While there are terabytes of content online, not all of it is available to everyone. Often a vital piece of information important to make a solid business decision can be unavailable. Individuals share the same fate with businesses. Their favorite content such as music, video streaming, and games is often unavailable for some reason.
What is the main culprit behind it? Some websites and online service providers use geo-restrictions to block their content and services. Today we will talk about challenges and solutions, such as using Indonesia proxy for bypassing geo-restrictions.
Table of Contents
What is Blocked Content?
Blocked content is any content online that users from a certain geo-location can’t access. However, the blocked content is available to anyone else with an IP address originating outside of the blocked country.
There are various reasons why governments, ISPs, online service providers, and website owners block their content. The reasons can range from preventing access to copyright-infringing material to staying compliant with global and country-specific laws and regulations.
Benefits of Unblocking Geo-Restrictions
The benefits of unblocking geo-restrictions for individual users are obvious. They instantly get access to their favorite content online. Whether they couldn’t stream their favorite TV show, watch sports, or play an online game, after unblocking geo-restrictions, they can do it.
Unblocking geo-restrictions has benefits for businesses as well. Companies with unrestricted access to online content can streamline competitor analysis, do background checks on potential partners and employees, and make data-driven dynamic pricing decisions.
After unblocking geo-restrictions, businesses can also benefit from web scraping and pull any data from targeted websites efficiently.
Ways You Can Unblock Geo-Restrictions
Ok, how to unblock geo-restrictions then? There are four ways to do it hassle-free.
VPN
Let’s start with a VPN. VPN stands for the virtual private network. It enables users to connect to the Internet through a secure tunnel. VPN connection comes with back-to-back encryption rendering all data packets virtually impenetrable.
What makes VPN relevant to unblocking geo-blocked content is its ability to hide users’ IP addresses? Users can choose a country they want to appear as their country of origin and thus completely bypass geo-restrictions.
TOR
Another popular way of unblocking geo-restrictions is the TOR web browser. TOR stands for “the onion router.” It is a web browser built with user anonymity and privacy in mind. It routes the web requests and responses through another Tor server. Thanks to TOR, users can effortlessly access geo-blocked content. However, it only works while inside the browser.
Smart DNS
Smart DNS is the next method able to help individuals and businesses bypass geo-blocks. It combines proxy and DNS servers. DNS plays the role of automatically assessing the geo-restriction profile on the content, while proxy plays the role of rerouting the traffic to bypass the specific geo-block.
Proxy
Proxy is one of the most commonly used methods to work around geo-restrictions. Proxy servers act as a gateway between users and the worldwide web. They assign a new IP address to the users and enable them to seamlessly browse the web going through all geo-blocks. For instance, to easily unlock restricted Indonesian content, businesses and individuals can use an Indonesia proxy. You may read more about using proxies in multiple locations on the Oxylabs website.
Why are Proxies so Popular?
Proxies are by far the most popular solution for geo-restrictions. There are several reasons proxies are so popular – the first one is the ease of use. Even a person with minimal technical knowledge can set up a proxy and start using it.
Then we have versatility. Proxies come in many different shapes and sizes. There are residential proxies, rotating proxies, private proxies, HTTPS proxies, and many others. Each one of these proxies has specific use cases. Businesses can choose the type of proxy that reflects their specific needs and goals.
A proxy that helps circumvent geo-restrictions can also be used for other purposes. Let’s use the previous example with the Indonesian proxy. You can use the same Indonesia proxy to control the internet usage of employees, balance traffic to offload internal servers and add another layer of institutional security.
Finally, proxies are very popular due to their affordability. Even small businesses and startups can invest in a proxy and reap all the benefits it has to offer. Migrating from one proxy type to another is also a straightforward task with minimal operational downtime.
With all this in mind, it becomes clear why proxies are so popular. They are affordable, easy to use, and offer so much more than bypassing geo-blocked content.
Conclusion
Geo-restrictions is a proven practice that helps businesses, ISPs, and governments restrict access to specific content. However, there are plenty of ways to work around these restrictions and gain access to whatever you need. Of all the geo-restriction bypass methods we mentioned, proxies remain by far the most popular one due to their ease of use and multiple use-cases.
