Netflix just released the much anticipated third season of their popular Orange is the New Black series. Fans can jump right into the first episode of the season. Netflix picked a perfect time for release. The weekend will give many fans ample time to watch all 13 episode. You know it’s true! If you haven’t had a chance to watch Orange is the New Black this is a great time to catch up. The series is only available via Netflix. If you happen to be traveling or find the show is blocked in your country then a good VPN service will take care of it.
How does a VPN help unblock Netflix?
Let’s look at how a VPN service can help you stream Netflix from outside the United States:
- VPN allows you to acquire and use an IP address in the United States.
- All traffic is routed through a secure tunnel to help ensure your privacy.
- A fast connection is necessary for streaming. VPN can help you achieve the best performance.
A good VPN service will allow you to tunnel to a server in the US and enjoy Netflix from anywhere in the world. Allowing you to view movies and television shows as if you were sitting in the United States.
Connecting to Netflix using a VPN service
We’ll walk you through signing up with a reliable VPN provider and connecting to Netflix from outside the US. You will want a fast connection for streaming HD content. There are quite a few VPN companies that won’t meet your bandwidth needs. Two of our favorites for fast, reliable access are IPVanish and OverPlay.
We’ll be using IPVanish since they have the fastest VPN connections in the United States. The first thing you’ll want to do is sign up for access. Enjoy unlimited VPN from IPVanish for just $4.87 a month with our coupon.
After you sign up IPVanish will send a welcome email with your account information. From there you’ll want to visit their site and download the free VPN software. IPVanish offers VPN clients for Windows and Mac. They also have free mobile apps for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) and Android devices.
Once you have the IPVanish client downloaded and installed go ahead and launch it. You’ll see this screen:
From here you want to select the US server location that provides the best download speed. As you can see the IPVanish client will let you select from a map view. You can zoom in on any area. For streaming services like Netflix I would recommend connecting to a server in Ashburn, Virgina. They have servers in several US cities. I use OpenVPN (UDP) for streaming HD content. The protocol is both fast and secure.
We won’t make things too technical. Connect to any IPVanish server and switch between them at will. They offer locations throughout the United States. If you ever want an IP from elsewhere they have VPN servers located in 63 different countries. You can have up to two simultaneous connections which is great for mobile devices.
IPVanish supports OpenVPN, PPTP and L2TP protovols. You can test them out to see which one works best from your location. For streaming services like Netflix we recommend OpenVPN (UDP) as we’ve seen the best performance using it.
That’s all there is to it. An IP in the US also gives you access to Hulu, Pandora, Skype, Facebook and many more sites. Follow us on Twitter @VPNSP for more how-to guides along with VPN reviews and promotions.
