How To Install a VPN On Firestick And Supercharge Your Streaming Life

How To Install a VPN On Firestick

If you have subscribed to Netflix or Disney + for a while and you follow them on social media, you would notice that the content you receive is not the same as those in other countries. Many customers would complain that their favorite shows are unavailable to them, while others on the same plan and paying the same fee for subscription have access to these shows and you can’t help but wonder why. Moreover, if you know about how to install a VPN on Firestick, your entertainment game will be top-notch!

Netflix and Disney+ have to submit to the licensing policies of the countries they go to and not all content is equally available everywhere and that’s the reason for the disparity in content in various locations. A VPN would put an end to this limitation and in this article, we would focus on how to install a VPN on Firestick and Supercharge your video content streaming.

Why You Need to Install A VPN On Firestick

Did you know that you could be denied access to your favorite shows on a streaming service based on your location? For instance, if you want to enjoy Hulu in a location other than the US, it would be naturally impossible as Hulu is only available in the US. This also applies to Disney+ while in Malaysia as the service isn’t available in Malaysia.

This isn’t the case with a VPN however. By connecting to a server in the location where the service is available, you’ll appear to be connecting to the streaming service from there. This way, you can still watch your favorite shows on Hulu outside the US for instance.

Installing a VPN to your Firestick and then connecting to your TV also takes away limitations to available content in your location. You would be able to access every content available on Amazon, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Netflix, and also Disney+ rather than only those available in your location.

How to Set Up A VPN On Amazon Fire TV and Firestick

Below is a detailed step-by-step guide on how to install a VPN (LimeVPN as an example) on Firestick and supercharge your video streaming experience.

#1 Method

  • If you haven’t already chosen a LimeVPN plan and subscribed, begin by doing so.
  • Locate the search bar on your Fire TV homepage and search for LimeVPN
  • From the search results, select the LimeVPN app
  • Click on “Get” to begin the download
  • Once the download is complete, the app would automatically install on your Fire TV device
  • After installation, open the app and log into your LimeVPN account

#2 Method

This method allows you to connect to LimeVPN using your smartphone.

  • Download the LimeVPN app on your smartphone
  • Open it and go to “Settings”
  • Click on “Account”
  • Click on “TV login”
  • Scan the QR code on your Fire TV screen
  • After you have logged in, you should see the main LimeVPN screen. Click on “Connect” so your device would be connected to the fastest server available at the time
  • If this is your first time connecting to a VPN server, it would be a pop-up connection request. Accept it
  • By this, you would have connected to a server located outside your country or area in general. So what would be available to you are videos from the other country.
  • If you wish to access content specific to a particular country, then you would have to connect to a particular location. For instance, if you want to access US Netflix, choose any server under “Locations” in the US and connect to it.

It’s very easy to install a VPN on Firestick and with this, you can have access to any library in the world you want. You can watch any movie, series, or reality shows from any location so the limitation placed by your physical location would be bypassed.

How to Sideload Apps On a Firestick

If for some reason you can’t download your VPN on firestick, you would need to sideload it. Sideloading apps is useful in different situations, for example, if you want to install an app that isn’t available in the Amazon Store due to restrictions or other reasons

Allow Installation

  1. Scroll to “Settings” from the Fire TV or Fire TV Stick’s Home Screen
  1. Move to the right and select “My Fire TV”. You may also see it as “Device” or “System” on older models but it means the same thing
  1. Scroll down and click on “Developer Options”
  1. Select “Apps from unknown sources” and turn the option to “On”
  1. Finally, select “Turn on” from the pop up that would appear

Install The Downloader

  1. After you have permitted the installation, you need to install the Downloader application. Go to the Firestick home screen and select the Search icon in the menu.

Type in Downloader

  1. You will see different suggestions for Downloader apps. Choose one and install
  1. After the installation process is complete, select “Open”

Download Your Application

  1. When you open the downloader app, you will see a field to enter the URL address of your VPN app. Enter the web address
  1. Type in the URL which takes you directly to the download page, then hit “Go”
  2. Wait until the file download begins
  3. A pop-up would suggest the installation of the downloaded file. Select “Install”
  4. Wait for the app to be installed completely, then go back to Home Screen. Go through your apps until you see the “see all” option. Click on it
  1. You will find your application here

How to Access Additional VPN Features On Firestick

After installing a VPN on your firestick, there are different functions at your disposal but we will start with the basics.

How to Setup Auto Connect

Your VPN can connect automatically once you start the Firestick. Here is a guide on how to do it:

  1. Open Settings
  2. Scroll down the page until you find “Auto Connect”
  3. Toggle the Auto-connect switch and put it on
  4. You can select the default server to always connect to by clicking on “Always connect to”

If you don’t need to change location frequently to access your favorite shows and movies, this will save you a lot of time.

How to Engage Split Tunneling

Sometimes you may want to have a normal internet connection to some processes of your Firestick without first having to pass through the VPN server. This is called split tunneling and the processes you want to be encrypted would remain encrypted while the ones you want to have direct internet access would have it. Here is how you can do it:

  1. Open features tab
  2. Look for Whitelister feature
  3. Depending on what you wish to do, choose either “Route via VPN” or “Bypass the VPN”
  4. Choosing “Route via VPN” would cause the selected apps to use the VPN. If you select “Bypass the VPN”, all your traffic from Firestick would use the VPN except the apps you have selected.

The whitelisted feature is used to exempt some apps from the VPN.

How to Change Location

Allowing automatic connection connects you to the fastest server available, and this is usually the closest server to you but you may want to connect to servers in other countries. Here is how to go about it:

  1. Select the location list
  2. Choose the server you want by scrolling or searching for it
  3. You can also bookmark a particular server

Conclusion

Installing a VPN on your Firestick would give you a better video streaming experience, but not all VPNs come with extra features that would make your entertainment even more enjoyable. For instance, VPNs tend to slow down your internet due to their heavy encryption, but not all would slow you down so much that you notice. 

With LimeVPN, you still get a fast connection speed of 1 Gbps which is good enough for your streaming. There is an anti-malware and antivirus feature too for your protection so hackers don’t take control of your device for their malicious gains. You have a killswitch that protects your IP address even in the event of a lost VPN server, by shutting down your internet connection. So in this guide on how to install a VPN on firestick and supercharge your streaming experience, LimeVPN is our perfect example of a VPN.

Written By Neha Shelar