Just because you can’t access a certain site or content doesn’t mean it’s impossible to unblock it. Whether a site has been blocked by your ISP, employer, or the government, you’d be glad to know that there is a simple solution to this problem called proxy servers.
Accessing Blocked Sites With Proxies
Using a quality proxy server is one of the easiest and most effective ways to access a blocked site or content from anywhere. Before going into details, let’s explain who is blocking sites and how site blocking works.
Who Can Block Sites?
Who can determine whether a site or content will be blocked for some internet users? Well, here are the most common factors that come into play.
Governments
There are many reasons why governments around the world block certain sites and content. That can be to protect national security, prevent access to copyright-infringing material, prevent children from seeing obscene content, or prevent residents from accessing information considered dangerous, false, or unflattering to the government, the country, or its policies.
Media companies
A lot of streaming media companies like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Disney+, and others block access to specific content in some countries. This is called geo-restriction, and no matter how frustrating it can be, there’s a reason behind it – profitability.
What geo-restriction means is restricting access to certain content or site based on the user’s location. Take Netflix, for example, whose catalog of movies and shows you can access varies depending on the country you reside in.
Big tech
Whether it’s Amazon, Apple, Google, or Facebook, the major technology companies are increasingly restricting content and blocking sites. Usually, this involves content that promotes violence, self-harm, or terrorism.
Schools and workplaces
Many schools, colleges, companies, and organizations restrict access to certain sites and content within their premises. Besides blocking unsafe sites and adult content, many of them are also blocking video streaming sites like YouTube or social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
They usually do this to prevent their students or employees from wasting their time on something that will affect their productivity and bandwidth.
How Does Website Blocking Work?
Governments, media companies, big tech, schools, and organizations are able to block certain websites and restrict content thanks to the Internet Protocol address or IP addresses of users.
Every device connected to the internet has a unique IP address assigned to it. This IP address identifies the device and its physical location. This allows certain entities to block your device’s access to online content based on your geographical location.
So if you try to connect to a geo-restricted site, it will first analyze your IP address before figuring out whether you can make the connection or not. And if you’re not allowed, you can make use of proxies to access and enjoy the desired content.
So, let’s find out more about proxies.
What Are Proxies?
Proxies or proxy servers are intermediary servers between your system and websites or other servers on the internet. They are software or apps that provide your device with another IP address when accessing a site.
Proxy servers are also referred to as website unblockers, allowing you to access sites that might be blocked due to government regulation and illegally copyrighted or NSFW content. If you plan on using a web proxy, make sure that you get the best website unblocker only from trusted providers. Doing so will help ensure that your proxy server is safe, secure, and effective. It helps to remember that while VPNs can provide a measure of anonymity, they are not foolproof. You could face severe consequences if caught breaking the law while using a VPN. Therefore, it is always best to obey the law, even when using a VPN.
Basically, each proxy has its own IP address that’s different than your actual IP. So when you use it to connect to a site, the proxy takes your web request, processes it, and sends it to the destination server via its own IP address. Also, it takes the web response before it forwards it back to your device.
In a way, they work as a middleman between your device and the sites you want to visit, not revealing your true IP and location. Keeping your IP and location hidden allows you to browse the web and visit any site anonymously.
How Can Proxies Help You Unblock Websites
Using a good proxy server is the easiest and most reliable way to bypass geo-restrictions and website blocks. Instead of connecting directly to the destination server, your system is routing the traffic through the proxy server.
Since your IP address determines whether you can access a site or not, to get around the geo-restriction or website block, you need another IP address from another location. That’s when proxies can come in handy.
Each proxy has its own IP address, so when using a proxy, you’ll be also using another IP address to connect to a certain site or service on the internet. When choosing a proxy, you can check to see whether it works for the site you plan to visit. You can use the free proxy tester at iproyal.com for that purpose.
So to access a geo-restricted site that’s available in, let’s say the US., you can use a US proxy that has a US IP address. This way, the site you want to access will see you as a US resident and will therefore grant you access.
You can also use them to regain access to gaming sites that have banned your IP address for whatever reason.
How To Choose The Right Proxy For Accessing Blocked Sites
Not any proxy will help you successfully access blocked sites and content. That’s why you need to pick the best one for that purpose. There are several factors you need to consider when choosing the proxy, including the reliability of the proxy provider and the type of proxy.
In general, premium or paid proxies are the most reliable proxies. That’s because there’s a reputable company that stands behind them. Plus, they offer proxies from almost every country in the world.
On the other hand, free proxies are not as reliable or safe as paid ones as they are not owned by anyone. Also, they can be shared with hundreds of users at the same time, so you may feel the consequences of someone else’s inappropriate use of the proxy.
When it comes to the type of proxy, a static residential IP proxy is the best option for unblocking websites. It has a static IP address from a real user, allocated by a real ISP. This makes them the most reliable and anonymous proxies, as opposed to other types of proxies that use IP addresses from proxy farms.
So when using a static residential proxy from a premium and trustworthy provider, you’ll be sure that it will help you access any geo-restricted site or content without being detected or banned.
To Sum Up
The increasing number of blocked websites and online content has made internet users search for a way to fight back against blocked content. One of the best solutions is using a quality proxy server.
Since not all proxies are created equal, you need to use the one that will provide you with the highest degree of reliability and anonymity. These are static residential proxies from premium proxy providers. With them, you can easily bypass any geo-restriction and access sites that are blocked by your government, school, work, or the big tech.
