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wirtandi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 3, 2021
179
179
Hi all

Considering getting the upcoming AW 8. However, I use a vpn on my iphone and in my experience this has caused some issues such as AirDrop between my macbook and iphone not working perhaps because airdrop thinks that my macbook and iphone are on different networks, due to the vpn?

Anyway, my understanding is that with AW (planning on buying the non cellular), it can only access the internet through

1.my iphone, or
2.directly using its own wifi

Which means if my iphone is already connected to vpn, then technically my AW should be connected to the exact same vpn also, correct? Because the AW connects to my iphone using bluetooth, and then the iphone is connected to the vpn

If you use VPN with your iphone and have an AW, would really love to hear from you
 

wirtandi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 3, 2021
179
179
I have an AW5 and my AT&T Active Armor app pops their VPN. Everything works just fine.
Do you mean you have the actual VPN app installed on your AW?

I was thinking that having just my iphone connected to the VPN would be enough, since my AW has to access the internet through my iphone anyway
 

Significant1

macrumors 68000
Dec 20, 2014
1,680
776
It connects to your phone via Bluetooth when possible. That shouldn't matter whether your phone is using VPN or not. Of course data fetched from the internet through your phone, will most likely go through the VPN.

Out of BT range, I expect WiFi sync to work too, because the doesn't need to be close by or same network, just connected to internet. But your data will go through whatever VPN server you are connected, which may affect speed, which could be a problem for using the watch for phone call and facetime etc.
 
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