Let us start our OverPlay review by noting that it is a multi-faceted provider. They offer not only a VPN but also a Smart DNS service. For those who just want to access content that might be geo-restricted from them, Smart DNS is an excellent choice because it delivers content at the full speed of your ISP. If you need the encryption offered by a full VPN, then they have you covered there too. Their VPN service can provide you with a virtual address to over 59 countries across the globe while ensuring that all your Internet traffic is securely encrypted.
Pricing and Special Offers
OverPlay markets their services in two different packages. The first of which is SmartDNS plus VPN and the second is a stand-alone SmartDNS. Each of these is sold using four term plans which are discounted according to the length of the term. Greater discounts are given for longer term plans. These plans include one month, 3 months, 6 months, and one year. OverPlay is offering all of our readers an additional 25% off their already discounted prices. This 25% discount applies to all of their plans.
The first package that we will discuss includes both SmartDNS plus VPV service. This is depicted in the first image below. If you think you will need encryption for any reason, then you should sign up for the combined package. It has pricing plans of $7.46 a month, $20.96 for three months, $39.71 for 6 months, and $74.96 for 12 months. This means you can have complete access to both OverPlay services from just $6.25 a month. This is a total savings of over 38% off the regular monthly price. We recommend that you sign up for a year of service so that you can save yourself the most.
The second package OverPlay offers is a stand-alone SmartDNS service. This is shown in the image above on the right. If you are sure that you do not need encryption, have price concerns, and only want to unblock geo-restricted content from other places in the world, then stand-alone SmartDNS is an excellent alternative for you. It has pricing plans of $3.71 a month, $10.46 for three months, $20.21 for 6 months, and $37.46 for 12 months. This means you can have access to the OverPlay SmartDNS service from just $3.12 a month. This is a total savings of over 37% off the regular monthly SmartDNS price. Again, we recommend that you sign up for the yearly plan to save the most money.
So, what do you get for your $6.25 per month? OverPlay offers all VPN subscribers the following benefits regardless of your chosen plan:
Free custom VPN Software for Windows and Mac OS X
2 Simultaneous connections – 1 desktop and 1 mobile
Unlimited VPN bandwidth and usage
Virtual IPs in 59 countries
Shared IP addresses among subscribers for better privacy
Choice of VPN protocols: OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP
The ability to bypass censorship and geo-restrictions
Wi-Fi hotspot protection against hackers
VOIP support to save on long distance costs
100% online data security
All VPN and SmartDNS subscribers will have access to:
Over 200 streaming media websites through the OverPlay SmartDNS service and their revolutionary JetSwitch technology.
5-Day money-back guarantee
OverPlay offers a few standard ways to pay for their services. The credit cards they accept are VISA, MasterCard, and American Express. You can also pay using PayPal which will only require you to enter username, password, and an email address. PayPal will also let you take care of all of your online transactions from a central location.
Risk-Free Trial Period
Although they do not have a free trial, OverPlay knows that you will want to try out their services so they are offering all new subscribers a 5-day money back guarantee. This should give you enough time to test their service(s) for yourself. If for any reason, you are not completely satisfied with it, they will refund the full purchase price of your chosen plan. You must request this refund within five days of the purchase date. Requests made later than five days from purchase date will not be honored.
