Free - Smart DNS Proxy

cjlawlor

It was 4.99 a month. Now it's free. I'm not sure how long this offer lasts but it could be worth a look if you don't already have something similar setup with Unblock US, overplay etc. -

www.smartdnsproxy.com

Agent Smith

cjlawlor wrote: »

It was 4.99 a month. Now it's free. I'm not sure how long this offer lasts but it could be worth a look if you don't already have something similar setup with Unblock US, overplay etc. -

www.smartdnsproxy.com

Would Work Great for a Smart TV and the like me thinks.....

cruhoortwunk

How would it work if you only wanted it on one device though? You would set the DNS servers on the TV or whatever, and activate it on your external IP. Would it not affect other devices then too, as they are on the same IP?

bajer101

I can't see any region changer, so how would you switch between netflix USA, netflix UK etc.?

batistuta9

cruhoortwunk wrote: »

How would it work if you only wanted it on one device though? You would set the DNS servers on the TV or whatever, and activate it on your external IP. Would it not affect other devices then too, as they are on the same IP?

if/when you set the DNS on the device you want to use that'll override the DNS settings on your router

bajer101 wrote: »

I can't see any region changer, so how would you switch between netflix USA, netflix UK etc.?

you don't need to switch afaik it'll take care of that for you, telling the site you're where you're supposed to be

Charlie19

cruhoortwunk wrote: »

How would it work if you only wanted it on one device though? You would set the DNS servers on the TV or whatever, and activate it on your external IP. Would it not affect other devices then too, as they are on the same IP?

There's a how to set up tab on the home page.

http://www.smartdnsproxy.com/Setup

galait

This is not the long established and excellent overplay.net product SmartDNS from https://www.overplay.net/
Looks like the "Real" SmartDNS is still $4.95 , No Idea if this Charlatan Service is any good.

groom

bajer101 wrote: »

I can't see any region changer, so how would you switch between netflix USA, netflix UK etc.?

Was wondering that as well. I'm guessing it just gives you the US Netflix while simultaneously you could watch BBC iPlayer. You don't pick a region as such. You are just unblocked to everything and when it comes to Netflix it is the US one.

.G.

They all do the same thing.I used Overplay all year for watching Be In sports online but they tend to block Overplays dns now so I had to switch.The one I switched too worked perfectly and was cheaper.

Yggr of Asgard

I'm going to give it a spin, obviously I'm using a one time e-mail address (in case they want to SPAM), use a different password and only use it when I want to watch region limited sites (not for banking or personal information).

So far it works fine, what it lacks from different providers is the ability to choose which netflix to use but otherwise so far it's fast.

Poor old Tunlr...RIP

moodrater

I asked regarding their revenue model and they said it only free while they 'tune' the network? So I suppose we're stress testing it for them. Parent company registered in the seychelles, almost 0 information about them. I'd be careful about using it as a general one with now tv.

If you have a router with dd-wrt, open-wrt you can use dhcp-option 6 to send those servers to an ip, ip range or mac address which is handy for now tv.

AlanS181824

I had a trial of this a while back, thanks OP.

upandcumming

Tried it last week... Sorry I never said anything!

Couldn't get some region-locked addons to work on XBMC and then YouTube wouldn't work so I bailed!

markc1184

I've been using it for about 2 weeks now after seeing it being promoted on twitter. Using it on Xbox for getting Netflix US. No problems to date.

StaticNoise

I'm currently chatting with the staff to see how it is now free, if there have been any TOS changes, if data or analytics are being placed upon us, or if anything nasty is going on.

I'll report back.

Update

From my chat [names and stuff edited, obviously]

How is the service now free? What changes have been made to the TOS?
Our mother company want's to keep the service free as much as they can until they optimize the network for the best and we don't know how long they will keep the service for free.

