Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Problem connecting to Netflix - my solution

Recently I encountered an error when trying to open Netflix app on my Lenovo Android tablet. Netflix used to work flawlessly, but suddenly it stopped working on just one of my devices.

When trying to login, an error message appeared. The message was "There is a problem connecting to Netflix. Please try again later. If the problem persists, check that your device has the correct date and time and restart the Netflix application."

Actually, as the device is in Finnish locale, the message was "Netflix-yhteyden luomisessa oli ongelma. Yritä myöhemmin uudelleen. Jos ongelma ei poistu, tarkista että laitteessasi on oikea päivämäärä ja aika ja käynnistä Netflix-sovellus uudelleen."

I tried to reset my router, set the time and date for my router and devices etc, nothing helped. I removed Netflix app and reinstalled it. Everything else was working perfectly (net, games, etc) but still I was not able to connect to Netflix. And my kids were getting angry.

Finally I tried to check the DNS settings on my tablet. They pointed to my router, where I have Google's servers configured. Well, I thought, why not set the same IPs to the tablet as well.

So, I set up the Google name server IPs as DNS servers... and Netflix started to work again.

Steps to set up the DNS in Android 4.x devices:
1. Select "Settings"
2. Select "Wi-Fi"
3. Long tap your wifi network item - a pop up chooser will appear
4. Select "Modify network config"
5. Select "Show advanced options" - new options will appear
6. Select "IP settings" - select "Static" from drop down menu
7. Set "DNS1" to "8.8.8.8" (write down the original IP, in case you need it later)
8. Set "DNS2" to "8.8.4.4" (write down the original IP, in case you need it later)
9. Select "Save"
10. Start watching Netflix ;)