OverPlay Network and Server Locations
The OverPlay VPN network of servers has steadily grown in size over the years. Their network has servers in 59 different countries with 10,000 shareable IP addreses. They have servers on nearly every major continent including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. A full list of their servers is as follows:
Africa (6)
Egypt – Cairo (2), Saudi Arabia – Riydah, South Africa – Pretoria
Asia (66)
Cyprus – Cyprus, Hong Kong – Fast from US; Hong Kong, India – Delhi, Israel – Tel Aviv, Japan – Fast from US, Fast from Europe, Tokyo (3), Saudi Arabia – Riyadh, Singapore – Singapore (3), South Korea – Fast from US, Taiwan – Taiwan, Turkey – Turkey
Central/South America (4)
Argentina – Argentina, Brazil – Sao Paulo; Brazil, Chile – Chile, Colombia – Colombia, Venezuela – Venezuela
Europe (196)
Albania – Albania, Andorra – Andorra, Austria – Graz; Austria, Belarus – Minsk, Belgium – Brussels, Bosnia – Bosnia, Bulgaria – Sofia, Croatia – Croatia, Cyprus – Larnarca (2), Denmark – Aarhus; Copenhagen (3), Estonia – Tallinn, Finland – Helsinki, France – France, Georgia – Georgia, Germany – Berlin (2), Greece – Athens, Hungary – Budapest, Iceland – Reykjavik, Ireland – Dublin (4), Italy – Italy, Latvia – Riga, Lithuania – Lithuania, Luxembourg – Luxembourg, Netherlands – Amsterdam, Norway – Oslo; Sandefjord (2), Poland – Krakow; Poland, Portugal – Lisbon, Romania – Romania, Russia – Moscow, Serbia – Serbia, Sweden – Lane; Sweeden, Switzerland – Berne; Geneve; Switzerland, Ukraine – Ukraine, U.K. – Essex (2); Fast from NZ; Fast from US; Kent; London (7); Manchester; Stevenage (4); Telecity (7)
North America (192)
Bahamas – Bahamas, Canada – Toronto (2), Costa Rica – Costa Rica, Mexico – Mexico City, United States – Central: Chicago, IL; East: Ashburn, VA (5), Fast from NZ, Fast from Europe; West: Freemont, CA (4), Los Angelas, CA (4), Seattle, WA
Oceania (44)
Australia – Sydney (3); Fast from US; Fast from Europe, New Zealand – Auckland (2)
It is easy to see from this list that OverPlay has servers all over the world and multiple fast servers in more popular locations like both the east and west coasts of the United States, the United Kingdom, and others. Their network defaults primarily to the OpenVPN protocol but also supports L2TP/IPSec and PPTP. Note: Not all servers in their network support L2TP/IPsec so not all locations will be available when using this protocol.
Privacy and Security
OverPlay seems to say that they do some logging of their service activity. They do not have an extensive privacy policy and it is a little vague. Below is the entirety of their privacy policy which is at the bottom of their TOS.
PRIVACY POLICY
Information on “service Usage” will not be disclosed to anyone, except where required by law.
OverPlay is located in the UK and subject to all UK laws and jurisdictional procedures. So, based on the previous statement, they would have to comply with judicial orders from the proper authorities and turn over any service usage data they had. We leave to the individual user to decide if this policy is suitable to them.
What kind of encryption does OverPlay offer to their subscribers? OverPlay implements the OpenVPN protocol as its primary default protocol in both its Windows and Mac OS X clients. The cipher used for server authentication and control TLSv1, cipher TLSv1/SSLv3 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA, 1024 bit RSA. Data is encrypted and decrypted using a BF-128-CBC cipher initialized with a 128 bit key. SHA1-160 bit is used for HMAC authentication. This means you can always be assured that all of your Internet traffic is securely encrypted when connected to the OverPlay VPN network of servers.
OverPlay Support
OverPlay provides 24/7 email ticket support for any problems you may have. Most will be answered within a day. Their formal ticketing system has a template to help you formalize and clarify your problem so that their support staff can provide the answers you need. Their website has an extensive support area where you can see common questions and support issues that have been answered for other users. The support area also has well written manual installation and configuration guides for all the protocols that they support if you decide not to use their easy to use custom software clients and apps.
Hands-On Testing of OverPlay VPN
OverPlay has custom software for Windows and Mac OS X. You can download these custom clients from the “vpn setup” page of the OverPlay website which can be accessed by selecting “Setup –> VPN Setup” in the site main menu. Next, click on the appropriate button for your operating system. You must either click within the circle or on the name. They also have manual setups here to run Overplay VPN on Android, iOS, Tomato routers, and DD-WRT routers.
Once you sign up for an account, they will send you a welcoming email with your username and password so that you can connect to their VPN network of servers using your chosen client software.
