Hiding Your Amazon Fire TV IP Address - Simple and Easy Steps
Everyone should be able to protect their information online on any platform. Without protection, a person online could be a victim of identity theft - a crime that has affected more than 40 million individuals in the US alone with total losses of more than $43 billion according to a 2022 identity fraud study.
Attacks could easily originate from the person's IP (internet protocol) address). While it only provides a near approximate of a person's location, this data can be spoofed to trick the ISP and other online services to revealing more of a person's information.
Finding a person's IP address is relatively simple if it does not employ any form of security and this data can be found in any device connected online - including your Amazon Fire TV. It may just be a simple device for streaming your favorite content online but it could be used to track your personal data.
Fortunately, protecting your information on your Amazon Fire TV is relatively simple, as long as you know where to find it.
Installing a VPN
The easiest method of securing your Amazon Fire TV connection is through a VPN or Virtual Private Network. Without going through a lot of technicality, a VPN is practically an online service that encrypts your personal information which in turn protects it from different types of spying.
To install a VPN, simply search for "VPN" in your Amazon Fire TV menu:
Just like installing any other app in your Amazon Fire TV, follow the instructions for a quick setup.
Opting for a Paid Service
Protecting your information online is very important and there are free VPN services. However, free services often come with limitations and this could easily affect your browsing experience especially on streaming. Free VPN services often limit their bandwidth speed to ensure they could cater to the demand of their services. Unfortunately, there are also free VPN services where your data could be collected for advertising purposes.
For paid VPN services, especially those who are already reputable, your streaming service will not be affected. Paid service will also allow you to set-up a "temporary location" that will allow you to access blocked services and videos in your country. While the services vary, a single paid VPN service can also be installed in multiple devices at the same time. This means your Amazon Fire TV, your mobile phone, computer and other devices could be protected at the same time depending on VPN subscription.
Setting Up a VPN on A Router
If you don't want to install apps and software on each of your devices to activate VPN, the best option is to set-up the VPN account on your router. Almost every paid VPN service provider offers a configuration for VPN routers.
This may sound like a better setup but there are factors that need to be considered. Among them is the capability of a router for VPN connection. There are routers that do not come with VPN compatibility which means you need to replace your router with a VPN compatible router.
Another factor to consider is the technical setup since it will require some setting changes so the router will work as expected even with a VPN. You also need to be familiar with network troubleshooting in case something goes wrong. If you're only going to protect a few devices, then this option is not feasible.
Protecting your Amazon Fire TV and other devices connected to the internet is very important. Installing a good and reliable VPN connection is a good practice because it's easy to set-up and could work on multiple devices even on a single account. A VPN could even be set-up on a router so that all online connectivity will be encrypted although it will require some technical knowledge and the right hardware.
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