How to Spoof Your Location and Get Around Geo-Blocking With a VPN

You may have noticed that most major streaming services, gambling sites, and some other online sites and services are geo-blocked.

This means that only online users in certain regions or countries of the world can access these sites and services. In addition, some overly restrictive regimes ::COUGH!:: China! ::COUGH!:: also block many websites and services.

Luckily, there is a convenient and easy-to-use solution to the blocked content issue: a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

A VPN can route your internet traffic through a server located in another country, temporarily assigning a new IP address to your connected device. This fools most online services and websites into believing you are located in that other country.

VPNs also encrypt your internet connection, creating a virtual tunnel of sorts that prevents third parties (such as government agencies, your Internet Service Provider or hackers) from monitoring and tracking your online travels.

How to Use a VPN to Avoid Geo-Blocking

By using a reliable VPN provider, it’s easy to evade virtual roadblocks and access geo-blocked content.

Here’s how to evade geo-blocking by using a VPN:

1. Sign up for a reliable VPN service. (I strongly recommend NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN as excellent VPN options.)
2. Download and install app(s) from your provider of choice on your connected device(s).
3. Connect to a VPN server that is located in the country where you want to access geo-blocked content. For example, if you’re looking to view BBC iPlayer content, connect to a server inside of the United Kingdom.
4. Connect to your streamer of choice (you’ll need to already have a subscription to most streaming sites) and enjoy the show! (If you have issues viewing your desired content, clear your browser’s cookies and content cache and reload the site to try again.)

If you continue to experience issues after clearing your browser cache and cookies, contact your VPN’s customer support team to ask if you should use a particular server to access the streaming site.

When Will I Encounter Geo-Blocking?

There are two main instances where you will encounter geo-blocked content on the internet.

In the first instance, you’ll find that most streaming services – like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and most others – restrict their content offerings to certain regions of the world.

Some streamers, like Netflix, will offer their services around the globe, but offer different content in different countries. Meanwhile, other streaming services, such as BBC iPlayer, restrict viewing of all of their content to a specific country.

The reason streaming services geo-restrict their content is due to the contracts they agree to with content providers (movie and television producers) that restrict the areas in which they are allowed to provide access to a particular film or TV series.

You’ll also run into geo-blocking when you attempt to place a bet via an online betting site or casino, or when you attempt to access the website of some financial institutions.

The second main situation where you will encounter geo-blocking of content is in overly restrictive countries, like China and the UAE, where access to content in other countries is restricted due to political or religious reasons.

In addition to websites, these strict countries will block services that most of us take for granted, like Skype, FaceTime, and WhatsApp. This can make it difficult to stay in touch with friends and family in other countries.

How Can Websites and Online Services Detect My Geographical Location?

It all comes down to your connected device’s real IP address – it is the snitch that gives away your geographical location.

You see, an IP address is a unique identifier that tells other devices or computers on the internet which device requested information and where that information should be delivered. (Just like your home or business address does for snail mail).

Plus, just like your postal address, an IP address can be used to identify your exact location around the globe.

This can be done because each country is assigned a range of IP addresses designated for use by connected devices in that country. So, if the device’s IP address falls somewhere in that range, then you will be identified as connecting from inside of that country.

This means a streaming service or other online site or service can check your device’s IP address to determine whether or not to block or allow access to their content.

Can I Use a VPN to Break Through China’s Great Firewall?

It can be a pain in the butt to do so, but it is possible to use a VPN to tunnel under China’s Great Firewall.

Unfortunately, the Chinese government has seemingly made it their mission to block VPN usage from inside of their country, blocking many VPN providers’ websites and ordering Apple and Google to remove loads of VPN apps from their App Stores.

If you do want to use a VPN to bust through China’s Great Firewall barriers, you’ll want to take care to do a few important things.

First of all, before subscribing to a VPN provider, check with the customer support agents of the providers that you’re considering to find out if their service is currently working from inside China.

Check out my Best VPN for China article to find out which VPNs work the best in China. NordVPN and ExpressVPN are two of the best VPN service providers for this purpose.

