The Roku media player has Google's free public DNS (8.8.8.8) hard-coded into it. This is great for DNS redundancy, but totally sucks if you use an unblock service to watch Netflix abroad (see this: How to Watch Netflix in Japan). From time to time my Roku would insist on using Google's DNS, so Netflix would no longer work properly. Boooo! There are 2 comparable ways to fix this:
Add a Null Route to Your Router
Most basic home routers allow you to add custom routes. Add a route to 8.8.8.8 that goes to the loopback address (127.0.0.1). Called a "null route," all traffic going to Google's DNS will simply be dropped. Problem solved.
Add a Rule to Your Firewall
If you have something more feature-rich than a basic home router, you can add a rule to your firewall that blocks access to 8.8.8.8. Be sure to include UDP as that's what DNS uses. The advantage of the rule approach is customizability. You can still allow other PCs on your network access to Google's DNS if desired.
Related Articles
Running Adobe Illustrator with...
Here's a quick one. I've been struggling with getting Adobe Illustrator (Creative Cloud) to run properly with user-level privileges. It would often freeze and...
Nginx - How to Block or Redire...
I've been figuring out how to block or redirect web traffic in Nginx based on the country geoIP. NOTES* You need the package nginx-extras for this because this...
MS Outlook - None of your emai...
PROBLEMYou send email to a recipient, but immediately receive an error bounce-back message that says "None of your email accounts could send to this recipient."...
How to Fix the Windows Managem...
A corrupt WMI repository can mess up things like the Symantec management agent and its ability to deploy software. If you check properties of "WMI Control" in ...