VPN VS. DNS: Which is better for Secure Video Streaming?

Love watching videos and movies online? Who doesn’t, right? But don’t you just hate it if the show you’ve really been waiting a while for isn’t available in your region? Or if the service you’ve really been hoping to try out hasn’t launched in your country yet?

And you don’t really want to download your shows or watch them on a free site along with those annoying ads and are wondering if it’s better to subscribe to a VPN service or a DNS for a secure, yet fast streaming experience?

We got you!

In this blog, we’re going to make it easier for you to watch your shows smoothly and safely online. Before we get into the real battle, let’s talk a little about what a VPN and DNS is.

What is a VPN—and how does it work?

A VPN¬ or a virtual private network masks your IP address by connecting you to a remote server and letting you surf the internet anonymously. These are generally used by big companies to let their employees access important databases containing sensitive information when they are working remotely to ensure security.

Incidentally, since VPNs do let you connect to the internet via a remote secure server, it also lets you unblock sites and content that is blocked in your country and are a major winner for overall supercharging your online security and privacy game.

This means you guessed it, it will also let you watch movies and videos online on Sky Go from anywhere in the world. Connecting to a VPN service, you’re essentially directing all of your internet traffic to a new, remote, and secure network, and that’s how you’re accessing the online world. You can Read More about VPNs.

Coming to DNS—a word on how that works out

Coming over to DNS, or domain name system, it’s a lot like a phonebook, but for the internet. When you go on to your search bar, and type in, for example, google.com, what a DNS does is pair google.com (a web domain) to the IP address of your computer so the website can load up.

Generally, you’re connected to your local DNS, which is why if you try to access sites that are restricted in your country, they won’t load up. Here’s the interesting bit though, if you connect to a remote DNS, by changing your provider from your IPS’s default service to a remote server, you can unblock a whole new world of content that was previously not accessible to you.

This would include geo-blocked sites, the ability to set parental controls, and an overall higher level of security around your online activities. If you’re using smart DNS, your internet traffic will be directed to a proxy server, which is actually designed to help you get access to geo-blocked content.

So, how are they different?

Seem a little bit woozy to grasp? We get it. Don’t worry. VPN and DNS services do very similar jobs—albeit, in very different ways.

Both the services let you access geo-blocked content and provide a higher level of security, but there are a few key differences. For one, a VPN will fully mask your IP address, covering your tracks very well when it comes to maintaining online security. DNS, by design, cannot hide your IP.

On the other hand, a smart DNS is generally much cheaper and will let you stream and browse at much higher speeds if security isn’t much of an issue—which applies in terms of watching movies online and unblocking shows that are blocked in your country.

So, which is better for more secure video streaming?

In the case of security not really being a problem, we’d have hands down picked a smart DNS. Since the internet traffic travels through relatively fewer servers, the streaming experience is faster. The service is generally more cost-effective and can cover more devices at the same time because it can work with any Wi-Fi router.

On the flip side, however, since a DNS won’t hide your IP address, there is a certain level of risk that comes with using it—killing the argument of secure streaming. A high-quality VPN service, on the other hand, will effectively help you bypass Firewalls, boost your security, and cover up your online tracks so that your online activity cannot be traced back to you—keeping your data safe and sound.

Most top VPN providers also offer split tunneling which lets you customize your internet traffic to the remote server, letting you stream at higher speeds while still staying safe from hackers and other cybercriminal activity.

Does that help? If you have any queries or questions, do let us know in the comments below—happy to help!

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