What is SmartDNS? (and how is it different than a VPN?)
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2024
- What is SmartDNS and how is it useful for people that often travel? Josh answers these questions and more in this guide to SmartDNS. Read more: www.allthingssecured.com/vpn/...
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Video Timestamps
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0:00 - Introduction
0:22 - What is SmartDNS?
0:46 - Understanding Georestriction
1:17 - Spoofing Your Location
1:50 - Recommended SmartDNS Services
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What is Smart DNS and how is it different from a VPN or a virtual private network? Simply put, Smart DNS is a technology that is used to disguise your location, allowing you to access geo-restricted content.
Unlike a VPN, which encrypts and reroutes all of your internet traffic through another server, Smart DNS is more akin to, let’s say switching the license plate on a car. The car’s actual location hasn’t changed, but the plate indicates another state or country.
This is useful for you when it comes to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, BBC and other popular services that geo-restrict content. Here’s the deal. Despite the global nature of the internet, these companies license their content based on location, so they can only show a particular movie or TV show in particular country. It’s ridiculous but it’s reality. So if you’re traveling outside your own country, you’re stuck watching only the content that is available in that country. In some places, like China, they’ll block everything.
What Smart DNS does is trick these services into thinking that you’re in a location that you’re really not. It’s call spoofing your location. When you connect to the internet through Smart DNS, you can choose which country’s license plate you want on your car and when you access a site like Netflix or Hulu, they check your plate and serve you the content they’re allowed to give you.
Sometimes they can spot a fake location but most of the time they can’t. And if you think about, when you’re paying for the service, it’s stupid that you’re not allowed to stream the content anyway.
For more information on securing your internet activity and protecting your privacy online, check out the rest of the videos on the All Things Secured channel. 
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If you have any questions about SmartDNS, feel free to leave a comment here. Otherwise, I recommend you try one of these SmartDNS services:
✅ Surfshark: www.allthingssecured.com/yt/surfshark-setup
✅ StrongVPN/StrongDNS: www.allthingssecured.com/discount/strongvpn
I think that makes sense. I've constantly heard "get a VPN" and "try out
SmartDNS" but I never quite understood the difference. I appreciate the
excellent video explanation!
+caleb2003 I'm glad it was helpful, Caleb!
This series is very informative! Thank you!
I'm glad it's been helpful!
RUclips's Video on VPN, on Launch apps or games. I have a thumbs up and thank-you for your tutorials on these subjects.
My pleasure, Lynn! Thanks so much for the comment.
It really works!
Great, Krishna!
Thanks.and take care.
My pleasure, Eli. You as well.
Wondering. It sounds like you are saying my IP still comes up, but my location will show up different?
Yes, from a security standpoint, SmartDNS doesn’t actually change your IP address at all.
Is Smart DNS secure? How do things play when you enter personal information whilst using Smart DNS?
SmartDNS doesn't do any type of encryption on your internet traffic. It's only meant to hide your IP address. If you want security and encryption, you'll want to use a VPN.
Wish we had a little more detail on the dns part.. Maybe how to set up
So if I install a smart dns and go on netflix do I have access to the whole world’s Netflix content or just a random country’s?
A quality Smart DNS will allow you to choose the country. Otherwise it's not random, you're just going to be stuck with the country that the SmartDNS service has available.
Hi,
Does our isp know that what we are watching.
Do they cause any issue?
Regards
Depending on your DNS settings, they may know which websites you are accessing to view content, but because almost all websites are now encrypted with https, they won't know what exactly you're watching on that website. The only time that can cause an issue is if they are throttling data for users who access certain sites like Netflix, Disney+, etc.
Ok.. I got the difference between a VPN and SmartDNS .. (just) but the licence plate analogy makes no sense. How do I find a licence plate for the BBC?
Ha! Sorry for the confusion, Greg. It's just an illustration. All it means is that instead of encrypting your entire connection (VPN), you're just changing your DNS (SmartDNS). So for the BBC, you'd need to connect to a UK-based DNS address via a SmartDNS service. OR...you could just connect to a VPN server in the UK (although the encryption might slow your speeds a bit).
So, a SmartDNS service simply replaces my computers own lookup service with one that is provided remotely?
Does this work for RUclips TV? While on Surfshark VPN, I was in Mexico, and couldn't play on my RUclips TV because it recognized my location even though my vpn was at Atlanta, but I did not have smart dns turned on at the current time, never knew about it till now
No, it doesn’t in my experience. For RUclips TV you need a combination of IP address change AND GPS spoofing. It’s difficult.