Is this confirmed via a press release or document?
Yes, it was confirmed by our administrators

Great. And can I confirm that there are no changes to speeds, availability, region access, and no ad injections, data storage, etc.?
Also, are our streaming habits recorded or kept on file?
Yes, we do not record, keep logs and your traffic is between your computer and the streaming site

[If we can leave the DNS active all the time- something not permitted, technically, by Tunlr.net]
Smart DNS Proxy are running 24/7 and we unblocks streaming websites (http://www.smartdnsproxy.com/Services) but other than that we cannot help you. But regarding for availability and ability Smart DNS Proxy gives you 24/7, 99.99% running!


Very friendly bloke. I hope that clears up things.
Thanks, OP... I'm going to go mad on my Now TV box. Hello, iPlayer!



Bonus knowledge nugget:

Afraid of sharing your email with a company in case of spam?
If you've got a Google account, just use a plus sign!

ilovegettingboardsfreebiesandbargains@gmail.com is different to ilovegettingboardsfreebiesandbargains+smartdns@gmail.com.
If you use the latter, and you start getting spam or the like, you can block the email with the plus sign, and you're away.

HTH.




Yikes! See my new post below!

partyatmygaff

If you're not paying anything, you're the product.

If it's just analytics data though, I can live with that!

TheDriver

i can't see where the free one is. When I click on it, it has a price??

wiz569

TheDriver wrote: »

i can't see where the free one is. When I click on it, it has a price??

Seems to have just changed to a 14 day free trial now

selfbuilder1

Its gone from free to a 14 day free trial and then you have to pay like alot of other companies. I signed up this morning and there was no mention of a 14 day trial. When i logged into the site now it shows my free trial expiring on the 13/5/2014. Too good to be true i'm afraid. Any other similar service that is free for longer that just a couple of weeks?

StaticNoise

I just spoke to the staff member again. They just got the memo, and information, and all accounts as of one hour ago have been changed to free trials. The free service is now gone.

Thanks OP, but the bargain is now dead.

upandcumming

Just got USTVVod to work!

StaticNoise

On a side note, and not to derail this, I'm thinking of making a similar service for us Boardsies.
Basically, people can chip in one or two euro every other month, and get access to a DNS service that's locked down just for us.

If anyone is interested in helping the project, drop me a PM.


I'll post to you all if/when things get going.


Static-out.

cjlawlor

Well that imploded quickly... Sadly it's not the free smartDNS service we might have hoped for. As staticnoise said, this bargain is dead.

Yggr of Asgard

Yup that was gone quickly, my account now shows that it's a trial, unfortunately there has not even been an e-mail from them about it.

Well I'm going to use it for the trial period and than I'm off, not going to sign up for a service that changes it minds so quickly, does not give me a good feeling to deal with them.

selfbuilder1

I know it's no longer free but it's fairly well priced at $19.90 for 12 months. If it works well for the trial I'm tempted to pay for the 12 months. Most of the other DNS services are about $4 to $5 per month.

dunworth1

selfbuilder1 wrote: »

I know it's no longer free but it's fairly well priced at $19.90 for 12 months. If it works well for the trial I'm tempted to pay for the 12 months. Most of the other DNS services are about $4 to $5 per month.

have they changed again as i'm seeing $34 /12 months

I wonder how this compares to www.unblock-us.com
i'm currently paying using them.
can select different regions for netflix etc..
theres an app

Marhay70

dublin-texas wrote: »

Yup that was gone quickly, my account now shows that it's a trial, unfortunately there has not even been an e-mail from them about it.

Well I'm going to use it for the trial period and than I'm off, not going to sign up for a service that changes it minds so quickly, does not give me a good feeling to deal with them.

Obviously graduates of the Ryanair school of customer service, imagine the **** you'd have to put up with if the service didn't work. Give me unblock-us any day, reasonable price and top notch CS.

cjlawlor

selfbuilder1 wrote: »

I know it's no longer free but it's fairly well priced at $19.90 for 12 months. If it works well for the trial I'm tempted to pay for the 12 months. Most of the other DNS services are about $4 to $5 per month.

