YouTube was currently deemed as the most accessed website on the internet, with over 1,2 billion people connecting to it every month. However, many people are still bothered by the fact that YouTube chooses to deliver some of its videos only to a few selected regions only. More specifically, popular channels like VEVO prefer to limit access from certain countries due to the fact they do not bring profits to them.
There are also times when YouTube is entirely blocked for certain countries due to the government's politics or due to ISPs. Network administrators also choose to restrict YouTube at workplaces and schools sometimes, for the sole reason that they think it slows down employees/learners activities.
So, what can it be done to bypass these restrictions, hide your IP, and browse YouTube freely? Here are a few useful tips in this regard:
1) Use Online Proxies
One of the easiest way to unblock YouTube is by using a proxy server to hide your IP address. A proxy server works like an intermediary between your home/network computer and the rest of the internet. It makes requests for certain services/information on your behalf, but it uses an entirely different IP address than the one of your computer. Then, the obtain information is passed to your computer, which allows you to browse YouTube with no further restrictions.
There are several types of proxies that you can use :
Such proxy server makes the original IP address of the website (in our case, YouTube) available through http headers. They are mostly used for speeding up the web browsing, but they are unable to hide your IP address. In any case, it is very likely that you'll be able to access YouTube through them.
Such type of proxy works by hiding your IP address, thus making you untraceable and enabling you to browse YouTube without any extra worries. They provide a moderate level of anonymity.
These type of proxy servers are unique from the others for the fact they will display an incorrect (yet fully working) IP address in the website headers. Thus, they allow you to access the website without the fear of revealing your real IP address.
2) Use Tor
Tor is a free downloadable tool which is able to hide your IP instantly, thus allowing you to access any website you want, including YouTube. However, it has one small disadvantage. As more people use it at one time, the browsing speed experienced decreases, resulting in longer loading times.
3) Use a VPN
A VPN might be the best of these three mentioned tools. This is because it allows you not only to unblock sites like YouTube, but it also anonymizes the entire data that passes through your computer. What this means is that you'll be completely untraceable when chatting over an IM client (e.g. Skype, YM, etc.), downloading files (music, videos, etc.) off the internet, updating a program, and so on. A virtual private network is quite easy to set-up, requiring a one-time process completion, and it doesn't slows down your internet speed at all.
Submitted by : This article is contributed by Maya, who is a freelance writer and a part time blogger. For as long as she remembers, writing has been her release. She has contributed to many websites and blogs with her technology tips and tricks articles.