Chromecast is a small device that can turn your HDTV into a smart TV, thus, making it possible to stream videos and other media from services such as Netflix. Unfortunately, American Netflix is limited to the United States of America, and you can’t access it outside the US. Thankfully, Virtual Private Network and Smart DNS services both provide a way to circumvent the problem and, therefore, provide Netflix subscribers outside the US with the ability to gain unlimited access to television shows, new films and documentaries in Netflix.
Unblock and watch American Netflix on Chromecast Through VPN
A virtual Private Network, also known as VPN, enables you to alter your public IP and access content that would ordinarily be inaccessible in your region. With the help of VPN you can watch content on Netflix through Chromecast outside America because VPN spoofs your online location. There is a lot more that VPN does:
– It enables you to browse the web anonymously by masking your IP address.
– It protects you from spies and hackers by encrypting your internet traffic.
– Most importantly, it enables you to access geoblocked content and channels such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Now TV, and etc. It is noteworthy, however, that you can only access channels of just one region at once. If you intend to watch geo-blocked content from another place, you’ll need to reconfigure your virtual private network’s IP. To make this work, you need to have a VPN enabled router because Chromecast doesn’t ordinarily support VPN.
Best VPN For Unblocking US channels on chromecast
No |
Provider |
Review |
Price/Month |
Visit Site |
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1 |
$4.92 |
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2 |
$3.33 |
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3 |
$2.69 |
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4 |
$8.32 |
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5 |
$10.00 |
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6 |
$11.95 |
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7 |
$2.25 |
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VPNS with an excellent reputation for providing DD-WRT support include ibVPN, ExpressVPN, and TorGuard. Each of these services requires a different setup procedure from the other. Most of them will need the subscriber to log into DD-WRT and manually alter the settings by heading to Services’>’VPN’. Once there, follow the instructions provided by the VPN provider.
The setup might seem a little bit more complicated than DNS, and it may require the installation of specialist client software. However, Virtual Private Network features a big advantage than DNS in that it can unblock Netflix for any subscriber and in whichever region- including subscribers who have ISPs that use DNS hijacking techniques.
Smart DNS
This is another popular method of unblocking Netflix outside the US. Smart DNS redirects some of the user’s internet connection to a proxy server. Therefore, blocked services like Netflix will be duped into believing that the user is in a location of that server. For instance, if the server is in the US, Netflix will automatically detect an American internet connection and load the American Netflix content library.
It is important to note that Smart DNS only alters a limited number of supported services and websites and that no alterations are made to the user’s local IP address- this means that other browsing will remain intact and unchanged.
The advantage of using Smart DNS is its wide range of compatibility and the fact that it doesn’t significantly impact internet speeds, thus, making it an ideal choice for streaming media from Netflix when outside America.
Its main disadvantage is that users who have an ISP that uses a DNS hijacking policy won’t be able to circumvent the blocking and use the service.
Setup Process
Setting up Smart DNS is a herculean task simply because Google Chromecast is hard-coded with Google’s DNS. This means that Chromecast must always communicate with the DNS servers of Google regardless of whether the subscriber has setup his or her router using the DNS settings of his or her Smart DNS provicer.
To circumvent the problem, subscribers need to use a DD-WRT enabled router. Alternatively, they can use a router running Tomato firmware. It is important to note that not all routers have the ability to operate in this manner, and flashing a router requires some level of technical knowhow. Thankfully, some Smart DNS service providers such as Invisible Browsing DNS and TorGuard sell routers that are preconfigured already, thus, easing the setup process.
Once you have purchased or configured a router, you ought to setup the Smart DNS service on it. The steps are different from one service provider to another, and each of them offers their own instructions or tutorials on how to go about it.
Some of the most popular Smart DNS services you can use to unblock Netflix on Chromecast include Unlocator, Smart DNS proxy, and Overplay.