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Unblocking web sites using DNS

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So what is an American living in Australia to do when so much of the world’s best entertainment content is held behind an invisible wall that won’t let me in even though I file taxes every year and my passport says United States of America? Surely I could somehow prove to the great gatekeeper of the internet (Al Gore?) that I am a true red, white and blue. No, region restrictions indiscriminately block access to content using your physical location as reported by your internet provider. So unless I resort to some method of trickery, I am left out in the outback with some of my favorite sites blocked like I’m some sort of international spy trying to access “classified” information.

Thankfully there are ways to circumvent these region restrictions. There are essentially two basic methods for leaping over that wall into the land of endless entertainment. The first is using a VPN service which essentially changes your IP address so that the content servers “see” your location as being from an area without restrictions. In my case, I would pick a VPN that is located in the US to allow myself access to content from the US. It is a pretty simple concept that also has the benefit of protecting your identity and encrypting the data being transmitted. One of the drawbacks is that this method can slow the speed of your internet connection as it routes all traffic through your VPN’s servers.

That brings me to the second option for unblocking region restrictions; using a DNS changing service to allow certain web sites and applications to authenticate access to content. This method is more preferable in terms of maintaining internet speed because it does not require the transfer of all traffic through a VPN. In this case, once a server authenticates a user through DNS, the content is able to be viewed directly. One of the potential drawback to this option is that DNS service providers need to specifically configure the DNS  to allow authentication for each device, application and web site that they will provide support for.

This means that it is critical to chose a good DNS service provider that will support a wide range of web sites and applications on the devices that you use. Since I’ve been in Australia, I’ve tried a few DNS providers but the best so far has been from a company called SmartyDNS. For me, they have been the most efficient way for me to unblock restricted websites. They have also been the only DNS service to consistently unblock Netflix and unblock Hulu on all of the devices I use, including my Samsung TV and iPad. Try their Free Smart DNS trial for 14 days to see how it can unlock a world of entertainment content for you.


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