How To Install a VPN on a Fire TV Stick

Amazon Fire TV devices feature a ton of entertainment options with native support for many of the best video streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime number Video. The Burn down Goggle box Stick also offers access to a decent collection of apps to enhance your media streaming experience, including the Amazon Silk browser and Spotify.

However, every bit with any other internet-connected device, the traffic you generate from your Fire Stick is visible to your Net Service Provider (Internet access provider). That's not platonic. Anybody should consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to keep their private data out of the attain of ISPs. VPNs can also aid you access region-locked content in some cases, only annotation that many video streaming services are actively working to preclude this workaround.

Individuals who plan to stream illegal content with their Burn Sticks may also need a VPN. To be absolutely clear, nosotros practice non back up or condone using a VPN to cover up illegal action. Yes, in theory, a VPN should make such activities undetectable. However, like any other technology, VPNs are subject to failure and exploitation, so you should not consider yourself exempt from copyright constabulary if you lot exercise employ i. If y'all become caught performing illicit activities online, you are legally responsible for your actions.

Installing a VPN on a Fire Stick tin can exist a flake of a hassle in some cases, but don't worry; nosotros have y'all through every step of the process. Just make sure to read our entire guide. If you have any issues or want to discuss your own experiences, make sure to go out a comment. Cheque out our roundup of other Fire TV Stick tricks and tips to get the most out of your device.

Setting Up Your Burn down TV Stick

Configuring your Fire TV Stick is the easiest step in this process. At that place are three basic parts to a Fire TV setup: the Fire Stick itself, the charging cable, and the remote.

To get started, plug your Burn down TV Stick into the HDMI port on your TV or estimator monitor. Adjacent, plug in the power adapter to the device. Depending on your organization, you probable need to switch to the correct HDMI input on the display. If your remote doesn't automatically pair with your Burn Stick, check out Amazon'south instructions on how to reset the controller.

Amazon requires y'all to annals your Burn down Television set Stick with an existing Amazon account before yous can move past the landing page, but you lot can deregister an business relationship and use a new one at any point. As with any internet-connected device, signing into a Wi-Fi network is an important part of the setup.

You navigate the Fire Television interface by and large via the top carte du jour categories: Search, Home, Your Videos, Movies, Television set Shows, Apps, and Settings. Before you explore whatever of these sections in item, I recommend you check for and install any updates for your Fire Idiot box hardware. Head over to Settings > Device > Check for System Update. If you programme to do lots of searching or typing, yous should install the Fire TV app on your phone or tablet. This app, which lets you control and type from your device, works much better than selecting individual letters on the screen with the controller, though the controller is generally more reliable and quicker for navigation.

For reference, I verified these installation methods with a second generation Fire Telly Stick running the latest Fire OS version, 5.2.half dozen.3, on a computer monitor. During the course of testing, I connected the Burn Tv Stick to PCMag'southward corporate Wi-Fi network (100Mbps download). I installed the Fire Tv app on my Nexus 5X running Android 8.one (sadly information technology is not getting the upgrade to Android 9.0 Pie).

How to Install a VPN from the Apps Section

The easiest way to install a VPN on your Burn Stick is via the Burn TV Stick's built-in Apps section. Simply navigate to the Categories > Utilities section of the Apps card or blazon in "VPN" via the Search bar. At the time of publishing, the major VPN services available hither are IPVanish, PureVPN, Ivacy, and Vypr VPN.

To install any 1 of these apps, navigate to the app details page so click the download push button. Installing should accept no longer than a couple of minutes. For testing, I installed IPVanish on my Fire TV device.

Setting upward IPVanish on the Fire Stick is easy. But sign in to your account and hitting the green connect button in the upper left corner. Selecting this button will connect you to the fastest bachelor server based on your location. If you want, you tin too select a state, city, and server manually. In the settings, users tin can configure startup options, change the VPN protocol, or select a different network port.

