How I Found Lost on American Netflix

When I first saw the US Version of Netflix I was amazed,  don’t get me wrong I was very impressed with the service I got from the UK.   However when you see the difference between the two versions you can’t help feeling a little bit short changed.

In fact the reason I started checking out the different versions was last year when Netflix UK suddenly dropped their streaming of Lost without any warning whatsoever.  That is quite annoying when you’ve just reached episode 23 and are hopelessly addicted.   Actually I was very cross and when I started searching online I discovered that Lost was still available in other versions of Netflix.

So I figured I’d just have to find a way of watching the US version instead.  It turned out to be relatively easy using some security software I use on all my computers called . .

Here’s the video demonstrating how it worked, effectively relaying my connection through a proxy based in the USA.

Works great and it even allows you to watch other countries versions of Netflix too, the Canadian version has quite a lot of stuff that’s not on either the UK, European or US versions of Netflix.  Of course the contents of all these country variants are constantly changing so it’s worth checking them out from time to time.   Netflix just adapts and relays you to the version that you want to use – so you’ll see Canadian Netflix when you connect via a Canadian proxy and so on.  This is how I watched the remaining 50 odd episodes of Lost.

Now I started thinking if there was another way, to redirect my connection so I could use it on my Smart TV and Roku.  Identity Cloaker is excellent on PCs and hand help devices like Apple tablets and smart phones where you  can use it as a VPN.   However on TVs and devices like the Roku it’s doesn’t always work as there is no way to set it up with authorisation – i.e. to accept your username and password.  Well there is a way and it’s called Smart DNS which works in a similar way but only selectively routes part of your connection using a DNS proxy.

Here’s a short video showing how Smart DNS works.

This works in a very similar way by hiding your real location but only routing specific parts of your request to the server – just enough to hide your real location. So this like Identity Cloaker can allow you access to the big media sites like Netflix, BBC Iplayer and Hulu irrespective of your location. It’s main advantage though is that it is just enabled by changing your DNS servers as shown in the video. So you’re effectively using a DNS proxy for Netflix, Hulu or whatever, but it’s much easier to change DNS settings on different devices. In fact if you want to route everything this way you can just change it on your router or access point so anything connected uses the service as well. The video just shows BBC Iplayer but it works for connecting you to the US version of Netflix (or whatever version you require.

The service demonstrated is called Smart DNS – I’ve just started using a new company for this which offer a Free 14 Day Trial.