True, and they are also offering $34.90 for two years... assuming the service will last that long. I'm sort of tempted but I was very put off by their u-turn on the free service. The fact they had a full month price ($4.99) crossed out and marked as free and then decided to change that to a 2 week trial was blatant false advertising.

finno

Mine is saying expiring on 5/10/2014

Not sure if the date is done in American way month/day/year

StaticNoise

It is using the American date form.

bromley52

I am going to stick with Overplay. It works with all that I want and the Netflix region switching is flawless across all platforms.

BenEadir

Hi all,

I use privateinternetaccess.com as a VPN primarily for US Netflix on a number of different devices i.e. 2 X Android TV boxes, 1 X xBox One, 1 X Win 8 PC and a few Android phones and tablets. PIA permit you to have 5 devices using the service at any one time so that suits us (3 adults and 2 kids) fine and allows me to use Kickass which is otherwise blocked by my ISP but it's not that slick when you want to switch from watching US Netflix to BBC iPlayer so I'm thinking of subscribing to a smart DNS type service which (if I understand things correctly) would sit on my router and autoswitch traffic to be seen from the correct country regardless of whether the traffic is coming from the xBox, an Android phone app or a PC.

I've a few questions though:-

1. What service is "best" from a performance and security/safety point of view? I'm happy to pay an extra few Euro for something reliable.

2. Is my understanding of how smart DNS services work correct i.e. all traffic routing through my WiFi router will be automatically switched regardless of which device it's coming from or how many devices are connected to the router? (I counted 19 devices connected to my router one evening!!)

3. Is there any point or harm retaining the PIA VPN service if I subscribe to a smart DNS service?

4. If smart DNS services are monitoring all traffic going through my router does that mean they could be skimming passwords and I shouldn't be doing any sort of financial transactions from buying products on Amazon to using PayPal to online banking?

Sorry for unloading on the thread like this!!!

Ben

StaticNoise

BenThere wrote: »

1. What service is "best" from a performance and security/safety point of view? I'm happy to pay an extra few Euro for something reliable.

If you're looking for security and privacy as a priority, Viking VPN or one of the other offshore (non-US) VPN providers that do not log and are supporters of the EFF.

If you're looking for a secure connection (and not wearing a tinfoil hat or uploading to Wikileaks), Private Internet Access or one of the other providers will suffice.

As for the Smart DNS, things like Overplay would be your best bet. Security isn't their strong point, and I'm unsure about their logging policies, however.

BenThere wrote: »

2. Is my understanding of how smart DNS services work correct i.e. all traffic routing through my WiFi router will be automatically switched regardless of which device it's coming from or how many devices are connected to the router? (I counted 19 devices connected to my router one evening!!)

No, not necessarily. You can have a different DNS set for each device- details come with the product. But, some providers, as far as I know, do allow you to change the DNS for the entire network via the router, but this may impact browsing and general experience for the overall home network and all the devices connected.

This is a trade-off which you need to see for yourself.

BenThere wrote: »

3. Is there any point or harm retaining the PIA VPN service if I subscribe to a smart DNS service?

Private Internet Access gives you 5 devices for a secure connection to another country for all browsing and internet use. A Smart DNS provider is generally for TV and streaming uses only, and not for security intensive use.

There's no point having both. A VPN connection with PIA whilst using a Smart DNS provider would be overkill, and possibly slow and buggy. If you were wanting to watch foreign TV, you could just connect to the particular PIA server rather than using both. It's your choice, really.

BenThere wrote: »

4. If smart DNS services are monitoring all traffic going through my router does that mean they could be skimming passwords and I shouldn't be doing any sort of financial transactions from buying products on Amazon to using PayPal to online banking?

That's another risk, but you get that with some VPN providers also. Most big name ones which are clear about their logging are OK (for example, Private Internet Access, et. al.), but they could potentially be doing the same. I wouldn't really trust a Smart DNS for online banking and the like.

Also, I have on one occasion become locked out of my internet banking as I was using no VPN one minute, and suddenly I logged in from another country due to the VPN which I turned on. It's all pros and cons.