Very popular, the Apple TV offers a user-friendly and very practical environment for watching all kinds of multimedia content on a television screen. Installing a VPN on the device not only provides the ability to protect your data privacy, but also provides access to geo-blocked content around the world.
Currently, Apple TV system restrictions do not allow VPN providers to develop a specifically dedicated application. One of the solutions offered by many VPN services consists of installing the VPN directly on the Internet box or the home router in order to protect all the equipment connected to the network. However, you should know that not all routers are compatible and that installation can be quite complex and cause network malfunctions with certain devices.
Fortunately, CyberGhost offers a much simpler alternative via its “My Smart DNS” service to install your VPN directly on the Apple TV. For this, it provides VPN configuration files including DNS addresses to access different servers based in popular locations or optimized to unblock specific streaming and TV platforms. Note that this configuration allows you to bypass geographic restrictions, but not to encrypt the connection.
Save CyberGhost Smart DNS information
To retrieve DNS information from CyberGhost, you must start by logging into your online account using your credentials (email address and password). Once on the dashboard, click on the “My Smart DNS” tab in the left menu and select the “Apple TV” tab on the far right of the “DNS Addresses for TV” menu. If no address yet appears in the window that appears, click on the “Get a new Smart DNS” button and then “Activate Smart DNS”.
The service then displays a list of DNS addresses to access a particular location, or a server optimized for streaming. All you have to do is save the desired address before going to the Apple TV settings. It is recommended that you back up the original DNS settings before changing them so that you can reset them if needed.
Configure Apple TV DNS servers
Go to the “Settings” menu on Apple TV and select “Network” in the “Settings” and make the following changes:
- Network: Select the Wi-Fi connection Apple TV is connected to
- Wi-Fi: Scroll through the options and click “Configure DNS”
- Configure DNS: select “Manually” and indicate the IP address of the DNS server corresponding to the location or streaming service previously registered in the CyberGhost dashboard list. Validate by clicking on “Finish”.
Return to Apple TV’s “Settings” and select “System/Restart” for the DNS change to take place. The device now connects directly to the selected VPN server.