Connecting with the Windows VPN Client
As we said before, you can download the OverPlay Windows client from the VPN setup page of their website by selecting “Setup –> VPN Setup” from the sites main menu. Once you get on this page, click on the Windows button (shown at left). You must either click within the circle or on the name. This will load the Windows setup sub-page which contains a link to the Windows setup download page. Click on the “Setup OverPlay VPN: Windows PC (OverPlay Client)” link to continue the setup. They also have a link on this page to setup their VPN with a custom version of OpenVPN which updates itself with their current server lists when it runs. Finally, this page also contains links to step-by-step setup and visual guides for manually configuring Windows with PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN.
Click on the “Setup OverPlay VPN: Windows PC (OverPlay Client)” link to continue the setup. On the next page, click on the “here” link in the first step. This will bring up the following install page.
Clicking on the “Install” button on this page will complete the install of the OverPlay Windows Client to your computer. Be aware that this install can take some time so please be patient. This does not create a desktop shortcut but you can create your own as we have done (shown on right). Once the install is complete the client will launch and you will see a screen like the one shown on the right below.
Clicking on the “New User” button will take you to the OverPlay website to purchase an account so be sure to click on the “Existing User” button which will bring up the login screen shown on the right above. Enter your “Username” and “Password” and then click on the “Remember” toggle so you will not have to re-enter your credentials every time you connect to the OverPlay network. You also have the option to automatically login when the client launches. Then click on the “Login” button. This will bring up the normal connection screen as is illustrated on the left in the image below. This screen shows the countries in alphabetical order. Selecting one of the countries from the list and clicking on the “Connect” button will start the connection process to that country. In this mode the client will use the OpenVPN protocol and choose the fastest server for your connection based on proximity to your current location.
Before we connect to a server, let us examine a couple of the other components of the OverPlay Windows client. Below the list of connection locations is a vector of icons. Clicking on one of these icons will take you to that respective page of the OverPlay website. Across the top of the client is a menu which consists of file, connection, and support. Let us examine two of these. We will look at the last in a moment.
The first of the menus we want to examine is the File menu which is shown in the middle image above. The file menu consists of the following menu items:
My Account – This will return you to your account login page on the Overplay website if you have not yet logged in there, else it will open your account dashboard on their website if you have.
Clear Saved Login Details – This will remove your saved login credentials which will require you to renter them whenever you restart the client. You could do this as a safety precaution if you are using a computer with multiple users.
Logout – This will log you out of your current session and minimize the Overplay client to the system tray.
Exit – This will exit the client completely.
The second menu we want to look at is the support menu which is shown in the last image above. This menu has three items in it which are Knowledgebase, FAQ, and Request Help. Each of these will open a different page of the Overplay website. Knowledgebase will open their home page, FAQ will open their support page, and Request Help will open their ticketing system so that you can email their support staff with an issue that you need help with. The professional staff at OverPlay have a template to help you describe any issue you may be having. The template of this support ticket is shown below.
Providing a template for the support ticket makes it easier for you to define your problem so that the OverPlay support team can help you to resolve it faster. Simply enter your name, email address, username, subject, choose a problem type (like connection or billing), device you are using, type of connection (home, Wi-Fi, etc.), provide a brief description of the problem, include connection diagnostics as shown in the image below (to help diagnose the issue faster if it is a connection issue), and press the send email button. You may be prompted with some FAQ pages to see if these can answer your question. If these do not help you, then send the email and the OverPlay support staff will start diagnosing your issue.
The first image below shows the Connection menu items. The last of these, View Connection Log will bring up an image similar to the one above where you can view the connection diagnostics or press the “Copy to Clipboard” and save it to a file to include in your support ticket. The second connection menu item, Check My IP Address will take you to the OverPlay website homepage.
The first connection menu item, Advanced Mode which we have highlighted above will open the advanced connection screen like that shown in the middle image above. The advanced connection screen provides those who want it a little more control over their connections. It allows you to select the following when connecting to a location:
VPN: Active protocol – Allows you to change the VPN connection protocol
OpenVPN (UDP) – This is good for most connections and the default protocol for the Windows client.
L2TP/IPSec – This is good for some mobile devices because they have built-in support but slower than some other protocols. It is also not ideal for situations involving advanced firewalls. Also, not all locations support this protocol so this may limit your connection choices.
