In our evolving world, we can access the internet almost anywhere at any time. Yet, the screen sometimes shows, "This content or service is not available in your region." It is one of the most common ways the content on the internet is restricted. It might be an online shopping platform or your favorite show that is not available in your location, thanks to the geo-blocking feature.
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What is Geo-Blocking?
Geo-blocking is a method, which companies around the globe use to restrict access to the content or service depending upon the user's geographical location. The website's server identifies the location by checking the user's IP address.
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How does Geo-Blocking Work?
Every device connected to the internet gets assigned an IP address. When a user surfs through the web, the requests are sent along with the IP address. In simplest terms, an IP address is a necessity for effective communication between internet resources. Now, the server knows the IP address of the user to which the response must be sent. In this way, the geo-location of the IP address is known to the server. So, depending upon the geo-location, the server redirects to the page with the user requested data or with the page showing "the content is not available in your region." In short, geo-blocking is performed solely depending upon the user's IP address.
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Why Websites Use Geo-blocking?
Most of the major companies in the media service industries like Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, YouTube have implemented the geo-restriction system. It's mainly because of the copyright laws and compliance issues. They show different content in different regions depending upon the user's current location. For example, a particular show or movie on Netflix available in a specific area cannot be accessed in other regions. Or, take online shops that also use geo-blocks by displaying different prices to different users depending on the user's region. It's quite a common practice for sellers to use the geo-blocking feature, allowing them to display different pricing to different geographical segments. What's more, countries like Syria, Cuba, Sudan, and Iran are the most severely geo-blocked regions today. Whereas, recently, the European Parliament passed a law, lifting geo-blocking limitations within the European states. Typically, this is where a proxy comes in by helping to get around the geo-blocks. Let’s dig a little deeper to get a better understanding of proxies.
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What are Proxies?
Proxies generally act as an intermediate between the user and the internet. Whenever a user's request is sent, it is passed via a proxy which masks the real IP address. So naturally, when you surf through the net without a proxy, certain information is exposed. However, by employing a proxy, the user's real IP address is hidden, and instead, the proxy's IP address is visible for various connected internet resources.
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Benefits of Using Proxies?
- In business, using proxies is very common for improving anonymity levels online. As mentioned before, proxies carry their own IP addresses and mask the real IP address of the user.
- Proxies help in accessing the blocked content and bypassing the geo-location restriction.
- Proxies can also act as a caching server and load the web pages considerably faster.
- Irrespective of the nature of the company, network traffic is important, and reverse proxies can be employed to balance and optimize existing resources.
- Proxies also help in detecting the fraudulent ads on a website.
- Web scraping is the best way to extract data from a website. Proxies aid this process and help to collect for market research, analyzing the latest trends, pricing intelligence, etc.
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An Efficient Way to bypass Geo-Blocks
No matter what website content it is, you should be able to access it from wherever you are. But how is that possible when there are geo-blocks in most of the regions. There are many ways to get around geo-blocks, and the most suitable and efficient solution is using a proxy. Proxy as a middleman between the browser and the net hides the IP address of the user. It can easily bypass the geo-restrictions and access the website the user requests. What's more, the use of proxies adds another layer of security, increasing the speed and the response time. There are various types of proxies from free to paid, private to public. Ultimately, the use of proxy will aid you in getting around the geo-blocks in no time.
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Conclusion
Restricted website content based on the region is a common problem that most people face around the world. Ideally, the best solution to bypass the implemented restrictions is by using proxies and masking your original geo-location.
