How do VPNs like unotelly work?

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TeaLeaf

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#173868 9-Jun-2015 09:57

I want to be able to change IP regionally, like between Australia, England and USA. Like you can on Hola.

Is this possible?

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#1320066 9-Jun-2015 10:37

With a VPN your internet connection is tunneled to a server in another country, so it looks like you're there. There are some DNS tricks as well but I don't really know what they are.

BigPipeNZ

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#1320072 9-Jun-2015 10:41

a smart DNS service like Unotelly is not the same as a VPN.

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nathan

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#1320103 9-Jun-2015 10:50

Unotelly already lets you watch UK/US/AU content

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#1320124 9-Jun-2015 10:58

BigPipeNZ: a smart DNS service like Unotelly is not the same as a VPN.

But UnoTelly also offer a VPN part as well.

I suggest the OP read this post "How to use geo-unblocking services".

TeaLeaf

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#1320172 9-Jun-2015 11:25

thanks freitasm, i thought DNS was a slower service than VPN? or have i got that around the wrong way.

for might particular siuation, which would be the best choice with unotelly?

surfisup1000

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#1320177 9-Jun-2015 11:30

TeaLeaf: thanks freitasm, i thought DNS was a slower service than VPN? or have i got that around the wrong way.

for might particular siuation, which would be the best choice with unotelly?

My (almost 0) understanding is that the unotelly solution is DNS based.

DNS solution should be faster than a vpn .

Because, with a vpn all traffic going from netflix to your device is routed through the vpn . VPN's are often not that fast because they can have thousands of users sharing the bandwidth.

With the DNS solution, only the dns queries are used to validate you are the correct country but traffic is send directly from netflix to your device.

I could be completely wrong, where are all the network experts when you need them :)

TeaLeaf

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#1320185 9-Jun-2015 11:40

No i think you have it right.

Is the DNS set at the router end or is it software based?

Im a bit confused how it will know which Country IP I want to look at content from.

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lxsw20

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#1320191 9-Jun-2015 11:47

You can set the DNS addresses at the router or the end device, up to you.

trig42

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#1320197 9-Jun-2015 11:57

TeaLeaf: No i think you have it right.

Is the DNS set at the router end or is it software based?

Im a bit confused how it will know which Country IP I want to look at content from.

I don't know how it works, there is obviously a bit of 'magic' there, and they will keep that close to their chests.

With Unotelly, you can go to the Unotelly website, and tell it which Netflix region (and a host of other options) you will appear to be in.
I have mine currently set to USA for Netflix, and I have BBC iPlayer available out of the UK. I only have to set the DNS on my Amazon FireTV and it 'just works'. Only time where there are issues are when my IP address changes on my net connection, but that is a simple case of updating it with Unotelly (I have the update page bookmarked on my phone and iPad, just loading the page updates it and away I go again).

TeaLeaf

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#1320205 9-Jun-2015 11:58

thats a good tip as we often turn the router off if we going away for the weekend etc. habit of mine checking the stove is off and all power sucking devices are turned off :-)

Rikkitic

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#1320214 9-Jun-2015 12:22

I use Unotelly and have it set for SBS Australia. This conflicts with my cartoons on Fox. Rather than switch back and forth, which is a little awkward on the Unotelly interface, I use a free proxy that works for Fox but not Australia (TV Unblock) and use a proxy switcher on my computer (DNS Jumper) to flick between them. This is much quicker and easier. To maintain this kind of flexibility I do not use a proxy on the router.

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khull

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#1320222 9-Jun-2015 12:37

In the past I looked at the packets from DNS services like these

What used to happen (not sure if this is still the case) is the request handshake (authorisation to stream) is done using an 'accepted' geo restricted IP. Once the stream starts I found that the connection is direct to the content source provider (s3 and so forth)

freitasm

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#1320266 9-Jun-2015 13:14

Usually the DNS services will be faster than VPNs.

TeaLeaf

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#1320278 9-Jun-2015 13:17

So it sounds like there is some manual administration required when swapping between geographical IPs, like iplayer to netflix for example?

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#1320279 9-Jun-2015 13:18

UnoTelly allows you some granular control - some services are separate, so you can have Netflix in one region and Hulu in another for example. Just use their free trial to see how it works.

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