Over the course of your life on the internet, you must’ve encountered some websites or content that you just can’t get access to. Sounds familiar? Congrats, you’ve experienced IP blocking first hand! While it most often seems like an inconvenience on the user’s part, IP blocks play an important part on the internet that is definitely worth your attention.
Getting your IP blocked is either the result of something you did that the website does not approve of (e.g. bot usage), or an external factor that you have no control over (e.g. your location).
Let’s take a closer look at what IP blocking is, what’s purpose of it, and how you can get your IP unblocked with a proxy.
What is IP blocking?
IP blocking is an essential element for the internet to function properly. Think of it as an extra security layer that is most often used as a way of selecting whom to grant access to the website’s content.
The internet is not always fun and games, so blocking IPs comes in handy when controlling malicious actions.
Let’s go through a few examples of why some websites could be blocking IP addresses:
However, even though IP blocking is an essential component of the infrastructure of the Internet, there might be a few cases where you’d want to go around this restriction. Maybe you’re in desperate need of some motivational Michael Scott quotes, but The Office isn’t available on Netflix in your country. All you need to do is get the US or a Brazilian IP (you’re very much welcome for the tidbit, by the way), and you’re all good to go to!
This is where proxies and VPNs come in. Both alter your IP address to look like your request to access a website is coming from a different location. A VPN would work better for a completely static connection (i.e. accessing localised video content), while residential proxies work wonders with bots, accessing e-commerce sites, and any other localised content across the web without any restrictions.
By the way, if you ever wondered how to check if your proxy is working properly, stop right here – we have already covered that.
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Mariam Nakani
Say hello to Mariam! She is very tech savvy - and wants you to be too. She has a lot of intel on residential proxy providers, and uses this knowledge to help you have a clear view of what is really worth your attention.
IP blocks get implemented as a way to ban undesired activity that has a negative impact on a website. Blocked IPs don’t get granted access to specific content and sites.
You can unblock your connection to a website by changing your IP address via a proxy or a VPN.
There are quite a lot of different reasons, but the most common ones include content localization, bot, and spam blocks, data protection, and restrictions put on some socio-political issues.
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