Netflix and VPNs

netflix-and-vpnsAre you using a VPN to watch Netflix? That can be a very wise thing, and there are several reasons why you might be using a VPN to watch Netflix. Many people believe the only reason to use a VPN to watch Netflix is to be able to watch Netflix in countries in which it is unavailable, but they are really wrong to believe that.

One of the reasons we are writing this article at the moment are the recent news telling about the fact that Netflix might do their uttermost to block users using a VPN from their services. In other words, people with IP addresses known to belong to VPN providers will be locked out, and as they try to watch Netflix, it will no longer work. This happened to Hulu earlier this year, and it for sure gave Hulu a small setback, even though quite a lot of VPN providers managed to find a way around, get new IP addresses to their customers and so on. But, as we mentioned earlier, people do not and should not use VPN only for watching Netflix from abroad. There are other reasons as well!

Watching Netflix with a VPN – for security reasons

Let us say that you are in a hotel room in New York. You are using the wireless connection provided by your hotel and want to watch a Netflix film after a long and exhausting day. But, as a smart Internet user you do know that such open wireless connections are dangerous as people can easily steal information from you, and therefore you want to use a VPN to secure your connection. You are still in the United States, and you still have a US Netflix subscription, but for some reason you will then not be able to watch Netflix anymore, simply because you want to secure your Internet connection?

Watching Netflix with a VPN – not to loose speed

Unfortunately quite a lot of Internet providers set speed limits on traffic sent from Netflix. You might have a high speed Internet connection, but some ISPs on purpose set speed limitations on Netflix, meaning that you will face buffering problems and so on as you watch Netflix. Also for this reason many people use a VPN, because once you are connected with a VPN, your ISP can not track your traffic anymore, and though they will no longer be able to lower your Internet speed, and that is why you will be able to watch Netflix in HD quality without buffering problems.

These are just some of the reasons why it is useful to use a VPN to watch Netflix, and one of the reasons it is really stupid thing to try to block away VPN users from Netflix. Of course there are probably hundreds of thousands of people using a VPN to watch Netflix from abroad, that is true, but if they have been creative enough to find out how to watch Netflix from abroad so far, why would they not find a new solution, a new VPN provider or so in the future that would provide them with the same service?

What do you think? If you have any thoughts on this matter, just write a comment!