Are you frustrated by the international blocks that stop you from watching Hulu? Are you a UK Netflix user, annoyed that the American selection of movies and TV shows is orders of magnitude larger than what’s available to you? Perhaps you’re a US citizen who would love to watch BBC iPlayer? Well, I have the perfect solution for you: a premium DNS service called UnoDNS which bypasses all those regional locks.

We’ve got 25 one-year Gold subscriptions for UnoDNS to give away, worth a total of $1500!

UnoDNS is a DNS provider

DNS is a service that’s essential to the internet. Everytime you visit a website by typing in the domain, your ISPs DNS service will be used to check the actual IP address location of that particular domain. UnoDNS is a replacement DNS server that you use instead of your regular ISP DNS look up; that’s not all though. Anytime you access one of the many supported region-locked websites, the UnoDNS servers will perform some intricate packet-level magic that fools the site into thinking you’re located within the boundaries of applicable countries. You’ll be indistinguishable from any other regular visitor in that country.

Access to all geo-locked content?

That’s right. Your UK Netflix account will suddenly have full access to US Netflix goodness – and believe me, there is a heck of a difference. I was getting a little bored of Netflix to be honest, but this has completely changed my mind – our TV remote hasn’t been touched in months. As a non-US resident, Hulu will open the doors to it’s catch-up service lovingly. BBC iPlayer won’t care where you reside, and will treat you like any other licence fee paying British citizen. The full list of channels available to you is immense. Here’s just a small selection of the more famous supported channels and services (but no means an exhaustive list – you can find a full list here) – see anything you like?

There are no bandwidth or speed caps on UnoDNS – so you can watch as much as you like, anytime.

How is UnoDNS different to a VPN?

Although the two are completely different services, in our use case of bypassing region locked content there are a few factors to consider.

First, a VPN slows down your entire internet experience, as well as your streaming ability. UnoDNS on the other hand doesn’t affect your download speeds since you don’t need to tunnel in anywhere. When you’re dealing with streaming media of any kind, speed is key. UnoDNS only changes the packets it needs to in order to get that region locked content to you; the rest of your browsing experience is unaffected – my full 50mb down/5mb up connection was maintained the whole time. UnoDNS provides servers in every corner of the globe (note: this doesn’t affect what content you can access, just ensures a great browsing speed) - and they’re all running on Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing platform – which pretty guarantees reliability and scales well for millions of users. This is what a premium DNS service is!

A VPN also requires constant attention – you need to activate it when you need it, and reconnect if it fails at some point. UnoDNS is a simple a settings change on any internet device you own. Switch out your ISPs DNS server addresses for the UnoDNS addresses, and you’re set. That’s it – set and forget. You needn’t keep switching them around – it’s reliable and can be left on there permanently.

Not all devices support use of a VPN – most notably the Xbox 360 doesn’t, and the majority of Smart TV devices don’t either. However, all internet connected devices should let you change the DNS settings.

VPNs also generally only allow one device to be used at one time; if you’re using Netflix through the VPN in your bedroom, then the iPad can’t use it simulataneously. UnoDNS is tied to one public IP address – so that’s your entire household. You can even set it up as the default on your router, so all DNS traffic is automatically routed through UnoDNS. Genius. If you go on holiday you can keep using it too; just head over the UnoDNS IP management page, and allow access from a temporary IP address.

Setup

You’ll need to register your IP on the service first, or anytime your public IP changes: simply login, and hit Auto-Update. If you’re using a broadband always-on internet connection, you rarely need to do this, but there’s a bookmark provide which you can use in case, without needing to login.

Next, head to over to the Global DNS cluster page to find some servers local to you. Find the two most local servers – you always need two, as one is used as backup.

Now to change the DNS on your devices. (Note: sometimes you can just change this directly on your router thereby affecting every device on the network automatically, however, everyone’s router setup is different, and my particular router doesn’t even allow this).

On a Mac, open up Preferences -> Network and click your active network connection from the list on the left (it’s the one with a green ball next to it), then click Advanced. From the DNS tab (other tabs will slightly different depending on if it’s hard wired or Wifi connection), click the + button to add a new DNS server. Paste in the addresses that you obtained earlier, each as a separate entry. Hit ok, then Apply the new settings.

On an Xbox, head to Settings -> Network Settings -> (choose your connection type) -> Configure -> DNS -> Manual -> Primary, then Secondary DNS servers, replacing them with the addresses you obtained earlier.

For Windows PCs and other devices, check out the setup wizard on the UnoDNS website.

Recommend?

If you have any interest in watching online streaming media and are tired of fiddly solutions that need constant attention, UnoDNS is an absolute must-have. It’s simple, and it works – reliably. If only every internet service could be this good!

We’re giving away 25 one-year Gold subscriptions to UnoDNS! Here’s how to win one.

How do I win a copy of UnoDNS?

It’s easy, just exchange your MakeUseOf points for an entry into the competition. It’s really simple: create a MakeUseOf account, earn points and exchange your points for an entry! Learn more about our Game system and Rewards program.

This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, July 20th. The winners will be selected at random and informed via email.

Spread the word to your friends and have fun!

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