So you head on to the best VPN you have found on the Internet fire it up aaaaannnd..... the BBC site buffers and buffers and so you try a different location in the UK and it works a bit, but then stops. WHY!!! they promised me I wouldn't loose my speeds!!!!
Did they lie? did I do something wrong?
The answer is no, there is ONE real reason VPN's are made for..... security.
And how they do that is by changing your location so that no one can trace back to you (the government can so don't do anything illegal) (and even those VPN services that claim they don't keep logs etc etc.. they do, don't do anything illegal)
So lets say you live in London but dont want people to trace your IP back to you, so you log in to your VPN service and it finds the nearest IP location they have near you, so it gets you for example Swansea. Great you surf protected and your speed doesn't go down so much.
However if you wanted an IP address in lets say Miami the speeds suddenly go really slow. They were not really designed for that kind of job (although they can be used for that).
Which leads us onto the other option DNS, what exactly is a DNS?
here are two quotes to help you understand:
"DNS stands for “domain name system.” Domain names are the human-readable website addresses we use every day. For example, Google’s domain name is google.com. If you want to visit Google, you just need to enter google.com into your web browser’s address bar.
However, your computer doesn’t understand where “google.com” is. Behind the scenes, the Internet and other networks use numerical IP addresses (“Internet protocol” addresses). Google.com is located at the IP address 173.194.39.78 on the Internet. If you typed this number into your web browser’s address bar, you’d also end up at Google’s website.
We use google.com instead of 173.194.39.78 because addresses like google.com are more meaningful and easier for us to remember. DNS is often explained as being like a phone book – like a phone book, DNS matches human-readable names to numbers that machines can more easily understand."
"Domain name system servers match domain names like google.com to their associated IP addresses — 173.194.39.78 in the case of google.com. When you type google.com into your web browser’s address bar, your computer contacts your current DNS server and asks what IP address is associated with google.com. Your computer then connects to the IP address and displays “google.com” in your web browser – the connection to 173.194.39.78 happens behind the scenes.
The DNS servers you use are likely provided by your Internet service provider (“ISP”). If you’re behind a router, your computer is likely using your router as your DNS server, but the router is likely forwarding requests to your Internet service provider’s DNS servers."
( you can read more here at howtogeek.com )
OK, so now we know, humans use names/words, computers use numbers, and they use DNS to match names to numbers easily. depending on where the DNS is based (its gateway location), depends where the site thinks you are accessing it from... without slowing your internet speed.
Great so which DNS service is the best?
Here is a roundup of the ones I think are best:
ControlD
unlocator
unotelly
unblock-us
All three of them have free trials so try one, wait until your trial ends then try the next, etc.
unotelly has 260 channels they geographically unblocked
unlocator has 107 channels they geographically unblocked
unblock-us not specific but much less then the other 2
but it doesn't really make a difference they all unblock all the sites you could need. they just add more random sited you are never going to use just to boost up the numbers.
Pricing
unblock-us charges $4.99 a month
unotelly charges $4.95 a month
unlocator charges $4.95 a month, $27.50 for 6 months, $49.95 for 12 months.
I would advice you to look up how to set up on the device you want to use it with, as some can be a bit tricky to do.
Devices
Theoretically they all work on every device, however some give better support / guides how to do it.
unotelly and unlocator support all sorts of devices, unblock-us says they support most of them.
IP Changing
DNS needs to know your current IP address in order to tunnel you properly, and depending on how often your ISP changes your IP address you will need to update it on the DNS services site.
This is done through a 'key' the provide you that you can book mark and just click before you go on the site for example, click the bookmark then open netflix.
Who wants to do this every time they want to visit a site? or lets say you want the DNS service on your Roku? how are you going to update it?......
Apps
unlocator has an app for android
unotelly has a third party app for android
unblock-us has a third party app for android
I don't know about iphone for any of them.
What these apps do is automatically or manually update your IP address.
Final conclusion
unlocator
unotelly
unblock-us
All three of them have free trials so try one, wait until your trial ends then try the next, etc.
unotelly has 260 channels they geographically unblocked
unlocator has 107 channels they geographically unblocked
unblock-us not specific but much less then the other 2
but it doesn't really make a difference they all unblock all the sites you could need. they just add more random sited you are never going to use just to boost up the numbers.
Pricing
unblock-us charges $4.99 a month
unotelly charges $4.95 a month
unlocator charges $4.95 a month, $27.50 for 6 months, $49.95 for 12 months.
I would advice you to look up how to set up on the device you want to use it with, as some can be a bit tricky to do.
Devices
Theoretically they all work on every device, however some give better support / guides how to do it.
unotelly and unlocator support all sorts of devices, unblock-us says they support most of them.
IP Changing
DNS needs to know your current IP address in order to tunnel you properly, and depending on how often your ISP changes your IP address you will need to update it on the DNS services site.
This is done through a 'key' the provide you that you can book mark and just click before you go on the site for example, click the bookmark then open netflix.
Who wants to do this every time they want to visit a site? or lets say you want the DNS service on your Roku? how are you going to update it?......
Apps
unlocator has an app for android
unotelly has a third party app for android
unblock-us has a third party app for android
I don't know about iphone for any of them.
What these apps do is automatically or manually update your IP address.
Final conclusion
Edit: I only recommend ControlD nowadays.
unblock-us really didn't work so well for me, it took so long to set up on a simple PC, and the app was just OK.
unotelly worked OK the set up was painless but setting up the automatic IP updater didn't, the app was good but is third party.
unlocator was the only one that worked flawlessly and the app worked as well.
But hey, dont trust me try them all out yourselves!!!
Just one final say on DNS Services, some ISP run everything through their servers, meaning the DNS services wont work as your ISP Hijacks your DNS to their own.... again this can be found out by using their free trials.
