How to Watch All Your Favourite TV Shows Online with SmartDNS

Keeping up with your favourite TV shows should be simple — until you travel. The moment you try to stream from abroad, catch-up services and TV platforms start checking where you are, and most of them refuse to play outside their home country. Your shows are still there; your IP address is just in the wrong place.

There are two tools that solve this: a VPN, and a lighter-weight companion technology called SmartDNS. Le VPN includes both. This guide explains how SmartDNS works, when to use it instead of (or alongside) the VPN, and how to set it up so you never miss another episode.

Why your shows stop working abroad

TV platforms license their content country by country. UK catch-up services only stream to UK IP addresses; US networks only serve American viewers; French channels restrict their replays to France. Every service checks the IP address of each connection and blocks anything foreign — even if you are a paying subscriber who is simply on holiday.

So the question isn’t whether your device can reach the internet; it’s what country the internet thinks your device is in. Change that, and your shows come back.

What is SmartDNS and how does it work?

SmartDNS is a DNS-level unblocking service. When a streaming site wants to know where you are, part of that check happens through DNS — the internet’s address book. SmartDNS answers those specific lookups through servers in the right country, so supported channels treat you as a local viewer, while the rest of your traffic flows directly as normal.

The practical benefits:

• No app required. You change one setting — your DNS server — and it works. That makes SmartDNS ideal for devices that can't run VPN software: smart TVs, game consoles and streaming boxes.
• Set up once, works everywhere. Configure SmartDNS on your router and every device on your Wi-Fi is covered automatically, across all the channels Le VPN supports.
• Full speed. Because your video traffic isn't encrypted and tunnelled, there is no VPN overhead at all — your streams run at your connection's native speed, which helps on slower links and high-bitrate video.
• Multi-region at once. SmartDNS by Le VPN covers popular channels from several countries — including the US, UK and France — without switching anything between sessions.

For Le VPN subscribers, SmartDNS is included with the service — check the supported channel list on the SmartDNS page.

SmartDNS or VPN — which should you use?

They complement each other, and your Le VPN subscription includes both:

• Use SmartDNS when you want maximum streaming speed on a supported channel, or you're setting up a smart TV, console or router where a VPN app is impractical.
• Use the VPN when you need a full IP address change for any website or app, when the channel you want isn't on the SmartDNS list, or when privacy matters — the VPN encrypts your whole connection, which SmartDNS does not. On hotel or public Wi-Fi, the VPN is always the better choice.

The Le VPN apps for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android let you pick from servers in 100+ locations across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Africa, with up to 5 simultaneous connections per account. Protocols include OpenVPN, WireGuard (the fastest choice for HD streaming), Stealth WireGuard for heavily restricted networks, and IPSec/IKEv2. You can always confirm what the internet sees with the IP address test page.

Getting set up, step by step

1. Subscribe to Le VPN on the plans page — your first purchase comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
2. For laptops, phones and tablets: install the Le VPN app, connect to the country whose TV you want, and stream away.
3. For smart TVs, consoles and routers: follow the SmartDNS setup instructions — change the device's DNS settings to Le VPN's SmartDNS servers and register your IP in the client area. From then on, supported channels simply work.
4. Press play. Live TV, catch-up and box sets, on whichever device is nearest the sofa.

Never miss another episode

Whether it’s a week’s holiday or a year abroad, your shows shouldn’t stop at the border. With Le VPN’s combination of a full VPN service and included SmartDNS, you get the best of both worlds: encrypted privacy and country-hopping flexibility when you need it, and frictionless full-speed streaming on every screen in the house when you just want to watch TV. Sign up to Le VPN and keep up with every episode, wherever you are in the world.