Even when you’re traveling, you don’t want to miss out on entertainment. Sometimes the weather might not cooperate to do an activity or you spend a day in the hotel.
However, it is annoying when you are traveling abroad with your laptop, looking forward to your favorite program and then you cannot watch it. Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Co. do not allow you to stream like at home. Fortunately, there are a few solutions to this problem.
Even when you’re traveling, you don’t want to miss out on entertainment. Sometimes the weather might not cooperate to do an activity or you spend a day in the hotel. However, it is annoying when you are traveling abroad with your laptop, looking forward to your favorite program and then you cannot watch it. Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Co. do not allow you to stream like at home. Fortunately, there are a few solutions to this problem.
The reason for this is the so-called “geoblocking”. This means that individual content will be blocked for specific regions. Netflix and the other streaming services use the IP address to identify the country in which you are. You will be denied access to the German content and you can only access the films and series that are available in the country.
DIFFERENT RULES APPLY IN THE EU
Fortunately, different rules have been applied within the member states of the European Union since the end of 2018. For example, if you are traveling in France, Italy, or other EU countries, you can still access your usual program. However, this only applies for a limited period of time. For example, if you are on vacation or on a business trip, nothing can happen to you in principle.
Even if you stay in another EU country for a longer period of time, such as during a semester abroad, you will not be denied access. In addition, services such as Netflix will let you know in good time when the changeover will take place.
However, not all countries in the world belong to the EU, only very few. Things are a bit different there when it comes to geoblocking.
VPN CLIENTS CAN HELP
If you are traveling in non-EU countries, you probably cannot avoid a VPN download. Simply put, these are programs that encrypt your connection. You log into a secure line via the VPN client, which suppresses your original IP address.
At the same time, the streaming service is being pretended that you are in Germany. In this way, you can easily bypass geo-blocking and access your usual content on the platforms.
However, such VPN clients are not only useful on the computer. They can be installed on smartphones, tablets, Xbox, or Smart TVs. You usually have to take out a monthly subscription, the price of which varies depending on the client provider.
OTHER WAYS TO STREAM CONTENT
In addition to bypassing geoblocking via a VPN client, there are two other ways to access the usual content:
- Proxy server: Although this option is often free, it works much worse than the VPN client. Such servers are usually already known to the large streaming portals and are blocked directly. They also offer significantly less security than a VPN, since the connection from the computer to the server is not encrypted.
- SmartDNS: This is a kind of intermediate step between proxy and VPN. It works on a similar principle because the actual IP address is also hidden here. However, the connection is also not really secure.
If you want a working and secure connection, you should opt for a VPN download. Even so, you can surf the web with a secure connection and stream your favorite program without incident.
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES HAVE DIFFERENT RESTRICTIONS
If you can finally access your usual service, you should not be surprised. Because even if you can look at your normal offer, there are still some minor deviations from whereabouts to whereabouts. Different age restrictions for content may apply in different countries.
For example, if a film in Germany is suitable for ages 16 and over on Netflix, it may only be suitable for ages 18 and over in the USA. However, these are just minor inconveniences.
VPNS ALSO FOR GERMANY?
Of course, it is possible to use the VPN clients for streaming here in Germany. This can be useful if you want to watch content from other countries in this country. You are moving into a legal gray area and the services do not like it.
However, you don’t need to worry. The worst thing that can happen to you is that you will be informed that this does not work and that you should please deactivate the VPN. Then you can access the German content as usual.
