Many online live streaming websites like Netflix offer a great number of online movies, TV shows and other video clips. Good quality and on demand, you can access these sites on your phone, internet TV, and of course laptop/desktop computer. More and more these days, people prefer to use Netflix over or renting a DVD, and Hulu over turning on the TV. It's cost and time efficient. However these services are only accessible in America.
People who are outside America are not eligible to access these services. Websites like these can read your "IP Address", and see that you're not in The USA. The cool thing is that you can get an American IP address through a number of services. In this case, for the most part, you're going to want to get an American IP address by using a virtual private network. If you've heard of proxies, I can tell you right now that they're detectible and won't work for most sites. If you don't know what a proxy is, don't worry about it for now.
Americans who travel to other parts of the world can access their accounts, and locals who want to have access to these cool services can make use of VPNs.
There are a number of other things you can do with an anonymous address from a VPN, but accessing American content is probably the main reason you would specifically need to get an American IP. For example, for users who want to exchange files using P2P, a British or Canadian IP address would do just as well. A small percentage of people may need an IP address specifically from The USA for communications purposes. Meetings online, banking transfers, VoIP calls, and many other business related issues can go more smoothly with an IP from America.
How do I get an American IP address with a VPN?
Well, you can get started here, at hidemyass.com. They're cheap, fast, and have several servers located in America, which means you have a couple of choices for location. It's an "all in one" package deal, so regardless of what device or operating system you've got, you're good to do. Or you can read a bit about how VPNs work, and check out a few more services below.
What a VPN is:
A question may come into your mind as to what a VPN is and how it works. After all, if you're going to buy one, you might as well understand what you're buying! A VPN is a virtual private network – and understanding these three words can help you better understand how it works. Wherever you are, when you connect to the Internet, you have an IP address attached to your Internet activity. This can be used not only to pinpoint your location (your network location), but can also be used to track your activity online. When you sign in to a "private network" of computer servers located in a different location, your original IP address becomes temporarily obsolete. Because the private network is now being used to filter your traffic, the websites you contact aren't looking directly at you, they're looking at the IP address of the private network server.
VPN services offers a number of services all related to the concept of "anonymous surfing". If you've heard people talking about "hiding their IP address" or "masking their IP", this is the same thing. Hiding your IP address can be used to access content restricted by location, as in the examples of Hulu and Netflix above. Because your IP is replaced by the server's IP, if the VPN server is in The USA, you get an American IP address. Anonymous surfing with a VPN can also used for protecting yourself from online theft, session jacking, packet sniffing, and identity falsification. Most cases of identity theft are related to your IP address being hijacked by users you share a network with. You essentially don't exist on the network while you're connected to a VPN, so they can't sniff you out and intercept your traffic.
Top Three VPN services to get an American IP address:
As I mentioned above, Hide My ass is a good solution. Along with the American servers, you'll get about 30 other countries and thousands of IP addresses to choose from in that "all in one" pack I was talking about. It's a great deal for just $78 USD a year. This is a pretty standard price for limited VPN services, so for the unlimited bandwidth and server switching that you get with Hide My Ass, it's a steal.
.png)
This is my favorite VPN to introduce for people new to VPN technology. We're not all super-geeks, and to be honest, installing a VPN can be troublesome for someone who doesn't how to unzip files, or doesn't even have the program to unzip them. With 12VPN, installation only requires that you know how to use a mouse and keyboard or touch screen. If you can't manage that, you should probably go outside and find some sticks to play with. They've got a super friendly staff, which is great if you run into any problems. Believe me, not all VPN services have a quick-response team, and I would go so far as to say that some even have a chip on their shoulder. This is not the case with 12VPN, and you can expect nothing but the best from them. For a US only VPN (meaning you ONLY get American IP addresses) they've got a $79 plan.
.jpg)
This is another great choice. They've got a number of price plans available, so I won't get into it here, but they range from just a few dollars a month to over $30. The cool thing is that they can recommend VPN packages based on location, and cross-compare with different VPN protocols to get you exactly what you need. Do you need PPTP or L2TP? SSTP or SSL? Confused and don't know where to start? They've got live support to put you in the right direction. They've also been around since 1995, even though I think the Internet didn't even exist then. That's how cool they are.
