The Stop Online Privacy Act states, among other things, that internet providers will prevent access to certain websites, suspected of copyright infringement.
This means that, if someone classifies YouTube or any other popular that’s not respecting copyright laws, it can be banned.
Using a VPN provider, you will still be able to access blocked websites, because your ISP will not know what website you access.
OpenVPN is a free and open source software application that implements virtual private network (VPN) techniques for creating secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations and remote access facilities. It uses a custom security protocol[2] that utilizes SSL/TLS for key exchange. It is capable of traversing network address translators (NATs) and firewalls. It was written by James Yonan and is published under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Sometimes, when you attempt to watch a video in youtube, it gives you the message: “This video is not available in your country”.
This happens because the uploader of the video has put a geographic filter on the video, and only people from a specific geographic region can watch it.
It is a bit difficult to fix this, because you’ll need to know which region the filter is on.
But, most commonly, the filter is either for USA or UK. So a vpn might be able to help you out, because by using a VPN connection, your IP address changes from the IP that your ISP provides, to an IP from another location.
I found a really nice article on Wall Street Journal which I thought I’d share:
The add-on program, Firesheep, is designed to make it easy to intercept browser cookies used by popular Web sites like Facebook, Twitter and others to identify their users, thereby allowing Firesheep users to log-in to those Web sites posing as others.
The solution to secure yourself from Firesheep attacks, while surfing the internet on an unsecured wi-fi network?
A VPN plan, which encrypts traffic, and prevents your cookies from being stolen.
Whenever you navigate a website, your browser sends some information to the server, like your operating system, your browser and IP address.
Using that IP address, the website can find out which country, even which city you are in. They can use this information for statistical purposes, or to serve you with localized adds.
If you want to hide your real IP address, the easiest way to do that is by using a VPN service. There are tons of providers out there.
How does it work?
Well, whenever you want to visit a website, your connection is routed through the VPN server, which makes the request to the website in your name. The website will see the IP address of the VPN server, and not your real IP address.
Your ISP, your school, your company might be blocking websites like facebook.com or twitter.com, or any other websites that will distract you from work.
Fortunately, there’s an easy way around that restriction. A VPN plan.
This hides the actual address of the site you are using, but also encrypts your traffic, so that no one knows what you’re doing.
So, if you want to unblock all the websites that are blocked, all you have to do is the get a VPN plan.
If the website you’re accessing is in your country, than you can use a VPN plan that has the servers in your country.
If, for example, you live in China, then you’ll need to choose a VPN plan closest to you(a server in Hong Kong will be able to help you bypass these restrictions).
Skype is a VOIP application, that allows for free PC-to-PC calls, also offering cheap PC-to-phone plans.
But you probably know that.
What you don’t know, or found out the hard way, is that certain ISPs block their users from using Skype. Why would they do that, you ask? Well, it’s all about the money Since you can’t use Skype for free calls, you’d have to resort to traditional landlines or mobile phones to communicate.
Fortunately, there’s a way around this restriction: a VPN plan. The VPN plan encrypts your traffic, so that you ISP can’t see what’s in the package, or what application you’re using.
You willdefinitely need a VPN plan if you are in:
UAE, using Etisalat & DU ISPs
Belize: using BTL (Belize Telecom) ISP
Oman: using Omantel ISP.
Unfortunately, the list grows bigger every day, but you can always use the VPN workaround.
There a tons of VPN providers out there. But how can you know which one is the best?
Well, best thing is to try them all, but that will be a realhassle.
When I was searching for a vpn service provider, I followed the guideline below, which provedsuccessful.
What do you want to do with your VPN connection?
if you need it to remain anonymous while browsing different websites or to secure yourself while using public hotspots, then choose the VPN server closest to you. If you live in US, choose an US vpn. Speed is not really important here.
if you need to watch TV online, choose the vpn provider which has servers in the country for which you want to watch TV. For example, if you want to watch TV in the US, use a VPN provider that offers a US package. Speed here it very important, because if the speed is low, you will not be able to watch yourfavoriteTV show without interruptions.
if you want to unblock websites that are blocked in your country, choose the providers which offers a VPN package to a server that’s closest to your location.
Now, after this step, you’ve probably narrowed down your search to a few providers. Time to go to the next step.
Which provider should I choose?
Personally, I don’t go for big companies. While they have more servers and more people working for them, when you will have a problem with the service(and you will always have ), it will take some time to get it fixed.
Also, big companies tend to overcrowd the VPN servers, so you will have a slower connections.
I personally go for small-medium VPN providers, which have excellent customer services, as well as high speed servers.
If you want to skip the steps above, you can go ahead and choose the friendliest VPN provider. I am using them for over a year, and everything works fine.
Netflix offers unlimited movies and TV shows for 7.99/month.
However, if you’re outside US, you can’t take advantage of that offer, because they block any visitor that’s not in the US.
How do they do that? Easy, using your computer’s IP address. Using this, they can tell if you’re from US or not.
There are VPN services out there willing to “rent” you a US IP, so you can access any website that someone in the US can. On top of that, the VPN connection that you set up is encrypted, so you’ve got more benefits.
Since you can’t use Skype for free calls, you’d have to resort to traditional landlines or mobile phones to communicate.