@@AllThingsSecured yeah, I figured, thanks for replying
I realize this is a year old, but what this does is simply query (dns) from a different geo located server and these providers are doing their geo assessment based on which of their server you hit - since you queried from a different location. The dns server is not really ‘smart’ just in the right geo IP block.
Could you help me out dns be used of torrenting
DNS doesn't add anything in terms of encryption, so if you're trying to hide the fact that you're torrenting then no, SmartDNS won't help.
VPN encrypts DNS dont
Is it legal having this sort of software, if you were to get caught with it?
+Kyle Pearce For more on the legality, watch this video: ruclips.net/video/8VJN9ZglQrE/видео.html
why all the links are VPNs? i want DNS?????
You won't find many DNS-only services. Most of the time it is VPN companies that offer a DNS service as well (hence me linking to them).
I'm using Smart DNS Proxy and it works great. It's a SmartDNS focused company has DNS servers globally. Works with US Netflix and BBC as well.
Please help me.. I'm having some major red flags that I wish you could explain.
What red flags?
You don't mention the main reason to use it - as a workaround for the many multimedia devices, like TVs, that don't support VPN. Hence, you can configure their nameservers (in network > TCP/IP settings) with the SmartDNS server IP addresses.
It's still not clear how it actually "spoofs" your location, as you claim. DNS simply translates a hostname to an IP address. So, clearly SmartDNS is responding with a substitute IP address for the TV provider servers. Your IP address isn't changed, so the TV provider's server will still know that your IP is from another country. Why don't they block it?
The only way I can speculate it works is that the substitute IP address is of the SmartDNS provider's server, and that server is a proxy server located in the TV provider's country, which relays the request to the TV provider and renders it for the client.
I'd appreciate an explanation, as the video misses out these crucial points.
Sorry for the confusion, Paul. And you are correct, SmartDNS does not change your IP address. Instead, it re-routes your traffic through a SmartDNS server in another location, and when a service like Netflix looks at the internet traffic, it looks like it's coming from the location of the DNS server and not your physical location.
@@AllThingsSecured Thanks for the response, but that still doesn't explain it. If the IP address isn't changed, then the TV provider will see that the client's IP address is from another country, and block it. Surely, NAT is involved? Unless, it is indeed, just an HTTP Proxy? Please clarify.
I think this is why SmartDNS works for some streaming services and not others. For those that rely on the IP address, it doesn't work as well. For those services that determine geo-location based on the DNS server (which is many of them), then this "tricks" the service into seeing you in a different location.
I think the most important points that we're uncovering here are 1) it doesn't change your IP... 2) it doesn't encrypt your connection at all and... 3) it doesn't work for every streaming service.
I hope that helps, Paul!
@@AllThingsSecured Almost, but not completely. Please bear with me. :)
DNS lookups happen between the client and DNS server. The TV provider isn't involved in this. Thus, how would TV services "determine geo-location (of the client's IP address) based on the DNS server"?
@@AllThingsSecured I just spoke to CactusVPN via their online chat, and they confirmed to me that SmartDNS does indeed involve HTTP/S proxies, as I explained in my first post. I think this solves the mystery.
Anyone here use smart Dns? And is it trust worthy in terms of giving out my banking details?
I’ve used it. Since you’re not rerouting your data through a different server, it’s no less safe than doing banking without SmartDNS.
Is my actual IP visible?
Yes
should have started the video by talking of the cost. I thought it was free untill i google
Why would it be free?
@@AllThingsSecured because I can't afford it
Jesus, yet another SMARTdns video that doesn’t explain how SMARTdns works.
How would you rather I explained it, Theo?
thanks for the info. too bad the music is really bad and distracts 100 percent. royalty free music is terrible. gives the impression whoever made the video has very little integrity, honestly. for professional content i find it an odd choice. it really should never get used. how hard is it to create sounds if you can create content like youtubers do. kind of absurd.
a shining example of good music for tech videos is the show how it's made
Thanks for the feedback! Unfortunately, I don’t think you understand what “royalty free music” is. Pretty much every RUclips video uses royalty free music, otherwise they’d have to pay per view. What you’re saying is that you don’t like the music I chose, which is fine...but don’t act like you understand royalty free 🤨
Yeah, RUclips has some software and active reviewers of RUclips videos that are uploaded. Even if a song has been requested and approved to be used in a RUclips video, it can get flagged. That's the reason behind using royalty free music in most RUclips videos. It's easier than trying to go through all the red tape.
@@AllThingsSecured I actually loved the last beat you used, who was it?