Let me guess, you’re either concerned about your privacy, or there’s some show you want to watch that’s only available in a specific country. That’s why you’re here at the moment. Well, my friend, you came to the right place. Whether you want to add an extra layer of anonymity to your browsing or access geo-restricted content, you just have to change your virtual location. Lucky for you, I did that a long time ago, and it’s time for you to learn a few tricks of your own. So, here’s how to spoof your online location.
How Are Websites Pinpointing Me?
The first thing you need to understand about spoofing your location is that it all has to do with your Public IP. Every internet connection comes with two distinct IPs: the public IP and the private IP. The private IP is the address that your network uses to differentiate between connected devices. There is no danger with keeping the private IP as it is. The public IP, however, is the IP that denotes your geographic location.
Anyone can use your public IP to track where it is that you are currently located. That includes websites, streaming services, banks, and many more.
In other words, if you want to spoof your location, you need to alter your public IP.
To do so, there’s a couple of steps you need to take. I’ll be talking about that later on in this article. So, give it a few scrolls, and you’re there.
What Do I Get Out of This?
You’ll be experiencing a whole new level of internet freedom once you learn how to spoof your location. Since your IP is considered as a digital footprint, a lot can change when you know how to tamper with it. Let’s take a look at what you’ll be getting with a simple location altercation (It has a ring to it):
Access Geo-restricted Content
Technically, a lot of websites rely on your current whereabouts to allow you access to their content. That’s pretty much how streaming services work. You see, due to copyright laws, channels are bound to broadcast their content in specific regions. And how else can they determine whether the viewer is within their area of coverage or not? Well, you guessed it, their IP address. Let me shed more light on the matter.
If we were to talk about Hulu; the channel is only available to those residing in the United States. In other words, viewers that hold an American IP address. If a UK viewer attempts to stream anything on the streaming channel, he/she will be blocked almost instantly. Nothing comes up from this other than a frustrating geo-location error that states:
“We’re sorry, currently our video library can only be streaming within the United States.”
If you manage to spoof your location to the US (Which you will when you’re done with the article), you’ll be able to stream not just Hulu, but also everything US-exclusive on the internet. That includes the likes of:
- Netflix
- CW TV
- HBO Now
- Fox Sports
- A&E
- AMC
- ABC Go
- Shudder
- ESPN
- NBC
- CBS
- American Netflix
That’s just half of it. You can spoof your location anywhere you want, thus you get access to other countries’ content as well. We’re talking about BBC iPlayer (UK), SBS (Australia), L’equipe (France), beIN Sport (MENA), and hundreds more.
Enhance Your Anonymity
Your IP address can reveal a lot of information about you, including your location, online history, ISP, and the device you’re operating on. Even the browser can be identified. Sadly, some users don’t care about what’s compromised. Do you want me to give you an example? This is what our website or any other can determine just by checking your IP address:
Some internet users often take online privacy for granted, which makes them susceptible to risks such as online surveillance and stalking. Add identity theft to that as well. If a browser can collect such information, imagine what a hacker can do. Plus, your ISP can monitor your browsing activities using your public IP address.
That’s not all. If you live in a country that imposes high internet censorship, a change in your whereabouts is important. Imagine living in China, for example. Did you know that China has begun filtering billions of telephone users?
That’s because 300 million mobile phone users helped to expose the national cover-up of the SARS epidemic.
That’s not all; China is well-known to be an enemy of the internet alongside other countries like Russia, North Korea, KSA, and the UAE.
Now, that’s where spoofing your location comes in to save the day. Once you do that, your public IP will change. That will help you browse the web anonymously and avoid your ISP’s tracking habits. Not even the government can spy on what you’re doing.
Inaccessible No More
Restricting a website to a certain region is one thing, and blocking it is another. That has to do with your own country as you get what it offers. I mentioned how the likes of China hate the internet. Dozens of websites are blocked primarily due to including “objectionable” content.
If the website’s topic doesn’t suit the government, it’ll function no more. For example, if they include anything about the Tienanmen Square attack of 1989, anti-Tibet protests in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and controversial topics about China are filtered or blocked. Not only that, but China also blocks US-based websites to force there to visit Chinese-based sites like Taobao, Weibo, Renren, and Sina.
- Gmail
- Google (Search, Maps, Docs)
- Picasa
- YouTube
- Wikipedia
- Yahoo!
- Blogspot
- Github
- The Pirate Bay
- Dailymotion
- The New York Times
- Dropbox
- Vimeo
- SoundCloud
- Flickr
- BBC
That’s just China. Every country has it’s own laws when it comes to the internet. However, the problem can be solved with ease if you change your location to a country where internet freedom is cherished. Once you do that, you’ll notice that everything you were deprived of in your region is completely available now.
What to Use to Spoof Your Location Online
You can’t change your public IP all by yourself. You’re going to need some tool that can do that for you, enter Virtual Private Network.
VPNs are cybersecurity tools that encrypt your data and re-route your traffic. Since VPNs use their own secure servers to re-route your traffic, they end up changing your public IP address to match the location of the server.
So, with a VPN, you’ll be able to easily spoof your location while enjoying the benefits of a private, secure, and anonymous connection. Here’s how you can use a VPN to spoof your location online:
- Sign up with a VPN provider. I suggest using a credible and trusted service provider like ExpressVPN.
- Download and install the VPN app on your device and sign in with your account.
- Pick a server you want to connect to. (That depends on the country you wish to be in virtually).
- You can check this IP Verifier to see if your IP has changed or not.
- Once the connection has been established, your public IP address will change to match the server address.
- You’ve successfully changed your location to a different country.
Some countries don’t tolerate the use of VPNs much; that’s why they block their access within their territory. However, you’ll find VPNs credible enough to circumvent such blocking attempts, and they work just fine. If you want to see what VPNs you can choose from, give the table below a quick gander.
- 30-Day Money-back Guarantee
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Apps For All Your Devices
- 24/7 Live Support
And Now We Part
By using a tool like a VPN, you can easily change your public IP address. This will give you an added layer of anonymity while using the internet. When you use a spoofed IP, anyone trying to locate you will not be able to find your real geographic location as long as the VPN connection is active. Don’t limit yourself to what your country offers; you now have the means to visit the world virtually. Go on enjoy free internet to the max. Oh, by the way, I’d love to hear about your experience. Give me a shout out in the comment section below.