The Netflix Proxy Ban Workaround

Last Updated on November 28, 2023

The growth of the media company Netflix has astounded many technology and entertainment experts. It started it’s life as an unlikely video by post company where you had to use the postal service to send and receive films. Obviously this sounds positively archaic in today’s world of digital streaming, yet the companies origins in this low technology world held it in good stead to develop over the years to come.

When Netflix was initially launched it was only accessible in about a dozen regions. What was much more irritating was that it was physically blocked outside those countries too. For example if you were a US Netflix subscriber and you went on holiday to Mexico then your account simply wouldn’t work. This was extremely frustrating for supposedly worldwide internet service and for many people who traveled a lot meant their account was essentially worthless.

Netflix Proxy Ban Workaround

The fix used to be actually rather simple, you could just discover a proxy server somewhere online and then use it to conceal your real location. For all the people traveling or working abroad they could access their Netflix subscription by bouncing it through a proxy server based in the correct country. Thankfully that doesn’t quite take place now, Netflix is available throughout most of the planet – 160 countries and counting now. If you happen to be in a different location you should find that you can access Netflix without issue.

Yet there still is an issue, and it’s actually quite a biggie. You see although you can gain access to Netflix in the majority of countries throughout the world, the edition you see is completely different. What’s worse the overall libraries of these regional variations of Netflix varies hugely.

Just take a look at the above graphic and you can see the huge disparity between these versions of Netflix. What’s more frustrating is when you’re 50 percent way through some type of box set and then find the country you’re currently in doesn’t have it. Sounds like a minor, first world problem and it probably is! However it’s extremely annoying to have content you’ve signed up for just being eliminated because you happen to be in a different physical location.

Do we have to revert to proxies now, to link back to our original version of Netflix? Well unfortunately that will not do the trick either any longer as they’re all blocked out. Yes that’s true – every single proxy server is now completely blocked out by Netflix – indeed it even means you can’t watch it in work as most companies use proxies to transfer internet connections.  In fact it’s hard to find any use for these servers anymore although people do spend lots to buy best proxies for Instagram where they still work well.

So What’s the Netflix Proxy Ban Workaround ?

So they’re gone, proxies are now totally useless as a means of accessing Netflix. Forget free ones or even costly premium proxy servers none will work. So what are the options for accessing your favorite version of Netflix?

Well the next option used to be to use a VPN, as these are much more difficult to detect. They operate in a comparable way to proxy servers but operate through a Virtual private network which is encrypted. Nobody can easily detect VPNs easily however unfortunately these no longer typically work with Netflix either.  yes they’ve even implemented a Netflix VPN ban too ! Although they can’t detect them automatically, what Netflix has done is to examine the category of the IP address.

Most VPN servers sit in huge commercial datacentres across the world. This is fine and probably the best location for them to be seated, however it also means that they are easily recognizable. This is due to the fact that the IP addresses are registered to companies as opposed to normal home users who have domestic IP addresses. Early in 2017 Netflix decided to block access from all commercially registered IP addresses that all of a sudden meant that all the VPN services stopped working too!

As you can easily see these is something of an ongoing battle going on between Netflix and all those of us who wish to have the ability to watch the best films and movies. It looked like Netflix won with their final IP block but it hasn’t been entirely successful. It is true that the vast majority of VPN services no longer work with Netflix regardless of precisely what they commonly say on their web sites. Have a quick look at this video for instance.

As you can observe the security VPN – Identity Cloaker will allow access to the US version of Netflix from anywhere in the world, there’s also a cool free trial which unblocks Netflix. They have done this by purchasing a variety of residential IP addresses which are used when anyone tries to connect to Netflix. All of these are only used for the media site as the addresses are difficult and expensive to obtain. Most VPN services are not able to supply these IP addresses therefore will get the typical Proxy/IP blocked message when you attempt to connect.   Even premium ones like IPvanish Netflix will block automatically too.

Please do not expect to find any free VPNs that work with Netflix any longer, these addresses are actually incredibly challenging to obtain and very expensive. It costs a large amount to permit a Netflix VPN so there will always be some membership charge administered. By the way if you do discover that Netflix says I’m utilizing a proxy but I’m not then it’s likely you’re logging in through some type of gateway with a commercial IP address.

Remember this only works with the US version of Netflix (however they are trialing access to UK Netflix too). Generally the US version is the best one to use as it has by far the largest library of films and TV shows. There are some specialist companies who offer dedicated IP addresses which likewise allow access but they cost considerably more money that the Identity Cloaker subscription cost. Do not worry that the company doesn’t advertise this facility, that’s a deliberate tactic to avoid attention, it’s all you need for the Netflix proxy ban workaround !

You can try their 10 day trial here – IDC