PPTP – Use this if nothing else works or for low security video streaming because it has known security vulnerabilities.
Server location by ping – This let’s you choose an individual server from a location by ping value if more that one exits at that location.
Now that we have looked at both the normal and advanced connection screens, let us go through the connection process. In the third image above we have selected the Sydney 1 sever to connect to. A server with a longer ping time was chosen so that we could observe this process in more detail. Clicking on the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen will start the connection process. This will result in a series of images like the ones shown in the illustration below. First the client authenticates the connection between itself and the VPN server you are connecting to. Then it verifies connection configuration information. Once this tunnel has been established, the VPN server assigns your computer an IP address at the new location and masks your true IP. The connection is then completed as is shown in the final image. To disconnect, simply click the “Disconnect” button which will return you to the connection screen where you can then make another selection.
As you can see, the OverPlay Windows client makes it easy to select and connect to servers on their VPN network. They have also simplified the connection choice for those who want to find the fastest server by defaulting to the normal connection screen where the only choice you have to make is the location you want to connect to. The click on the connect button. This is ideal for most users and requires little technical expertise. For those who want a little more control over their connection they offer the advanced connection mode which offers a choice of protocols and more granular server selection by ping value. No matter which way you choose to connect, OverPlay has simplified connecting to and disconnecting from their VPN network. Select a location and click connect. It can not get any simpler than that. The OverPlay client defaults to the best encrypted VPN protocol, OpenVPN (UDP) to ensure that all your VPN connections are encrypted and secure.
Connecting with the Mac OS X VPN Client
As we said before, you can download the OverPlay Mac OS X client from the VPN setup page of their website by selecting “Setup –> VPN Setup” from the sites main menu. Once you get on this page, click on the Mac OS X button (shown at left). You must either click within the circle or on the name. This will load the Mac OS X setup sub-page which contains a link to the client setup download page. They also have a link on this page to setup their VPN with a custom version of Tunnelblick which updates itself with their current server lists when it runs. This page also contains links to step-by-step setup and visual guides for manually configuring Mac OS X with PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN with Tunnelblick.
Click on the “Setup OverPlay VPN: Mac OS X (OverPlay Client)” link to continue the setup. On the next page, click on the “OverPlay Client here” link in the first step. This will bring up the installation page. Click “Install” to run the standard installation on to your disk. You will need to enter your password to allow changes to your Mac. Once the installation has completed, you will find the Overplay VPN app in your Applications folder. Double click the icon to open the Overplay client. Depending on your system settings, you may need to enter your password to allow changes to your Mac for the client to finish launching.
Eventually, you will see a screen like the one shown on the left below. This is the client login screen. Enter your “Username” and “Password” and then click on the “Remember” toggle so you will not have to re-enter your credentials every time you connect to the OverPlay network. You also have the option to automatically login when the client launches. Then click on the “Login” button.
After you click on the “Login” button, you will see a screen like the one shown on the right above. This is the main connection screen for the Mac OS X client. It lists the locations that you can connect to in alphabetical order. Simply select a location and click the “Connect” button to start your connection process. The connection process is straight forward and illustrated by the images below.
The first image above shows the authentication phase of the connection between your computer and the VPN server. Once this phase completes the machines share some configuration information and the VPN server masks your true IP address and assigns you one from its location. Finally as shown in the second image above, the connection is completed. Once the connection completes, you are more anonymous and all Internet traffic is encrypted between the machines. By default the client will connect using the OpenVPN protocol to the fastest server from your current location.
OverPlay’s client for Mac OS X has the same look and feel of their Windows normal client screen. It allows Mac users to connect and disconnect from their VPN severs by just selecting a location and clicking on the “Connect” button. It has no extra features but makes connecting to and disconnecting from their network as easy as possible. The only decision left to the user is server location. Their Mac OS X client defaults to the OpenVPN protocol so you will always know your connection is secure when you are connected to their VPN network.
