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Set up a VPN on your Smart TV to bypass regional blocks

We are also going to obtain fast and anonymous P2P downloads, in this way, we will be able to use eMule and BitTorrent clients with complete peace of mind.

However, the one that interests us the most to use a VPN on a Smart TV is that it can bypass regional blocks. An example where we can obtain a greater benefit is with the Streaming Netflix and Disney + platforms. These two services provide a large catalog of movies and series in many countries around the world. However, if we are using Netlix Spain, there may be some titles available in the United States that have not yet arrived here. Therefore, by using a VPN, we can access this content without any problem. The reason it allows us to do this is because Netflix will detect that our public IP address is located in the United States.

As for the drawbacks, it is that we cannot use any VPN to play multimedia content. We will not be able to use a free service because they are too slow and some of them have traffic limit. Therefore, if we want to have a VPN on a Smart TV, we need a paid one that guarantees good speed and anonymity. The free ones do not always fulfill these functions.

Also keep in mind that speed may be limited. Once again, this is going to depend a lot on which VPN we are using. Generally we can find a decrease in both download and upload and this can affect certain services, such as the fact of playing a movie or series in Streaming.

Also, security is not always present. It will be very important to choose a secure VPN that has everything you need to have the maximum guarantees and that our data is not compromised.

Hence the importance of hiring a quality one like Surfshark VPN, PureVPN, HMA VPN, NordVPN or Cyberghost.

Install and configure the VPN on the Smart TV

Have you ever been in front of your Smart TV, you will have discovered that the program, series or movie you were thinking of watching is not available in your region. The best solution for these cases is to hire a VPN. If, for example, we have a Samsung TV that comes with a proprietary operating system (Tizen), we will not be able to install any software on it. That means that we cannot directly use a VPN on our TV, because we cannot install an application. In an LG TV, its operating system is WebOS and we find ourselves in the same situation, that does not mean that the problem has no solution. On TVs with the Android operating system, we would not have these problems, as we explain below.

What we have to do in these cases to be able to use a VPN on a Smart TV is configure it on one of the following devices:

SurfSharkVPN

Surfshark VPN is one of the best VPNs we can find today, and it is also very cheap. We are going to see an example with an Android TV, as I mentioned before, there are more possibilities since we can install the Surfshark Android application itself. The first thing we are going to do is download your app from here:

Download QR-Code Surfshark - Fast VPN Proxy Developer: Surfshark BV

Then you have to give Sign UP to create and hire an account. If you already have one you can click Log In.

Once inside the app we will see that we are disconnected.

Now what we have to do is choose a server from the country we need. Then we will give Connect to establish the connection.

At that time we could already enjoy the content that this streaming platform has in Australia, the user interface is very fast and intuitive, so you should not have any problem.

If your TV does not have Android TV, then you can make use of Surfshark's "Smart DNS". With this very interesting option, we will be able to play streaming content on devices that do not support VPN such as LG or Samsung TVs, although logically it does not have the same privacy and security benefits as a VPN.

To activate this option, we simply go to Smart DNS, click on “activate”, Surfshark will automatically detect the public IP and create specific DNS for our IP address.

After approximately 30 seconds, we will have the DNS ready, and we will simply have to change them in the router or directly in the network menu of the Smart TV that we have.

We recommend you access the official Surfshark VPN website where you will find all the details about this service.

NordVPN

NordVPN is a VPN service with more than 8 years of experience, it is also one of the best VPN services you can buy, and it has multiple programs, apps, and possibilities to configure the VPN in all services. Thanks to this VPN, we will be able to protect our connection with state-of-the-art encryption, and it has a no-logs policy. Here is your Android app:

Download QR-Code NordVPN - Fast & Secure VPN Developer: Nord Security

This is your screen where you see how we have connected with an IP from the United States.

For Android TV the process is similar to Surfshark, NordVPN also supports Smart DNS with exactly the same functionality that we have explained before, and the configuration would be exactly the same. Other features of this service is that it blocks malicious software and has a large number of configuration options.

