I modified my Fire TV Stick’s DNS anticipating extra content material, however bought one thing higher as a substitute

Geo-restricted streaming service content material is nothing new. Sometimes you possibly can skirt these restrictions with a VPN, however usually it does not work the way in which you need as a result of your account is pinned to a particular area. The streaming firm is aware of you are not leaping forwards and backwards from New York to London a number of occasions an evening.

There is one workaround price attempting, although: change the DNS settings on your Fire TV Stick sostreaming firms cannot block what you are watching. Unfortunately, to nobody’s shock, it did not magically take away any content material restrictions within the Netflix app on my TV. However, altering the DNS settings did one thing I did not actually anticipate, and in a great way.

Meddling with the DNS settings by some means improved the community stability on my Fire TV Stick. In hindsight, I believe I’d relatively have higher community stability and velocity than a number of new films to binge on Netflix.

Changing the DNS on the Fire TV Stick takes only a few minutes

Amazon does not make it sophisticated

To my shock, altering and manually configuring the DNS settings is relatively easy. I personal an older Fire TV Stick from 2021, with the most recent FireOS replace put in. Although my Fire Stick is a tad slower than the newer 4K model I’ve plugged into my work monitor, it was nonetheless a breeze to arrange a customized DNS on the older machine. The solely subject I bumped into whereas tinkering with the DNS settings was occasional disconnects.

However, as soon as I arrange the DNS and linked the Fire TV Stick to my house Wi-Fi, it held a gradual connection, even after a reboot cycle. Changing the DNS in your Fire TV Stick solely takes a number of steps:

1. From your Fire TV dashboard, go to Settings > My Fire TV > About > Network.
2. Under Network, you can see your present Wi-Fi SSID and your web gateway data.
   • Make certain to both take {a photograph} or a screenshot of the details about your Wi-Fi settings, particularly, IP Address, Gateway, Subnet Mask, and DNS. In case you need to roll again to your inventory settings, you will have this data.
3. With your Wi-Fi SSID chosen, press the three-line button (☰) in your Fire TV Stick distant. This will take away the prevailing SSID out of your Fire TV Stick’s reminiscence.
4. Next, join your Fire TV Stick to the web utilizing your Wi-Fi credentials. However, this time, do not click on Connect straight away. Instead, click on Advanced.
5. On the Advanced tab, you possibly can manually enter the IP Address, Subnet Mask, and DNS.
   • For IP Address and Gateway, use the identical values as the unique connection.
   • You can use a customized Subnet Mask. However, in my case, I left it the identical as the unique worth.
   • Lastly, enter the Primary and Secondary DNS values you need, then click on Next.

If every part goes appropriately, your Fire TV Stick ought to hook up with the web routinely.

I like to recommend rebooting the Fire TV Stick after altering the DNS, however it’s not necessary. And that is it; altering the DNS on the Fire TV Stick is extremely simple. While this course of does not make it easier to bypass regional content material restrictions, it could scale back buffering and enhance Wi-Fi connection stability.

I want the improved connection stability over entry to a dozen new films to binge on.

Also, manually organising DNS eliminates any DNS misconfiguration. I bought into tinkering with the Fire TV Stick’s DNS settings to entry films not obtainable in my area. However, I’ll fortunately take the improved community stability over a number of new films to binge over the weekend.

But it comes with a big caveat: value

If you are determined to entry region-locked content material in your Fire TV Stick, ExpressVPN’s MediaStreamer DNS could possibly be what you want. ExpressVPN MediaStreamer is a brilliant DNS — not a full VPN. Instead of pushing all site visitors out of your machine by means of an encrypted tunnel, MediaStreamer reroutes requests that decide your location, tricking streaming companies into letting region-locked content material seem in your Fire TV Stick.

The greatest caveat to utilizing MediaStreamer is the fee. You want an energetic ExpressVPN subscription to entry MediaStreamer. ExpressVPN has three major subscription tiers:

• Basic (at $99.95 yearly or $14.99 month-to-month)
• Advanced (at $119.95 yearly or $16.99 month-to-month)
• Express Pro (at $199.95 yearly or $22.99 month-to-month)

These costs are for the one-month plan; it can save you considerably by paying for 2 years upfront, dropping the month-to-month worth to as little as $3 a month.

Once you subscribe to ExpressVPN, register your IP deal with for MediaStreamer on the DNS settings web page. After that, you’ll obtain your MediaStreamer IP deal with and DNS. From there, simply observe the steps to manually configure DNS for the Fire TV Stick, and also you’re good to go.

Now, the true query is why you’d use MediaStreamer DNS as a substitute of the complete ExpressVPN app in your Fire TV Stick? And the reply is overhead. ExpressVPN does an ideal job when put in, however it routes every part by means of a totally encrypted tunnel, which, relying in your connection velocity, can add sufficient overhead that your streams might battle to load correctly. MediaStreamer DNS, in contrast, nonetheless gives entry to region-locked streaming with much less community overhead.

In that case, if you have already got an energetic ExpressVPN subscription, whether or not for PC or cellular, it does not harm to make use of the MediaStreamer DNS to your leisure heart.

Change your DNS for the content material; keep for the steadiness

I actually hoped switching my DNS would unlock some free content material I’d beforehand been locked out of. Who does not love getting one thing for nothing?

But provided that failed, the subsequent neatest thing is making it simpler to look at the content material I do have entry to, and that is precisely what I bought. So, win-win in my view!