Connecting Your Android Device to OverPlay VPN Using PPTP
OverPlay does not have an Android app but they have easy to follow directions to setup and run OverPlay VPN with both PPTP and L2TP on your Android device. We are going to demonstrate to you how easy it is to setup their service using PPTP on you Android. With a few simple steps, you can be up and running with their VPN. Similarly to their Clients, you can find the link to manually setup PPTP and L2TP with your Android device on the VPN setup page of their website by selecting “Setup –> VPN Setup” from the sites main menu. Once you get on this page, click on the Android button (shown at left). You must either click within the circle or on the name. This will load the Android step-by-step setup page for PPTP and L2TP.
Below is a simple set of instructions to set OverPlay VPN up on you Android Device using PPTP with images included.
1) Press the menu button and select “Settings”
2) Press “More Settings”
3) Press “VPN”
These three steps are shown below.
4) Press “Add VPN network”
5) Press the “Type” drop-down menu
6) Choose “PPTP”
In the “Name” field enter desired name for your connection. We recommend to name it: Overplay (PPTP).
In the “Server address” field enter the IP or server address of the OverPlay VPN server you want to connect to. (To find the available servers, click the link on the OverPlay servers page on their website or the setup page we previously directed you to.)
Leave the PPP encryption (MPPE) enabled
Press the “Save” button.
Steps 5 and 6 are illustrated in the first image below.
7) Tap on the new connection to connect. Enter your OverPlay username and password sent to you via email and tap Connect. This is demonstrated in the middle image above. The last image above shows the status of our VPN connection. From here we can disconnect from our current OverPlay VPN session. As you can see, setting up you Android device to connect to the OverPlay VPN network using PPTP is easy.
Although we have shown you how to set up PPTP with your Android device, we recommend that you first try to connect using L2TP. The instructions to do this can be found on the Overplay website. The main differences are at step 6 where you will choose L2TP/IPsec PSK for the type and then you will enter “overplay.net” without the quotes into the IPsec preshared key field. Leave the other fields blank. Only use PPTP to connect if the L2TP fails.
Connecting Your iOS Device to OverPlay VPN Using L2TP
OverPlay does not have an iOS app but they have easy to follow directions to setup and run OverPlay VPN with both PPTP and L2TP on your iOS device. We are going to demonstrate to you how easy it is to setup their service using L2TP on you iPhone. With a few simple steps, you can be up and running with their VPN. Similarly to their clients, you can find the link to manually setup PPTP and L2TP with your iOS device on the VPN setup page of their website by selecting “Setup –> VPN Setup” from the sites main menu. Once you get on this page, click on the iOS button (shown at left). You must either click within the circle or on the name. This will load the iOS step-by-step setup page for PPTP and L2TP.
Below is a generic guide to illustrate how to set up L2TP/IPsec for OverPlay VPN.
L2TP/IPsec simplified manual set up for iOS:
Click on “Settings” and then click on “General“.
Scroll down and select “VPN“
Tap “Add VPN Configuration“
Select L2TP
Enter a description like OverPlay VPN (L2TP) connection
In the “Server” field enter the server address of the OverPlay VPN server you want to connect to. (To find the available servers, check the link on the OverPlay servers page of their website or the setup page we previously directed you to.)
Enter your username and password for OverPlay VPN. Account and password are your OverPlay login details.
Set the Shared Secret value to to ‘overplay.net’ without the quotes.
RSA SecureID should be OFF, Encryption Level should be AUTO, Send All Traffic turned ON, and Proxy set to OFF.
Tap “Save”.
Toggle the VPN “ON” to test your connection.
The first screen below shows these settings on an iPhone. The second shows our VPN configurations and illustrates that we are currently connected to Overplay iOS.
As you can see, setting up your iOS device to connect to the OverPlay VPN network using L2TP is simple. Once connected to their VPN server, all of your Internet traffic will be encrypted. This can keep you stay safe at your favorite Wi-Fi hotspot.
Using the OverPlay Smart DNS Service
OverPlay SmartDNS will allow you to connect to over 200 streaming media providers from anywhere in the world. What’s more their revolutionary JetSwitch technology will allow you to watch content from different countries in the world just by changing your DNS servers to their Turbo DNS servers. Anyone who subscribes to OverPlay has access to this great service. Unlike OverPlay VPN, their Smart DNS service does not encrypt your Internet traffic so all streaming media transfers are at the full speed of your ISP.
