Due to the way that international licensing works, Netflix has different catalogues of programmes and films in every country it operates in. The brilliant news is that you can fool Netflix into thinking that you're in a different country, which makes it automatically give you new titles. In particular, if you fool Netflix into thinking that you're in America, you'll find that you've got access to loads more content than you have here in the UK. You can check out the check out the differences using the JustWatch search engine, which lets you search for content by country and service, so you can find out if your favourite film or TV show is on the US version of Netflix, or you can simply browse through the most popular content.
To do this, you need to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This clever tool 'tunnels' its way into another country, giving you a new IP address that makes your computer look as though it's located there rather than in the UK. This is enough for Netflix, which checks your location by examining your IP address, to be fooled, unlocking a new catalogue of shows.
There are many different VPNs out there, from the free to the paid-for. What you use also depends on the type of device that you're using. For me, I believe that the best option is to sign up for a smart VPN service, which will work with practically any device, from a PC to a smart TV. These services are not expensive, but give you a faster connection so you can watch Full HD and even Ultra HD channels. These are the instructions that are on this page; page two contains instructions on how to get a Mac or PC to use US Netflix for free. There's one caveat to the steps on this page: they don't work on the current Android App, nor with the Chromecast, Nexus Player, Roku Streaming Stick and Roku 3, as they're locked down (see our US Netflix on Chromecast guide for full instructions).
In brief
If you're happy changing network settings yourself, then this in-brief guide is all that you need. If you want a bit more help, scroll down for the full in-depth instructions.
- Change your device's DNS server address to use those of your chosen VPN provider (I use Unblock-Us, which uses the DNS servers 208.122.23.22 and 208.122.23.23, and costs $4.99 CAD a month).
- Make sure that your VPN service is set to the US
- Visit Netflix.com or fire-up your device's Netflix app, and you've got access to American Netflix
- If you're having problems, you may need to restart your device; Android owners may need to downgrade their version of the Netflix app (see below).
In detail - complete guide to smart VPNs
The best way, to get access to US Netflix is to sign up for a smart VPN service. They don't require you to install any software; you just have to change your device's DNS network settings, meaning they'll work with practically any device. Domain Name Servers (DNS) are the address books of the internet. Your computer talks to a DNS server and hands it a human-readable web address, such as www.expertreviews.co.uk; the DNS server hands back the website's unique IP address, such as 54.247.85.215, which it connects to.
In the case of the VPN servers that we recommend you use, they're smart in the way that they work. When you want to connect to Netflix, for example, rather than handing your computer Netflix's real IP address, the service sends it back the VPN's IP address. Your computer then connects seamlessly to the VPN, routing its traffic to the US and the American version of Netflix, all without having to install a client. This means that you can use practically any device to get US Netflix, including games consoles and smart TVs.
WARNING: be wary of free Netflix DNS codes
The smart VPN service that we'll show you how to use is reliable and trustworthy, but there are free services out there called US Netflix DNS codes, which some sites recommend. Although they can work for a bit, they stop working regularly and hackers have been know to put out their own DNS server addresses, redirecting people to dangerous sites or simply using them to steal information. We investigated this problem thoroughly on page three of this article.
IMPORTANT: AirPlay
If you want to use AirPlay to send video from your iPhone, iPad or Mac to your Apple TV, then all of your devices need to be connected to a VPN. If only your iPhone was, for example, then the Apple TV would be unable to connect to the video stream that you send it. For this reason, the most straightforward answer is to use a smart VPN service on everything.
How to downgrade to an older version of Android Netflix
For Android users, you may have to downgrade to Netflix version 3.7.1, which isn't blocked from accessing US Netflix. First, uninstall your current version of Netflix. Next, from your phone download the Netflix 3.7.1 APK file. You won't be able to do anything with the file at the moment, as your phone won't let you. In order to install this APK file manually (known as sideloading), you need to go to Settings, Security and enable the option to install from Unknown Sources. Finally, go to your phone's App drawer and select Downloads. Tap the APK file that you downloaded and tap the Install button. The older version of Netflix will be installed and you can follow the instructions above to get US Netflix.
Get US Netflix with Unblock-Us for Apple TV, PS3, PS4, Xbox One and more
We recommend Unblock-Us, which costs $4.99 CAD a month, but supports HD streaming and is extremely reliable. There's a free trial, too, so there's no reason not to give it a go. Alternative smart DNS services work in a very similar way, so you can follow the instructions below, but swap out the DNS server addresses that we tell you how to use the ones provided by your chosen service. Likewise, if you decide to search for free Netflix DNS codes, you can use the instructions below to plug in the DNS server addresses that you find. For Unblock-Us, you need to change the DNS settings on your device to use the Unblock-Us servers (208.122.23.22 and 208.122.23.23); you can use just one server if your device won't let you enter two.
