with the Advanced Options.
Next, select “VPN Connections” in the pane on the left -> First VPN Connection, then let it verify your details.
After that you need to select one of the VPNs that you have in your OpenVPN list. (You can “switch between location and server views” to get a better idea of the ones you have.) Wait for it to connect, and you’re good to go!
Conclusion
In the Kodi VPN Manager you can add more VPNs if you like, just in case the first one doesn’t work on any given day, and you’ll connect to it each time you log into Kodi. This means that you have instant peace of mind that you’re not being snooped on. (Not that you’d get up to anything unbecoming on Kodi anyway, of course …)
Content Manager at Make Tech Easier. Enjoys Android, Windows, and tinkering with retro console emulation to breaking point.
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