Their service simply negotiates with the providers on your behalf during your initial handshake phase to help you overcome pesky geo-restrictions used by some streaming media providers. Once this initial introduction is completed all resultant traffic is between you and the provider. Thus your connection speed is as fast as possible. As we previously mentioned, all that is necessary to get this great service is a subscription to OverPlay and a reset of the DNS servers on the device you want to stream to.
What is a DNS Server?
For those of you not familiar with DNS servers, first understand that every device that connects to the internet has a unique address which we call an IP address. This address has a geo-component built into it so that it can be tracked back to the country, ISP that issued it, all the way to the person or organization it was assigned to. Each of these addresses at least for IPv4 has a number format like this:
###.###.###.###; where # = 0-9.
Computers can read these numbers but most people would have a hard time remembering just a couple of these numbers much less the millions assigned to Internet users. We associate better with word names so we developed name addressing like www.vpnfan.com but remember computers only understand numbers so certain computers which we refer to as Domain Name Service (DNS) servers translate our word names to the IP addresses that computers understand. This is what happens every time you type in a URL in your address bar. All devices that communicate across the Web do so through DNS servers.
Devices the OverPlay Smart DNS Sevice Can Be Configured With
Overplay SmartDNS works on PCs, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, game consoles and even Smart TVs. If fact, any device that can stream media, connect to the Internet, and whose DNS settings can be changed can be configured to work with their service. A list of devices that they have guides for to configure for their SmartDNS includes the following:
Computers – Windows, Mac OS X
Mobile devices – Android, iOS
Gaming consoles – PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 Wii U
Streaming devices – Amazon TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku
Smart TV – Samsung
Routers – D-Link, Asus, Linksys, Netgear, 2Wire, Apple AirPort,
TP-Link, Huawei, DD-WRT
If your device is not on this list but you can change the DNS settings for it, it is likely that it can be configured to run the OverPlay SmartDNS service. Also, configuring their DNS servers on your router will allow all of the devices connected to it to stream media.
So, What Can You Stream and Where Can You Stream It From?
We have talked about what DNS servers are, how they help us everyday when we use the Internet, and what kind of devices can be configured to use OverPlay’s Turbo DNS. This is what OverPlay calls their DNS server infrastructure because it is not only fast and reliable but also adds the ability to select different regions. We will talk more about that later when we look at their JetSwitch technology. Additionally, it automatically selects the closest, fastest server to your location.
The next big question is what can you stream and where can you stream it from. Many streaming media providers have content that can only be distributed in certain countries or regions due to usage agreements with its manufacturers or distributors. This mean it is blocked from other countries which means you pay full price for partial content libraries from some of the most well known and popular content providers in the world like Netflix, Hulu, and the BBC iPlayer. OverPlay calls these restricted content libraries, channels.
Overplay has a large number of channels that it can open up for its users. A list of these organized by county follows. Netflix, the most popular channel is not included in this list because it will be covered later.