We have an article that shows you how to change DNS server settings on most popular devices, including Windows, Mac, Android, iPad and iOS. The guide is written to show people how to solve DNS issues with ISPs by switching to Google DNS server addresses, but you just need to use the Unblock-Us server addresses above in place of the Google ones. Our guide also shows you how to make network-wide changes, so that all of your devices default to using Unblock-Us.
The service also supports PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Apple TV (new and old) and host of other devices, and Unblock-Us has excellent DNS set-up guides. Once your devices are configured you can start Netflix as normal, only this time you'll be taken to the US version of the site. If you're having problems playing video, you may need to restart your device, so that it picks up the new settings; the Apple TV is particularly bad at this: restart this one by going to Settings, General and Restart.
If you still can't play video, it may be because your home network's internet address isn’t registered with Unblock-Us (it verifies you by your location, and ISP's regularly change your internet address). Go to the Unblock-Us website and click Login, then enter your email address. An orange box will appear on the page if you're not configured; click the link to activate your current network.
Finally, on the Unblock-Us page you can use the region picker to set which country you're in. This lets you go back to the UK without having to adjust your network settings, for example. Pick your country and click Update. Remember, you may have to restart your devices for them to work again. For Android and iOS devices, that may require that you quit the Netflix app and relaunch it.
If you've got a Mac or a PC, you can watch US Netflix for free and use your browser to connect to Netflix using the CyberGhost software. The downside is that the free version of the software isn't as fast as the paid-for premium version, and it can take a while to connect. For that reason, paying for a smart VPN service as listed on page one of this article is better. Still, if you only want to watch the occasional programme, CyberGhost is a good choice.
To get it working, just download and install CyberGhost and then run the software. When it runs you'll get a pop-up ad asking if you want to upgrade, but you can just close this down and ignore it. Once the software has started, just click the big yellow button to get Cyberghost to automatically connect to the VPN. It can take a while to connect and you may get a message telling you that there aren't enough free slots (Cyberghost reserves bandwidth for paying customers). However, I've never found Cyberghost to take more than a couple of minutes to connect.
Once Cyberghost has connected, it will automatically place your computer in a country. To change this and select America, click the menu underneath Simulated Country. Select U.S.A from the list and click OK, then click Reconnect on the next screen. Again, you'll have to wait for Cyberghost to find a free slot before it connects. Once it does, you'll see the map view update and your computer will be 'moved' to the US.
Now, all you have to do is fire up your browser and go to Netflix. When you log in this time, you'll see that you have all of the American content. I can't guarantee that the speed of Cyberghost will be good enough to stream HD video: if you find that it's not working as well as you'd like, you may need to upgrade to the paid version of Cyberghost or use the instructions on page one of this article.
There are plenty of sites that recommend that you use free Netflix DNS codes. Essentially, these services require you to change your network settings and they tunnel your traffic through to the US, so it appears as though you're in America. As good as that sounds, there's a real danger to using random network addresses you find on the internet; we find out what the real issues are.
What is a DNS server?
To put things simply, Domain Name System (DNS) servers are a bit like the phonebook for the internet. Those convenient web addresses you use to get to your favourite websites, such as www.google.com, actually need to get resolved to an IP address that your computer understands before you’re able to access the website itself. For example, Google has an IP address of 216.58.210.68; when you want to visit Google from your web browser, your computer asks its DNS server what its IP address is, before it makes the connection.
Your computer tends to get its DNS server address directly from your ISP, although some people override the setting manually to use an alternative DNS provider, such as Google's public DNS server. This can be helpful avoiding DNS issues, where your ISP's servers stop responding, preventing you from accessing any website: see how to avoid DNS issues for more information. In terms of accessing American Netflix, a key method is to change your DNS settings to use a server provided by a smart Virtual Private Network service.
What are smart VPNs?
Your computer has a unique IP address, which also tells services that you connect to where you're located. Smart VPNs help you overcome that by using a tunnel to make it look as though your computer is located in a different location. They work by using a custom DNS system: for example, your computer asks the smart VPN's DNS server what Netflix's IP address is. The DNS server returns the address of its VPN, and your computer seamlessly connects through this tunnel to the American version of Netflix. The beauty of this system is that you can use practically any device with these VPN services, even those where you can't install VPN client software, such as the Apple TV or PS4.
While there are plenty of legitimate services out there (we use Unblock-US), there are plenty of free DNS servers (called Netflix DNS codes, for some reason) available, claiming to give you access to US Netflix. However, as well as often being unreliable, they can be outright dangerous.
How dangerous is it to use DNS proxies?
By using these third-party, unverified servers, you’re taking a very big risk. You’re essentially trusting them to resolve the web addresses you type into your browser with the correct IP address for the website you intend to access. However, there’s nothing to stop them from misdirecting you to a phoney or malicious website instead.
