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If you’re looking to install NordVPN on your Amazon Fire Stick, search no further. We have all the information you need to get a virtual private network (VPN) up and running, giving you privacy, security, and peace of mind when it comes to accessing online services through a firestick device.
VPNs are a great way to ensure your online data and activity stays protected, hindering attempts by cybercriminals, hackers, or even your ISP (Internet Service Provider), to track your online movements across the web and retain your personal information.
While VPNs are primarily used on desktop and mobile, there’s a growing demand for them on other devices, such as streaming sticks, with a host of advantages for anyone using them. Amazon’s Fire TV Stick is one of the most popular streaming devices out there, and makes a great home for a VPN, whether or not you are already protected by one on your other devices.
In this guide we’ll cover the benefits of using NordVPN on a Fire Stick, including how it can help you sidestep regional content restrictions for YouTube and other streaming services, and how to install the app on your device in the first place.
Firstly, you’ll need to make sure your Fire Stick is connected and working correctly. It plugs into an HDMI port in your television and displays the Fire TV operating system on your screen. You’ll need to sign into your Amazon account before being able to download new apps from the app store.
Next, you need to find the NordVPN app. It’s supported by the Fire TV platform, so you can find it on the app store. Check your Alexa remote for an ‘Apps’ button, or use the remote’s voice control feature to search for the NordVPN app directly. Otherwise you can scroll to the ‘Apps’ section on the Fire TV homepage.
Once you’ve found the app, you simply need to select ‘Get’ and NordVPN will begin to download – it should only take a few moments and won’t cost anything at this stage. After that, you can open the app from this page, or find it in the ‘Recently Used Apps’ section of the homepage. If you head to ‘Your Apps & Channels’, you can also move the NordVPN to a more immediate position on the homepage.
Once you’re in the NordVPN app, you’ll see an overview of the app’s services – which we’ll cover in more detail later. Right at the top of the screen, though, you’ll see options to either sign up or log in.
If you already have a NordVPN account, there are a few ways to log in:
If you’re new to NordVPN, you can select the ‘Sign up’ option and pay for an annual subscription through the Fire TV Stick’s platform. However, you don’t get quite as many payment options when going down this route and you’re essentially locked into a 12-month ‘Standard’ plan – the most basic NordVPN offering. To review the full range of subscriptions (one month, one year, or two year terms, plus Standard, Plus and Complete plans) you’ll need to go on their website to consider your options.
Once you’ve subscribed to a NordVPN payment plan, the next step is to connect to a server location.
The NordVPN app will now show a ‘Connect’ button with a lightning bolt icon. Selecting this button will automatically connect you to a server in your own region, though you can also select a server in another country or place – a few examples will be listed for you next to the ‘Connect’ button, but you’ll have to scroll down to see a full list of server possibilities under ‘All Countries’.
Many users may be fine using their own region’s server, but you may wish to switch.
NordVPN comes with a number of additional, optional features to help streamline your experience of using a VPN.
An auto-connect feature ensures that the VPN comes online every time you activate your Fire Stick, meaning you’re never accessing online services without the safety and security of your VPN – and ensuring you don’t need to manually hit the ‘Connect’ button every time you want to watch TV.
You may also want to turn on the Threat Protection Lite setting, which automatically blocks what NordVPN calls “malicious websites”, too. This will help to preemptively defend against unsafe areas of the net.
NordVPN runs servers all around the globe, allowing Fire Stick users to connect to a server in their own region or another – you could be in the UK and tunnelling to a server in Denmark, or vice versa.
So, if you travel a lot between regions, a VPN is able to bypass standard location restrictions and let you access local content and services from your country of residence – whether you’re looking to relax with your favourite YouTube channel in a hotel room on a business trip, or securely connect to your company’s intranet while abroad.
But NordVPN isn’t just for convenience. It uses a market-leading Advanced Standard Encryption with 256 bits (AES-256) that scrambles your data and makes it nearly impossible to hack, ensuring that your IP address and identity aren’t discovered (outside of websites or services where you actively log in with a user account, of course).
Its privacy and security features also ensure that, in the rare chance that a hacker attempts to access your information while using public wifi in a cafe or hotel, they won’t be able to, giving you protection exactly when you need it most.
While NordVPN is a reputable provider, any service is open to occasional hiccups or confusions, especially with new users.
If you’re struggling to create an account in the first instance, make sure to check your spam folder for any missed communications, such as the account verification. Resetting your password for any login trouble can be helpful, while app crashes are best handled by updating your NordVPN app to the latest firmware – or uninstalling and reinstalling entirely.
If you’re experiencing connectivity issues or oddly slow speeds, we’d recommend connecting to a different server location – generally, the closer the server to your own location, the faster speeds will be. It may also be worth trying a different VPN protocol, as speeds can vary between them.
If all else fails, be sure to contact the NordVPN support team for help.
Using NordVPN on Amazon Fire Stick is a great way to ensure the privacy and security of your online activities through the popular streaming stick. The NordVPN app is available for download on the Fire TV app store and comes with a medley of configurable settings to ensure you get the speed, security and convenience you need from a modern-day VPN.
Users will want to keep in mind that subscribing through the Fire Stick platform is a bit limiting when it comes to cost and features – there’s only a single 12-month Standard plan available here – so you’ll want to make an account elsewhere if you want more flexibility on your payment schedule, or a bigger suite of features for use on desktop, mobile, and otherwise.
The NordVPN app is available on all Fire Sticks, except the older first-generation models that launched in 2014 – so anything released in 2015 onwards, including the Fire Stick Lite, Fire Stick 4K, Fire Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Cube, are good to go.
NordVPN tells us that “while Amazon does not block NordVPN, keep in mind that the first-generation Amazon Fire Stick does not allow VPN connections. Other Amazon Fire devices support VPNs, including NordVPN.”
VPN providers work hard not to impact your streaming speed too much, but the various layers of encryption, and traffic re-routing between servers, unavoidably slow things down to a degree.
That said, a VPN can actually increase your bandwidth speeds. If your ISP engages with bandwidth throttling – when data-hungry activities, like video streaming, are slowed down across the network – then a VPN can sidestep these restrictions by concealing your specific activity from your internet service provider.
One big perk of VPNs is that they can bypass restrictions on region-specific content, allowing you to access things you usually wouldn’t be able to from your country of residence. For YouTube and other streaming platforms, this means you can generally access different content libraries around the globe, though in some cases this may violate a platform’s terms of service.
NordVPN offers a number of security features to keep your Fire Stick secure. Your data is encrypted and sent across the internet – like a sealed envelope – that means your ISP can’t see the contents or where it originates from. NordVPN also offers a specific ‘Double VPN‘ mode that goes through the encryption process twice over – likely overkill for everyday use, but a welcome option regardless.
When you open the NordVPN app, you’ll see a small selection of server locations on the right-hand side of the ‘Connect’ button. Simply select a server icon to connect to that specific server, or scroll down to see a full list of possible server locations under ‘All Countries’. Switching servers only takes a number of seconds.
You may wish to switch servers to access geo-blocked content from a different location, or to see how it impacts your data speeds – generally, a server close to your own location is likely to provide a faster experience.
A NordVPN account can run simultaneously on six separate devices, meaning you can cover a mix of different laptops, computers, phones and streaming devices.
You will have to connect each device to a different server, though, or use a different VPN protocol each time. But setting up your router with NordVPN sidesteps all that and only counts as a single device, even if multiple gadgets in your home are using its internet access.