Once you’ve decided on a provider, subscribe to it, install the provider’s app and then test to make sure that the VPN is working properly.

Once you are inside Chinese borders, turn on every security or obfuscation feature that your VPN app offers. These can include enabling kill switch protection, auto-reconnect, obfuscation features, “scrambling” features, and any other feature that will help ensure that your online travels go unobserved, hiding the fact that you’re using a VPN.

Read my article to learn more about VPN security features.

Can I Use a Free VPN or Proxy to Unblock Geo-Blocked Content?

Some free VPNs may offer some limited content unblocking. And I mean limited.

You might get by using a freebie VPN to access an online betting parlor or to connect to a financial institution’s site, but forget about being able to unblock a streaming service.

Free VPNs usually don’t offer app support for a large number of devices, usually limiting their support to Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. Some free providers don’t even offer that much support.

Plus, when you try to use a free VPN, you may be forced to wait until a slot on the provider’s limited number of servers opens up. Then, you’re either presented with a limited number of server locations to select from or you’re automatically connected to a server of the provider’s choosing.

This limited number of servers means it’s easy for streaming services to block free VPN providers. Plus, most freebie VPNs are run on a shoestring and just don’t have the resources to set up new IP addresses when their addresses are blocked by the streamers.

Free VPNs heavily throttle your internet speeds. This is because they want to preserve as much bandwidth as possible for their paying customers. These same providers also inflict small data caps on their free users, limiting the daily or monthly use by those users.

Slow speeds and small amounts of data do not exactly go hand-in-hand with an enjoyable streaming experience.

You’ll also find that you lack true digital privacy when using a free VPN. Many free VPNs keep their servers humming by tracking their customers’ usage, and then selling that information to advertisers and other nosy parties.

Plus, at least one free VPN provider was caught inserting unwanted tracking cookies and ads into its users’ browsing sessions.

Pay for a quality VPN service. It’s worth it in the long run.

Why Won’t My VPN Unblock My Favorite Streaming Service?

Some streaming platforms are a bit better and more stringent about detecting VPN usage than other streaming services are.

While a local news website probably doesn’t care if you watch their news streams, Netflix, Amazon, and BBC iPlayer will kick you to the curb if you try to access their content from the wrong part of the world.

In the past, I’ve called the relationship between streaming services and VPNs a game of virtual whack-a-mole.

Once a streamer discovers the IP address you’re using belongs to a VPN service, they’ll usually block that IP address. Then, it’s up to the VPN provider to create new IP addresses to restore access to that streaming service. Then the streamer eventually blocks the new IP address, starting the whole back-and-forth all over again.

However, you shouldn’t immediately panic if your streaming request is blocked for using a VPN. Instead, try another server location in that same country. You’ll likely be successful that time around.

If you still have issues, you can always contact your VPN provider’s customer service reps and ask which server you should connect to for a particular streaming site.

If you’re using a mobile device, like an iPhone or an Android smartphone, you may find yourself blocked, thanks to the streamer having access to your device’s GPS radio, which allows it to detect your true location by reading your GPS-reported location.

On an Android device, you may be able to spoof your GPS location with a GPS spoofing app. On the iPhone, you may be able to stream by using a VPN and using the iPhone’s browser to stream from Netflix or another streaming service.

What Geo-Blocked Services Can I Access by Using a VPN?

If you’re using a reliable VPN (like NordVPN), you’ll have access to a large number of geo-blocked sites and services. These include:

• Video streaming sites
• Audio streaming sites
• Sports streaming sites
• Gambling and gaming sites
• Social networks
• Dating services
• Messaging sites
• News sites
• Much more

Conclusion

As you can see, by using a quality VPN provider, you can easily spoof your location and defeat the geo-blocking measures put in place by content providers and overly restrictive governments.

A top-notch VPN (like my top VPN provider, NordVPN) provides reliable and easy-to-use access to geo-blocked streaming services, gaming services, and other sites and services.

A VPN’s advantages don’t stop there, as it also encrypts your internet connection, protecting your online activities from the prying eyes of nosy types, including your ISP, the government, and the bad actors of the world.

How to Spoof Your Location FAQs