You could enter ‘www.facebook.com’ into your address bar and be presented with a website that looks like Facebook but is in fact a replica of the Facebook page designed to steal your login credentials. Essentially while Facebook might be hosted on 1.2.3.4 (used merely as an example), the dubious DNS server could be directing you to 5.6.7.8 and a website that looks like Facebook. It could be even worse if it’s a website mimicking your online banking website. Webpages you visit could also be injected with ads and banners that aren’t supposed to be there or even malicious code putting your computer at risk. It becomes very difficult to tell which websites you’re able to trust.
Even NetflixDNSCodes, which hosts the most up-to-date servers, has a big warning on its homepage that says, "Recently, hackers have been distributing free DNS codes throughout the web to be used in order to steal your sensitive information. (Credit card numbers, etc)".
Testing DNS servers
To find out what issues there are, we tested a number of different free Netflix DNS servers to see what IP addresses were resolved and to give you a better idea of how dangerous using DNS proxies can be. We first started with a simple Google search of ‘Netflix free DNS’, a common starting point for those looking to access US Netflix from outside of the US.
We then chose a few different DNS servers at random, but this took a few goes before we found some that actually worked, as Netflix constantly blocks DNS servers it finds to be circumventing its region-locking. This is another reason why free DNS servers aren’t worth the hassle – you might find yourself having to constantly find new ones.
We then compared these against our ISP’s (in this case Sky Broadband) and Google’s public DNS servers to see how traffic was being routed between the DNS servers. We used the top 10 UK websites according to Alexa for the purpose of the test. To see which IP addresses the DNS servers were returning, we used the nslookup command in a terminal window. You use the command like this: nslookup <website name>. It then performs a DNS lookup and returns the matching IP address. The next step was to plug these IP addresses into the IP Lookup feature of whatismyipaddress.com to see where the servers were actually hosted and if they were in fact genuine.
The results
Not every website in the top 10 was routed suspiciously, due in part to the DNS servers being advertised as being free ways to access Netflix in particular, so many of the other sites were left intact. Here, you can see the address and host for Netflix’s UK servers, which are hosted by Amazon Web Services in Ireland. This was what was resolved when using both our ISP’s and Google’s DNS servers, which was to be expected.
Now, here’s when we used an alternative free Netflix DNS that we found on Google. Notice how it’s resolved a server in Colorado, which is how you’re able to trick Netflix into thinking you’re located in the US. For the purpose of accessing US Netflix, it works.
In one instance, the server was actually used to redirect us to sign up for a playmo TV account, which is a paid-for service to circumvent geo-restrictions. It's an example of how a search for free Netflix DNS codes can end up redirecting you a site that you had no intention of visiting.
We found a lot of discrepancies between how IP addresses were resolved for other websites, such as Facebook, as well. Our alternative DNS resolved servers in the US owned by a company named Edge Network Services Ltd rather than using Facebook’s UK servers. Doing a little digging we did, at least, find these to be genuine Facebook servers, however.
We even saw some differences in the IP addresses used between Google’s DNS servers and our ISP’s when it came to accessing Google. Interestingly it seemed that traffic was being routed through Sky’s servers when accessing Google showing that ISP’s can easily have oversight of your browsing through their DNS servers.
Using Unblock-US has a similar effect when it comes to accessing Netflix, with traffic being routed to servers located in the US as expected. Similarly, traffic to other websites such as Facebook were also routed via the US, albeit to also genuine servers. The main advantage of using the paid-for Unblock-US service is more oversight as to how traffic is being routed. The service promises it doesn’t log or analyse traffic passed through its servers but there’s still a degree of trust involved. You also get the benefit of customer service should things not work, which you won’t with other free DNS proxies you find that might get blocked by Netflix.
Conclusion
While we didn’t find any overtly malicious activity from the alternative DNS servers we tested, we did find some that were re-routing traffic to a paid-for service. There are also stories online of hackers setting up dodgy DNS servers in order to steal your details. As we've shown with our testing, changing DNS servers dramatically changes how you access every site, not just Netflix, and where they're located. It’s easy to see just how dangerous they can be if you’re not paying attention.
Such public DNS servers can also be slow at resolving addresses due to being overloaded with other users and, by not allowing certain websites to know your location, you’ll also end uploading pages from more distant servers that will also be slower. There's no guarantee that you'll get decent VPN performance for Netflix and you may find that you either can't get a connection or that quality suffers. A final problem with free servers is that they tend not to be available for long, meaning that you'll constantly have to search for a new one to use.
In short, we didn't find any free DNS servers that produced malicious results, only redirecting us to an unintended destination, but it doesn't mean that you won't connect to something malicious. Our advice is to sign up for a proper smart VPN service that's run properly: they're cheap, reliable and you put yourself at less risk.
