So first thing's first, Apple does not allow for VPN configurations on an Apple TV. But don't worry not all is lost. If you still wanna stream things like Netflix and Hulu on your Apple TV, there is another option known as SmartDNS. Now what you're gonna need is you're gonna need a VPN or some sort of service that allows for SmartDNS. I use ExpressVPN so I'm gonna kinda walk you through my process. But it's about similar for any other and then we're gonna walk over to my Apple TV and set it up there as well.
How to Setup a VPN on Apple TV to watch Netflix, Hulu, BBC and other Geo-Restricted Content
So first thing I'm gonna do since I'm on the ExpressVPN homepage is I'm gonna click into my account. I'm going to sign in, and then on the left side you're gonna see an option for setting up ExpressVPN. That's gonna open up a new window for me, and here they're gonna give me a lot of different ways that I can set up my ExpressVPN. Here I'm gonna do Apple TV.
And you're gonna notice that it's gonna give me a DNS server IP on the right side.
Now that is essentially my SmartDNS and it's going to spoof my location so that geo restricted sites like Netflix, and Hulu and ABC and others, don't necessarily know that I'm not in my home country use this number and input it into the Apple TV DNS.
OK so here we are on the home screen of the Apple TV. Yours might look a little different. There are different versions as well as upgraded versions if you're looking at this further in the future. But more than likely it's gonna have the same general look and that is you're gonna be looking for that settings app on the top right.
So it looks like pretty much the same settings app that you'd find on your iPhone or your Mac. You find that settings app and then you go into general and you find your wireless network, whatever name that is. Once you click on that it's going to give you the option to set up either an automatic or a manual DNS. and using that number, that 12 digit number that ExpressVPN gave me for my SmartDNS, I'm gonna input that number into my manual DNS settings on my Apple TV. So it's gonna take me a couple of seconds to input this number but once I do, I'm going to set that number. It's gonna tell me that it's applying those settings. But there's still one more thing that I wanna do. This perhaps is going to work but it's better if you go back a little bit and scroll down until you find the restart setting.
You don't wanna reset your Apple TV, you just wanna restart it so that the settings and the connection with your wireless network and with the DNS is kind of reset and ready to go. Open up your Netflix app, open up Hulu, open up whatever you wanna use, and you should be able to stream those services without any problem. Again I use ExpressVPN and their SmartDNS settings. It's worked for me very well.
And you're gonna notice that it's gonna give me a DNS server IP on the right side.
Now that is essentially my SmartDNS and it's going to spoof my location so that geo restricted sites like Netflix, and Hulu and ABC and others, don't necessarily know that I'm not in my home country use this number and input it into the Apple TV DNS.
OK so here we are on the home screen of the Apple TV. Yours might look a little different. There are different versions as well as upgraded versions if you're looking at this further in the future. But more than likely it's gonna have the same general look and that is you're gonna be looking for that settings app on the top right.
So it looks like pretty much the same settings app that you'd find on your iPhone or your Mac. You find that settings app and then you go into general and you find your wireless network, whatever name that is. Once you click on that it's going to give you the option to set up either an automatic or a manual DNS. and using that number, that 12 digit number that ExpressVPN gave me for my SmartDNS, I'm gonna input that number into my manual DNS settings on my Apple TV. So it's gonna take me a couple of seconds to input this number but once I do, I'm going to set that number. It's gonna tell me that it's applying those settings. But there's still one more thing that I wanna do. This perhaps is going to work but it's better if you go back a little bit and scroll down until you find the restart setting.
You don't wanna reset your Apple TV, you just wanna restart it so that the settings and the connection with your wireless network and with the DNS is kind of reset and ready to go. Open up your Netflix app, open up Hulu, open up whatever you wanna use, and you should be able to stream those services without any problem. Again I use ExpressVPN and their SmartDNS settings. It's worked for me very well.
Report