We recommend you access the official NordVPN website where you will find all the details, configuration tutorials, and prices of its different plans.

PureVPN

PureVPN offers ultra privacy and security. It does this because it uses secure 256-bit encryption on all connections. Thanks to this, it allows access to the Internet with a blanket of privacy and security. Also, it allows P2P and high speeds through its VPN.

This PureVPN service also supports Smart DNS in order to bypass regional blocks, although peer-to-peer communication will not be encrypted and authenticated. If you have a Smart TV with Android TV, you can easily install the official application and enjoy all its advantages, otherwise, you will have to resort to this Smart DNS function.

We recommend you access the official PureVPN website where you will find all the features, configuration tutorials and prices of its different plans.

HMAVPN

HMA VPN is another highly recommended service and with a large number of servers around the world, specifically, the HMA VPN offers:

On an Android TV we could use your app:

Download QR-Code HMA VPN, Proxy, Total Privacy and Security Developer: Privax

We recommend you access the official HMA website where you will find all the information.

CyberGhost

Finally, we have a great alternative that is CyberGost, to be able to connect our Samsung TV and avoid regional blocks, the steps that we must follow are the following:

One thing we must comment on is that not all routers allow you to configure a VPN, the manufacturer must implement this function. Routers like ASUS do allow you to configure the OpenVPN client, and any router that supports DD-WRT, OpenWRT or Tomato does too.

In case you don't know DD-WRT, Tomato USB etc are firmwares that can be available in our routers. Another example of routers that also allow it are the AVM FRITZ! Box. However, the easiest way to implement a VPN is by using an Android TV. Here is a video explaining how to install CyberGhost VPN on your device.

Since they work in a very similar way to a smartphone, they are easy to use. They come with their Play Store, we search for the app and install it. In this case CyberGhost VP requires an Android version greater than 4.4. You can download the app from here:

Download QR-Code VPN by CyberGhost - Fast & Secure WiFi Protection Developer: CyberGhost SA

So we proceed to install CyberGhost VPN. To finish we will give Alow VPN Access to enjoy the service. Finally, if you want to use an Amazon Fire TV / Fire Stick we can also use all the VPNs we have seen so far.

What can I do if my Smart TV does not allow installing a VPN app?

In the event that your Smart TV does not allow the installation of VPN services, that is, it does not allow you to install any of the NordVPN, Surfshark and many other applications, then you can resort to installing the VPN on the router, and configure that everything the network traffic of the Smart TV goes through the contracted VPN service. All these VPNs that we have recommended allow you to download an OpenVPN configuration file, both using the TCP and UDP protocol, this configuration file can be used on any device that has an OpenVPN client installed.

There are WiFi routers such as ASUS that will allow us to load this OpenVPN client configuration file, to later make a connection from the router to the VPN service. Once communication is established, we can define which wired or wireless devices we want to go to the Internet through the configured VPN service, and the rest of the devices will go to the Internet directly through our operator. It is only recommended to do this on Smart TV or consoles, because if we use a VPN for all the clients in our home, the performance (real Internet speed) will be quite low because the router will have an extra job of encrypting and decrypting the data.

If you need a router to configure an OpenVPN client, our recommendation is that you buy an ASUS router compatible with the Asuswrt Merlin firmware, which has a functionality called VPN Director that will allow us to centrally manage the different OpenVPN clients that we can configure in the router. In this way, we can use several VPN profiles to load them on the router and configure certain devices to go to the Internet via a VPN and other devices to go out through another VPN.

The configuration possibilities of Asuswrt Merlin for ASUS routers are almost infinite, because this firmware allows you to modify all the internal functioning of the router at a low level, because it is still a Linux-based operating system.

As you may have seen, we have quite a few options to enjoy a VPN on a Smart TV. Remember that the important thing in this regard is to choose a quality one so that everything goes quickly and smoothly, and that it supports Smart DNS and is compatible with Android TV, although all the ones we have listed here support it. In addition, our advice is to avoid those that are free, since in these cases privacy is not always safe.