I had no issues connecting to a server in Stockholm, Sweden. I verified that I could still admission internet-based content on my Fire Stick by streaming Ken Burn's National Parks documentary on Amazon Prime number Video.

How to Install a VPN from an Android APK

While installing from the Apps section is certainly the easiest method, not everyone subscribes to 1 of those listed VPN services. That's where Android APKs come in handy. Like Amazon Burn Tablets, the Fire Stick runs a version of Android, then some Android APKs should piece of work just fine on the Burn Stick. However, that does not mean that all Android APKs work well on a Fire Idiot box Stick. You lot need to practice a bit of testing on your own to confirm that the VPN installs correctly and really hides your traffic. Read our guide on how to check if your PVN is leaking.

NordVPN Android APK

Finding and downloading the right APKs can be a bit of a hurting too. Some VPN services, such equally NordVPN, place their Android APK right on their download pages, which is the all-time-case scenario. Y'all need to dive into a few settings before downloading the app itself, but we lay out those steps below—specifically for installing NordVPN, which is our peak-ranked VPN. If you plan to use a different VPN, substitute the URL in the fifth step, below, with the spider web address that hosts your VPN'southward Android APK download link.

Navigate to Settings > Device > Developer Options and enable the Allow Apps from Unknown Sources selection.
Navigate to the Search interface and type in Downloader.
Install Downloader.
Launch Downloader.
On the app'south main page, select the URL bar and type in https://nordvpn.com/download/android/.
Hit the Download .apk push
Launch the installer and follow all the prompts.
Navigate to Settings > Device > Programmer Options and disable the Permit Apps from Unknown Sources choice.

I installed NordVPN on my test Burn down TV Stick device and had no issues signing in to my account. Once yous finish installing information technology, navigate down to the All Countries tab and select the one you desire to route your traffic through.

In testing, after confirming a couple of pop-up prompts, the Burn down TV Stick continued to a server in Switzerland without whatsoever trouble. Users too have the pick to select from several specialty servers, such as P2P, Double VPN, Dedicated IP, and Onion Over VPN.

You can also view account information, adjust some basic settings, or ship an activity log to NordVPN's support team. I confirmed that I could still watch content from Amazon Prime Video with NordVPN enabled.

Other VPNs, such equally Tunnel Bear, exercise not list APKs on their website, so yous must get them elsewhere, from sites such equally APK Mirror. A quick note about APK Mirror; the site undoubtedly hosts some malware masquerading as official app downloads, so proceed at your ain take chances. Again, fifty-fifty if y'all can find an APK for your VPN, that is not a guarantee that information technology will work on the Fire Stick.

Streaming Media Via Kodi and Plex Media Behind a VPN

Kodi and Plex are both popular media streaming applications that help you admission content on your Fire Stick, especially since the device merely comes with well-nigh 4.5 GB of usable storage. With either one of these services, users can add media libraries sources such equally network attached storage (NAS) devices and personal servers. Nonetheless, a wide array of unofficial Add-Ons and Plugins for both Kodi and Plex offering access to illegal content streams. We won't make any accusations about your usage habits, just some users of these extensions may plow to a VPN to hide their action.

Kodi Android APK

Installing Kodi on your Fire Idiot box Stick requires you to download the Kodi Android APK from its site. The process is like to installing the Android APK for your VPN.

Navigate to Settings > Device > Developer Options and enable the Allow Apps from Unknown Sources selection.
Launch Downloader.
On the app's primary page, select the URL bar and type in https://kodi.tv/download.
Select Android > ARMV7A (32Bit).
Follow all of the subsequent download and installation prompts.
Navigate to Settings > Device > Developer Options and disable the Permit Apps from Unknown Sources pick.

To install Plex, just search for and download it directly from the Apps department. Alternatively, you can install the Plex Add-on for Kodi, if yous prefer to deal primarily with the latter'south interface.

Fire Television set Sticks aren't the simply devices that may require some workarounds to become a VPN working. Bank check our out guide on how to install a VPN on a Chromebook as well.