Netflix Blocking VPNs: Is It The End Of Unrestricted Access?

For a long time, people have been struggling with all the restrictions that Netflix imposed in their countries. A lot of content was blocked in a lot of areas and people could do nothing but make peace with that fact and move on with their lives. That is, until they figured out that virtual private networks (VPNs) could help. Click this to learn what VPNs are.

That was probably a time of celebration in many countries and many households. Of course, it’s not like anybody celebrated on the street or anything like that. The celebrations were much more peaceful and quiet. People simply put a smile on their faces and threw a party in the name of their victory. The honorable guest of the party was, of course, their favorite Netflix show and there were probably no more than one or two other guests – the honorable one was more than enough.

The practice of using virtual private networks to bypass Netflix restrictions went on for a while. It seems, however, that things went south recently. In other words, Netflix appears to have outsmarted VPNs. This is like a constant battle of wits and people are rather curious to see who is going to win. The odds seemed to go in favor of VPNs for some time and now the ball is again in Netflix’s court.

Does this mean that the era of unrestricted access has come to an end? Will you be forced to give up your favorite shows once again just because you aren’t located in the areas where Netflix isn’t blocking its content? Before we get to see whether VPNs have found a solution for the most recent move that Netflix has made, let us take a look at what that move actually looks like and what it does.

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How Netflix Blocks VPNs

The reason why Netflix has decided to come up with a solution to block some of their users from accessing region-restricted content in the first place has to do with nothing else but copyright and money. In short, copyright holders don’t get any revenue whatsoever if their content is streamed in an unlicensed area. Now that you know the reason, you probably want to hear the solution that they came up with.

You can read about it here: https://www.techradar.com/vpn/how-does-netflix-detect-and-block-vpn-use

To put things simply, Netflix has managed to check whether the IP address you are using is associated with any VPN connection. They succeeded in doing this simply because many virtual network providers have a small number of IP addresses to offer, meaning that you can easily get an IP address that hundreds and thousands of people have used before you. That’s an immediate red flag for Netflix and it has made it easier for them to identify and block IP addresses associated with a VPN.

A smart solution, isn’t it? It appears that this streaming platform has brought home a victory. Yet, nobody can say for sure that it has won the war. In fact, a lot of pieces of information circling across the World Wide Web are indicating that some virtual network providers have already found a way to get past this obstacle as well. In other words, the battle is still not over and we have yet to see who will come out as the winner.

The Solution

As it is becoming clear that Netflix’s smart move isn’t marking the end of an era, i.e. the end of the unrestricted content era, it’s high time we talked about the solution that the other side has come up with. That solution seems to be rather effective and, what’s most interesting, many providers didn’t have to change a thing in the way they do business. That only goes to show that the streaming platform didn’t do a very good job in its effort to put a stop to unrestricted streaming.

If you have been paying close attention, it’s clear to you that Netflix’s solution is based on the presumption that most VPN providers won’t have enough IP addresses to offer and that they’ll be able to identify each and every one of them. What happens, however, if this fails to be true? What happens if you come across a provider that has tens of thousands of regularly updated IP addresses to offer? I’ll tell you what happens – Netflix loses.

What does this mean for you as a user of both services? It means that you will have to find the perfect VPN provider in order not to have any issues with your favorite streaming platform. Let’s say, for example, that you have come across NordVPN. Before you start using it, you need to check if NordVPN works with Netflix at all. If not, you should keep on looking further.

How To Find Those Providers

The only trick seems to be for the user to take his or her time to find the right virtual private network provider. That is probably much easier than it sounds, because there are a few established providers out there that you can start using immediately, such as the one I mentioned above and similar. Still, if this is your first time searching for a virtual private network provider, you might be a bit confused about where to look and how to find the perfect one. I’ll give you a push into the right direction.

The best way to know whether a specific provider will be right for you is to do some research about it before agreeing on using the services. This research is done online and it consists of reading reviews and other people’s opinions about particular VPN services. Finding those reviews and comments will be pretty easy, since the Internet is full of the information you need. All you have to do is sit down, devote some time to your search and refrain from rushing into decisions.

There are a lot of criteria according to which you should choose your particular virtual private network provider, but in your case, one criterion stands out as the most important one. You want it to work with Netflix, regardless of their new recognition method. No matter how good a particular VPN is, if it doesn’t work with your streaming platform, then you haven’t done a very good job while searching.

The second criterion is for the provider to be reliable and trustworthy. It goes without saying that you want to stay safe and secure while using these services. That’s why you should always check what particular providers to with your data and make sure that you find a dependable and reliable one.

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