United States – A&E, ABC (Go/Watch), ABC Family, ABC News, Acorn TV, Adultswim, Amazon Instant, Amazon Prime, AMC, Apple Beats 1 Radio, Big Brother USA, Blockbuster Now, Bravo Now, BYUtv, CBS, CBS All Access, CBS Sports Radio, CinemaNow, CNBC, Comedy Central, Crackle, CrunchyRoll, CW Now, Discovery, Disney, Disney Junior, Disney Movies Anywhere, Disney XD, Dramafever, ESPN, Fandor, Food Network, Fox NOW, Fox Sports Go, Fox Soccer, Funimation, fuboTV, FX, HBO Go, HBO NOW, HGTV, History US, HuluPlus, IFC, iHeart Radio, Lifetime, Logo TV, Marvel, MaxGo, MGO, MTV US, MLB, MLS – Major League Soccer, NBA, National Geographic, NBC, NBC Sports, NBC Sports Live Extra, NFL Gamepass, NHL GameCenter Live, Nick, Oxygen, Pandora, PBS,PBS Kids, Radio.com, Rhapsody, Sesame Go, Showtime, Slacker, Spotify, Star Trek, Starz, Sundance, Syfy, TBS, TCM, TNT Drama, TruTV, TV.com, Ulive, Universal Sports, Univision Deportes, USA Network, US Open New, USTVNOW, Utopia, Vevo, VH1, Vudu, WWE Network
Australia – ABC iView, Channel Eleven, Foxtel Go, Jump-in (Nine Network), NRL, Premier League Pass, SBS (AU), Tenplay, Watch AFL
Canada – CTV, Discovery CA, Funimation, NBA League Pass, Slice, Sportsnet World
Denmark – DR.dk, HBO Nordic, ViaPlay Denmark, TV 2
Finland – HBO Nordic, ViaPlay Finland, Yle
France – 6 Play, Arte, Canal Play, France 1, France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5, Pluzz France, TF1 France
Germany – ARD (Das Erste), Arte, ZDF, Amazon Prime, Sportschau, Watchever, Zattoo DE
Ireland – iBox.ie, 3Player
India – Star Sports
Italy – Rai.IT
Japan – Hulu
Mexico – NBA League Pass
Netherlands – NPO, RTL XL, Sport1
New Zealand – 3NOW, Premier League Pass, TVNZ on Demand
Norway – HBO Nordic, TV2 Sumo, TV3 play, ViaPlay
Saudi Arabia – beIN Sports
Sweden – HBO Nordic, 4Play, ViaPlay
Switzerland – Zatoo Swiss
United Arab Emirates (UAE) – beIN Sports
United Kingdom – Absolute Radio, Amazon Prime UK, BBC iPlayer, BBC iPlayer Radio, BBC Sport, Blinkbox, BT Sports, CBBC Player, Channel 4, Channel 5, Demand5, Eurosport UK, Eurosport Player UK, ITV Players, NBA League Pass, Now TV, Sky Go, TV Player, Zattoo UK
They also have the world’s favorite streaming media provider, Netflix well covered. They make it possible to view regions of content for it from 27 different countries in the world. These include the following:
Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States.
We have now taken a look at the streaming media content that the OverPlay SmartDNS service can unblock for you. You will still need to subscribe to any premium services. You can easily see that it can open a whole new world of entertainment to you that might otherwise be censored. What is more OverPlay can do this with just a few changes to your DNS and you will be able to watch your favorite Netflix movies, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and content from other countries simultaneously using the innovative JetSwitch technology.
What is JetSwitch?
JetSwitch is OverPlay’s revolutionary technology which allows you to simultaneously watch streaming media content from different countries. What is more you can do this from anywhere in the world thanks to their Turbo DNS infrastructure. To access JetSwitch, simply log into your account on the OverPlay website. When you do, you will see a screen like that shown below. This is the top of your main account subscription page.
Selecting the blue “SMARTDNS” button will bring up a page similar to the one that follows. This is your DNS control page and this is where JetSwitch resides.
Changing the DNS settings for our Windows 7 computer is simple and the steps are summarized below. If you get a yellow warning bar as we did, then click on the “Check Again” link. If the bar is still yellow, then you need to change the DNS settings on the device you are using. Click on the “Learn How” link, select your device, and follow the step-by-step OverPlay instructions to configure it for their DNS.
Click on Windows Start in the task bar.
Click on Control Panel on the right of recently opened programs.
Click on the Network and Internet category.
Click on the Network and Sharing link.
Click on the Change adaptor settings link on the left-hand side of this window. This is shown in the image on the left below.
Right-click on the current Internet connection and click Properties on the drop down list. This is shown in the image on the right below.
De-select the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6).
Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on the Properties button. This is shown in the first screenshot below.
Write down the current DNS settings so they can be restored.
Click on Use the following DNS server addresses which is shown in the right image.
Enter the Turbo DNS addresses provided by the OverPlay website into Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server addresses which are shown above on the right.
Click the OK button and reboot the computer.
