Can you control a Roku or smart TV from a laptop or website?

Your router keeps devices on your home network private from the internet, and modern browsers increasingly block websites from contacting devices on your local network, or ask you first. Both protections are good things: without them, any website you visited could change your TV channel. Any computer remote therefore needs software installed on a device on the same network as the TV.

A Roku accepts control from apps on the same network when Control by mobile apps allows it. Desktop programs can use that same access, but Roku does not publish an official desktop remote. A phone or tablet on the same Wi-Fi is the most direct option: see the Roku remote app guide.

If you want a bigger screen than a phone, TV Remotely runs on iPad and Android tablets with a layout made for them. Pairing works the same as on a phone. Check the compatibility table for your TV platform and availability in your store.

Not with TV Remotely. The phone has to be on the same local network as the TV, and mobile data alone does not connect to it. Read TV remote without Wi-Fi for how local networks, internet access and Ethernet fit together.

Some sites promising an online TV remote ask you to install software or open router ports. Do not forward TV control ports to the internet; that would let strangers send commands to your TV. Stick to apps from official app stores and your TV maker’s own apps.