How to Access Netflix Overseas

Netflix is an incredibly popular on-demand streaming service in the United States and 200 countries around the world, but there are still plenty of places that don’t have access. Available content can even vary drastically in the available countries.

For some places, this is due to licensing restrictions, whether currently under negotiations or outright banned by the local copyright law. Other places, like China and Iran, censored the service, but that hasn’t stopped more tech-minded subscribers from watching their favorite shows. Location restrictions are most commonly circumvented with the use of a VPN, which encrypts and routes your traffic to a specific server (located in a Netflix country) before establishing a connection. Netflix only sees the IP address of a VPN server, so it thinks users are situated in a serviced region.

Keep in mind VPNs are forbidden by Netflix’s Terms of Use. Your account won’t get banned, but the company has started blocking connections from known services like NordVPN and HideMyAss. Many providers are still operational though, especially if they have servers in multiple countries. If you’re interested in purchasing a VPN for this purpose, most will offer a free trial to make sure you’re able to connect properly.

VPNs might not be feasible for places with weak internet connections. In this case, SmartDNS is an easy-to-use alternative to hide your real location. Such a configuration differs from VPNs in that it doesn’t encrypt your communications, sacrificing the privacy aspect of VPNs but increasing the connection’s speed.