Once you have rebooted your device and log into your account, you should see an image like the one shown below. Notice the yellow bar has now been replaced by a green bar with a check. This means your device is now properly set up to use the OverPlay SmartDNS service.
Now that we have our device properly configured with the OverPlay DNS servers, lets take a look at JetSwitch. An image showing how it operates is shown below. Notice first that the OverPlay SmartDNS has been turned on for our IP address as shown by the green “ON” button. Remember we said JetSwitch will allow you to access websites and stream content from multiple countries at the same time. The setup below would allow you to watch Netflix-US, Hulu-US, BeIN Sports from Saudi Arabia, and Funimation from Canada simultaneously. At the same time, you could view HBO Nordic content from Denmark, Finland, Norway, or Sweden. The choice is yours!
JetSwitch will let you access content from over 150 Channels with the preferences that you set up. It will also let you turn off SmartDNS for individual channels if you need to, as was done with Amazon Instant in the example above. This gives you complete control over your streaming media content from many of the most popular providers, like those shown above and many others from all over the world. Remember, all that is required is an OverPlay subscription and a few minutes to reconfigure your DNS settings.
OverPlay Speed Test
We were very pleased with the overall performance of OverPlay VPN. You can see from the speed test below that their service performed excellent in our speed test. As expected, there was some decrease in speed while using their network. This is due to the overhead caused by encrypting all of your Internet traffic. However, this speed loss was small in the case of OverPlay VPN and worth it for the peace of mind that it gives you at your local Wi-Fi hotspot. Remember that SmartDNS has no impact on ISP speed.
As you can see from the images above, the OverPlay encrypted connection lowered our base ISP download speed from 55.57 Mb/s to 50.38 Mb/s. This is a drop of about 9% to a server in Ashburn, VA which is great and one of the better ones we have observed. This small loss in connection speed is well worth the security and peace of mind offered by being able to encrypt all of your Internet traffic and help protect your anonymity as well.
Conclusion
OverPlay was one of the first VPNs to offer SmartDNS service in the industry. Their JetSwitch technology and Turbo DNS infrastructure make them the best SmartDNS service available today with over 200 channels available and over 150 being controllable within JetSwitch. Add to this the fact that they offer a fast VPN service with servers in 59 countries and over 10,000 sharable IP addresses to help protect your privacy. This means they offer the best of both worlds, an uncensored internet with privacy and security available if you need it.
They offer custom software apps for Windows and Mac OS X. These apps are simple to install. They are easy to use and require very little technical knowledge on the part of OverPlay subscribers. With just a couple of mouse clicks, you can be connected to one of their VPN servers. Its as simple as selecting your desired server location and clicking the connect button. Disconnection is even easier, just click disconnect.
OverPlay provides manual tutorials and visual setup guides to connect to their VPN service using Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, and DD-WRT and Tomato routers. They also provide setup guides to configure their SmartDNS with a variety of different devices including PCs, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, and even Smart TVs. If your device will let you change the DNS, then they can probably help you configure it for their service. Their support begins with an extensive FAQ database and extends to a 24/7/365 email ticketing system with answers provided on a first come, first serve basis.
What we liked most about the service:
They have the best SmartDNS service available today
Their JetSwitch will let you watch streaming content from different countries simultaneously.
They have clients for Windows and Mac OS X.
They offer very fast server connections from almost anywhere in the world
The have a 5-day money back guarantee with no limitations.
They have competitive pricing and offer discounts for longer term packages.
Ideas to improve the service:
Add clients for Android and iOS devices
Add live chat support
Clarify their policy with regard to logging
OverPlay has a large VPN network which includes access to almost every major continent including Europe, North America, Central and South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. It has some of the fastest speeds we have seen for a VPN service. They offer a 5-day money back guarantee so you will have plenty of time to test their service yourself and see how it performs for you. Give OverPlay VPN a test run and see what you think. Experience the expansion of your online entertainment by sampling their SmartDNS service. If you like their VPN performance and enjoy using their SmartDNS to watch some of your favorite movies, new shows, or comedy specials that you might not otherwise have had access to, you can sign up for unlimited access from just $6.25 per month.
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