VPN For Netflix Guide: How To Access International Shows

A VPN company will mask a user’s location by routing their internet traffic via an encrypted connection, making it appear you are located in a different country.

“Basically, it will use some kind of proxy server to bypass (the geo-block) policy and connect to a publicly available VPN server, which in turn will provide access to content that the user cannot reach directly,” says Dr Priyadarsi Nanda, a researcher and cybersecurity expert at the University of Technology Sydney.

Netflix’s American library is considered one of its biggest catalogues on offer in any country, with more than 8,500 titles. For example, globally popular shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead are available on Netflix US but absent from the Australian library.

To access the US Netflix from outside the country, you need to:

1. Download and set up a reliable and secure VPN from your preferred provider
2. Select an American server, which will allow your VPN to spoof your IP to a US address
3. Log in to your Netflix account
4. You will now see the entire American library because the VPN server will make Netflix think you’re in the US when you’re actually in Australia.

Related: Netflix Password Sharing Crackdown: How it Affects You

While the US catalogue may be particularly attractive, libraries in other countries also offer high-quality content that is often not visible in other geographies.

For instance, a 2021 study estimated that Netflix Japan had the top number of titles with award wins or nominations across its catalogue, followed by the Czech Republic. On the other hand, South Korea’s library holds the highest number of academy award-winning movies, even more than the US.

To access Netflix catalogs of other countries, you need to:

1. Choose a reliable and secure VPN that works with Netflix
2. On your VPN, select the desired country’s compatible server
3. Sign in to your Netflix account. The VPN will automatically change your region on Netflix
4. You can choose and watch titles from the newly accessible library of that country.

Netflix first introduced a crackdown on VPNs in 2021 to stop users from circumventing its regional content restrictions. Since then, the company has hardened its stance and bolstered its security measures to detect them.

One reason is the expensive and complex licensing deals that it signs with content providers and studios, who often seek to legally enforce their copyrights by restricting viewing to a certain geography. Another equally important reason is the growing issue of cybersecurity.

“There have been a number of cases in the recent past where streaming services have been down or have been affected in other ways due to malicious injection of traffic by adversaries,” says Nanda.

As a result, Netflix now regularly blocks any IP address that it associates with a VPN provider. Once it spots a suspicious connection, the IP address is immediately blacklisted and an error message will be displayed for the user.

This has led to what is seemingly a cat-and-mouse game between VPN providers and the streaming service. As more IP addresses are blacklisted by the company, established VPN providers keep adding new servers, allowing their users to continue accessing top-rated international content.

All Netflix libraries are geo-restricted and the company actively tries to prevent users from using VPNs to bypass this. For this reason, only the most secure and well-performing services can unblock the streaming platform.

As mentioned earlier, the best VPN providers keep bolstering their resources to ensure they have a number of active servers in different countries to allow streaming customers to seamlessly access content in those countries.

Some of the reliable providers whose VPNs consistently work with Netflix include:

NordVPN: It is one of the bigger providers with thousands of servers across 60 countries. The service reliably works with the American Netflix library as well as catalogues in the UK and Japan.

Surfshark: Generally considered a good budget option for Netflix, it provides a reliable VPN for streaming content from the UK, US, Canada, Japan and South Korea.

ExpressVPN: It is a fast service that works with a range of Netflix libraries thanks to over 3000 servers distributed across 94 countries.

CyberGhost: Another solid provider with users enjoying excellent speeds even when multiple devices are connected. It works well with Netflix US as well as the UK, Canada and Japan.