It’s hard to believe, but many of the world’s biggest web sites actively discriminate between people depending on their location. Of course, it’s not called discrimination, they use fancy terms like geo-targeting or geo location instead.  The reality is that accessing the internet from Africa, is very different than that if you’re based in the UK from a British IP address.

It really is a form of discrimination. Ever tried to watch the BBC News from Spain online, or buy from a store in Canada using the internet because it’s half the price? If you have there’s a chance you’ll be blocked, because of where you happen to be.

It’s getting worse every year, more and more sites will look at your location and either restrict or block access. We’re not talking about a few, but thousands of the biggest sites on the web. So much so that every time I travel away from the UK, I’m thinking how I can get a UK address to  watch my favorite shows, access my online banking and stream from the many UK only sites.

How to get a British IP Address

Well here’s one solution – use a British proxy.

This method allows you to change your IP address when you need to, which effectively gives you control of what you see and not the web sites you visit. It’s basically very simple instead of connecting directly with a website you merely route your connection through a server which relays your request called a proxy or VPN server.

In the example illustrated here, the software allows you to choose which server to relay your connection through so you can effectively choose your virtual location. So if you’re wanting to watch something on a British media site like the BBC, ITV or Channel 4 you just pick a UK based server. Then when you connect to the web site it will see a British IP address irrespective or where you are.

Then if you need another country, simply click on the location you need. So if you want to watch Hulu or HBO then choose a US server and everything will work.   It’s important to remember that you’re not actually changing your IP address, just relaying through an intermediate server.    The best of the VPN services like Identity Cloaker will have a large selection of UK IP address list all assigned to different servers distributed throughout the UK.

This large number of servers is important because it enables a large UK IP address range list.   Although purely for security reasons this is not essential, but for connecting to media sites like the BBC  it is important.   The VPN connection is not detectable directly, however in order to restrict these connections they look for multiple concurrent connections on the same IP addresses.  If you have a thousand connections originating for  a specific British IP address then it will be blocked.

There are many companies selling user configurable VPNs, proxies and other methods for getting access to UK TV online. But if you just want a simple, reliable and straight forward way to watch BBC Iplayer, ITV and Channel 4 from anywhere in the world then Identity Cloaker is the software you need.

Try the 10 day trial to see how it works.