If you travel to China for business or leisure, you will find that many popular and important websites or services can’t be visited fully or partialy from the country. The services are included like Hulu, HBO, USA Network, ABC, BBC iPlayer, Spotify, Deezer, WWE, Star Sports, Sky Italia, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google, Gmail, Telegram, Instagram and so on. According reliable resources, more than 3000 websites or services can’t be directily accessed from Mainland China without taking certain measures. For instance, when you try to visit Netflix by typing its domain into your web browser as usual, you will receive nothing but a repeated message saying “Sorry, Netflix is not available in your country yet. Enter your email & we’ll let you know when Netflix is available.” If you want to login your Facebook account to share something with your friends or families, “This site can’t be reached” or similar message is the only thing you can receive. What is happening? Why can’t we access so many websites or services from China?
Different websites or services are inaccessible for different particular reasons. The reason why Facebook is blocked in China is reported to have something to do with the riots in Xinjiang 2009. Facebook was blocked because Xinjiang independence activists take advantage of Facebook to prepare the riots. Meanwhile, some people hold that it is, as a matter of fact, because there were a few of users using the website to disclose the passive response of the government in dealing with the riots and the Facebook worked slowly to remove relevant photographs and articles on the website.The response of Facebook was regarded by the Chinese government to be an act of undermining the stability and security of the nation. So the government decided to ban Facebook from being accessed in China with the well-known Great Firewall of China, GFW in short. Apart from Facebook, such websites or services as Youtube, Twitter, Instagram and so on are all blocked for the same reason：government censorship.
While these services like Hulu, HBO, USA Network, ABC, BBC iPlayer, Spotify, Deezer, WWE, Star Sports, Sky Italia, Netflix are not reachable for different reasons. It is something called geo-restriction or geo-blocking.Geo-restriction or geo-blocking is a form of a content protection technology. It is used by the service providers to restrict access to different content according to the geographical location of the user. Services or websites adopting geo-restriction or geo-blocking like Netflix are using certain geolocation techniques to calculate where the users are located. They may have worked out a list which service providers use to check the user’s IP address. The result of the check is used to assign the content you are allowed to access or the content you can’t access.For example, like mentioned above, if your IP is identified as from China, you will be prevented from being visiting anything on Netflix, a message or the similar saying “Sorry, Netflix is not available in your country yet. Enter your email & we’ll let you know when Netflix is available.” will be repeated all the time no matter how many times you try. If you travel to India, you may find that a film produced in USA is not reachable for copyright and licensing reason. According to reports, only a part of the whole library of Netflix can be accessed by the Indian users.
It is reported that about 30 million month-to-month users are watching Netflix from countries where the service is not available.And around 22 million users are from China. This is a huge number. How can people watch Netflix in countries where the service is not provided? And even though Facebook and other services are strictly blocked by the Great Firewall of China, many users are using the services freely as if there never exists the block. How can they bypass the GFW to reach the websites or services? Yes, they are using a technology called VPN. Virtual Private Network, VPN in short, is undoubtedly the best way to bypass government censorship and access geo-restricted websites. It is a technology that can help cover your oringianl IP with a new one by arranging an intermedia server between the source and destination devices. In this way, the service is fooled and fails to tell where you are exactly located, thus you can access anything you like at will.
The guide consists of three steps.
Step 1: First, it is needed to go to sign up for an account from a VPN service provider. Usually there are various service plan available, pick up the one that you think it best for you. After that, you will be provided the options to make the payment. Choose the payment method and fill in all the information to complete. An email will be sent to you to confirm the account upon payment being completed. After confirming, the next step is to download and install the software onto your system.
Step 2: Download and install the VPN software. Usually, a link to download the software will be provided in the confirmation email. You may be presented with a list of software where software for different operating systems or devices are listed. Select the one for your systems to finish downloading. The installation is easy, just click through the procedures as prompted all the way to complete.
Step 3: Connect to a US-based server or other appropriate server location on VPN. When the software is ready, the left you need to do is to start the application and fill in your account detail and choose a proper location. You can select any server located in US. If you like, you can also choose other locations like Canada. It is all up to you. Now everything is done. You can access whatever you like fully in China with your own account. If you don’t have an account, just go ahead to register a new one.
Why is it recommended to select the VPN technology to bypass government censorship and access geo-restricted websites to access Netflix or Facebook from the countries where the services are not reachable like China? Is it worth the extra money we pay for a specific VPN service? Here are some facts that may help you make the decision.
• An excellent VPN service will allow the user to access the whole content on devices as many as possible, including Android devices, Windows PC, Google Nexus Player, Smart TV, Blu-ray Player, iPad, iPhone, AppleTV etc.
• By applying the VPN technology, you will not need to take hours to download “free” streaming content like a movie without good quality guaranteed at the risk of introducing viruses onto your devices. It is known that free downloads are the most often-used ways by malwares to distribute themselves.
• Stay completely anonymous online to protect yourself against hackers, spammers, identity thieves, government surveillance, spyware and marketers
• Enjoy blazing high-speed, reliable and continuous point to point file-sharing with complete anonymity
• Circumvent port blocking and speed throttling management measures of the ISP
• Enjoy free or public Wi-Fi securely
For users who are looking for reliable brands of VPN services, the following three can be listed among their best choices. Although none of these brands is good enough to be considered as perfect in all aspects, they are very competitive in many aspects compared with their competitors.
Private Internet Access is regarded as one of the most trustworthy VPN service providers in the field of VPN technology. The most impressive aspect of their VPN service is the affordable pricing. They are able to provide the customers with the most efficient services of the most reasonable prices. Apart from reasonable prices, the number of servers and various useful tools like ad blocking and one click termination for all applications connected to the internet in case of a VPN failure are all powerful tools they use to compete with their competitors.
Headquartered in Panama, a country where people scream for freedom from NSA snooping, NordVPN is one of the most popular VPN services in the world. Even though its pricing is slightly expensive, it doesn’t prevent the company from being one of the most favored VPN service providers at all since it is a company that can ease the user’s safety concern to the most degree.
Apart from vast pricing options, multiple server choices and a bunch of impressive tools, KeepSolid VPN is doing better in many aspects compared with other providers. Unless you are looking for a service with faster speed and simpler UI or higher speed of file sharing across all servers, there is no reason to remove it out of your list of best VPN services.
Kindly Reminder: If you have any question regarding how to Set up VPN on your device, please live chat with Yoocare online expert for help.
Published by & last updated on May 30, 2017 8:52 pm
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