Some Youtube videos are only viewable by visitors from specific countries. Users from other countries are greeted with a red error message stating that “This video contains content from [name]. It is no longer available in your country”. Companies and organizations limit the visibility of their videos on Youtube using country specific IP filters locking users out if they do not connect with a whitelisted IP. This does mean for instance that users from the United States who are on holidays overseas will be locked out as well even though they should be able to visit videos that are available for US Internet users.
Plenty of workarounds exist for bypassing country specific limits on Youtube and other Internet websites. Some websites like Hulu use advanced filters while sites like Youtube use basic filters that can be bypassed in many different ways:
Plenty of workarounds exist for bypassing country specific limits on Youtube and other Internet websites. Some websites like Hulu use advanced filters while sites like Youtube use basic filters that can be bypassed in many different ways:
- Web Proxies: One of the easiest options to view some Youtube videos that are blocked in your country. All that is needed is a web proxy that is being hosted in the country that the video is available in. A good starting point to find web proxies is Google or Proxy.org
- Google Translate: Google Translate can be used to view blocked Youtube videos. Simply paste the original url of the video into the Google Translate form. The video can then be watched on the translated page.
- Proxy Server: Proxy server need to be added to the web browser before they work automatically on every website that is visited by the user. It is usually a good idea to use a proxy switcher like Foxyproxy for Firefox to switch between the proxy and the default connection method without proxy. The disadvantage is that it is harder to locate a working proxy. A Google search is usually a good starting point.
- Switching DNS Servers (unverified): DNS servers have been in the news lately with the release of Google’s public DNS service. DNS servers basically turn website names (like ghacks.net) into IP addresses that are readable by computers. Using a DNS service that is located in the country the video is available in is said to be everything needed to view the video. Open DNS is one possibility.
- VPN (Virtual private network): One of the advantages of a vpn is that it makes it look like it is the endpoint that requested the connection. This means that web services that the user connects to with the computer believe that they are sending the data to the vpn server. A vpn in one of the allowed countries is needed for this to work.
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