Hence why trying others helps, VPNs that work for one don’t for others, none seem too work with Sky Go on android 12 and above for me.
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SurfShark have made loads of suggestions to fix my problem with iPlayer but to no avail and my sub ends tomorrow. So, I’m going to try CyberGhost as a) they appear to have a lot of servers in the UK, b) they are Swedish and so probably understand the BBC better than American companies and c) they are cheap if you go for the 2 year deal, plus they have a 45 day money back guarantee. ExpressVPN is probably the best overall but they are double the price and only provide 5 simultaneous connections compared to 7 for CyberGhost - anyone here using CyberGhost on a Fire TV Stick to watch iPlayer?
Haha - so I’ve ditched SurfShark and bought a 2 year+3 free months sub with Cyberghost - £60 inc.VAT (£2.22/month) and a 45 day refund window. It seems to work well on my Fire TV stick - but doesn’t work on my phone🤣 - completely the opposite experience compared to SurfShark! I tell you, modern tech, it keeps you on your toes! Looking forward to my first Cyberghost techsupport response…
I don’t know if anyone is reading this thread anymore 
- but it looks like I have resolved all the problems I initially had with Cyberghost so, so far, so good.
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As things have calmed down for you thankfully may I pick up on an issue. PC has a VPN i-player set up on pc and recieving and downloading perfectly. The tv is a smart tv which I have connected to the server network (orange live box). I was surprised not to see the cast icon anywhere on the PC so we could cast from the PC i-player app to the tv. There is a chrome cast and fire stick in the tv and I can find the chrome cast easily on my phone but not on devices on the PC?
Don’t know if its relevant, but I can’t cast from my tablet if I’ve got a VPN connected
Neither can I.
Because the two devices are effectively not in the same network.
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That’s correct - the device running a VPN is running on a separate (virtual) network and video share/casting only works with devices on the same network. Theoretically, if your router is running the VPN client then this should solve the problem. But I no longer run a VPN router so I haven’t tried it.
That’s what I thought, either using the VPN on the router or dedicated IP, it still doesn’t work.
It’s sometimes called Mirror.
I forget the short cut - but you do it from either control panel or the display options on my laptop. It’s a Windows function rather than a browser thing. That will then show what is available - fire stick or TV.
I found it glitchy as f*** when using a VPN - I put the VPN app on the TV which fixed it for UK catch up
Thanks, I will give the VPN app on the tv a go, as Billy said on the same network hopefully it will work
I found that the simplest solution was a Fire TV Stick as you could put a VPN client on that as an app, no need for mirroring or casting, or trying to install a VPN on the router which, if it is your main router, will slow down the whole network and cause other issues.
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Ok, they have a fire stick and a VPN so will give that a go.
VPN support isn’t available on the older Fire TV models though, and not all VPNs support Fire OS, but hopefully you will be lucky.
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Thank you, see how I get on.
I thought I’d provide an update on my switch from SurfShark to CyberGhost. Bear in mind I primarily use the VPN on an Amazon Fire TV stick for watching BBC iPlayer.
Certainly, I’m no longer getting the problem I had with SurfShark of Error 2000 when trying to watch live stream TV channels. However… I am experiencing occasional buffering and instability. I’ve paid for the two year deal, which is under €3 a month with three extra months thrown in. This is half the price of ExpressVPN, but I’m now inclined to try ExpressVPN. If it fixes the buffering problem, I’ll ask for a refund within the 45 dial trial period that Cyberghost offer.
If you have the option try a different UK server - they can get busy - especially the default ones and that causes buffering.
Obviously make sure your internet isn’t the factor.
The giveaway is that if I watch something else, like France 24, which isn’t routed via the VPN, the stream is very steady. We have 500mb fibre here now and a three node mesh WiFi setup. I’m running two Fire TV sticks, one on the TV in the kitchen and one on the TV in the lounge, and they both exhibit the same symptoms. They are well in range of the WiFi and getting hundreds of megabits of steady WiFi signal. While I can toggle the VPN to change the IP address, I can’t change the actual server that easily, if at all - Cyberghost provide choices for optimised for iplayer, Netflix, etc. If I choose a plain UK server, iPlayer doesn’t work. It may be I have the best of what I can expect but I need to verify that, so I will try the ExpressVPN trial alongside Cyberghost.
Just out of interest has anybody got an alternative to the ghastly Silk on Firestick?