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If you are one of those who can’t miss a new box set and enjoy streaming shows and movies over your phone, you’ll love this neat little trick to open up content blocked in your country. You might think a VPN is just for stopping cybercriminals from accessing your data and personal information. A VPN, however, fools services like Netflix into thinking you are in another country, opening up a whole new library of things to watch.
It is commonplace that these days, the majority of the streaming services available for movies, TV shows, and box sets like Bridgerton, Game of Thrones, and Bates Motel, along with gaming, sporting, and gambling sites, are locked to a certain geographical region. Ultimately, this means that these sites are only accessible by users in uncensored or specified countries. Countries such as China often restrict “outside access” to a range of sites and services, many of which are extremely popular in other countries.
Fortunately for us, there is a really easy way to deal with geo-blocking and get around these restrictions and censorships, connecting to these sites via a VPN (which is a Virtual Private Network).
Due to strict copyright laws and other, some might say, archaic agreements, streaming media services like Hulu and Netflix (which are based primarily in the US) are not allowed to broadcast all of their productions to regions that are outside of the USA. Meaning that internet users in Europe, the UK, and other continents do not have immediate access to many popular films or TV shows as you would expect them to. And in some cases, some Netflix material is available in Europe but not in the US (like the recent release of the Tom Hanks movie, News of the World.)
Nevertheless, by using a VPN that will essentially mask your device’s IP address, it is possible to appear that you are actually in the country that the website is coming from, allowing you to access the show or movie you really wanted to watch. This obviously opens up a whole new world of box sets, TV shows, games, and movies that you wouldn’t be able to watch or access without the use of a VPN.
Installing a VPN has certainly become a necessity over the last few years for anyone who wants to stream their favorite content to their iPhone. Whether it’s because you don’t want to miss out on a top show while you are on holiday or looking for sports coverage of an event that is not broadcast where you live, or maybe you just want that extra layer of security that they give.
Nevertheless, not every VPN is made equal, so there’s some serious picking and choosing to be done and there are plenty of reasons to look out for the best VPN for iPhone streaming.
When you connect to the internet using a VPN application or service, your pipeline to the web takes a route via the servers put in place by your VPN provider – which could be located anywhere, even the other side of the world. Regardless of the location, they will have another IP address that is different from the one being used by your local Internet Service Provider on your home machine, and a VPN, when used, can essentially and effectively hide your home location.
VPN providers then change your IP addresses’ appearance, which is advantageous to you as it makes your connection to the internet or streaming platform look like it has originated from a different machine, in a different region, or even in a different country. It also makes you less vulnerable to hackers.
Some sites and apps that are used for streaming are aware of this tactic and are trying to stop it. Now, only a handful of VPN services have the resources necessary to access streaming sites and bypass their firewalls.
As well as the streaming capabilities of your VPN, unblocking content, and fast downloads for buffering-free, high-quality streaming, it’s best to get a VPN that offers the whole package when it comes to your security and data protection. You could do with adding:
- High security and a no-logs policy
- Server locations globally so you can access content libraries anywhere
- Fast and effective customer service
- Compatible with the Kodi streaming service
You’ll also want to get these features on more than one device in your home. Perhaps you might like to watch from iPhones, laptops, or tablets – many VPN services allow you to connect with more than one machine.