We had an email the other week regarding which VPN to use when you need an Indian IP address. These questions are often a little hard to answer, mainly because they’re often incomplete. Most people who need an IP address in a certain region need it for a specific reason usually to bypass some sort of geo-blocking.
This is the increasingly common practice of segregating and restricting visitors based on their location. For example if I try and visit the Indian media site Hotstar from the UK, this is what happens to me –
Which basically redirects me to another site, one with none of the good stuff like streaming videos, films and other programmes. This is entirely due to my IP address, which is checked as soon as I try and visit the Indian website. As I have accessed the internet from a UK ISP connection, then I have been allocated a UK IP address – hence the ban !
What is Needed – a VPN with an Indian IP Address
Here’s where VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) come in. They are primarily used to secure and encrypt your internet connection. However they also have an additional perhaps even more useful benefit – you can bypass virtually any block or filter based on the location of your IP address.
Just check out this video about using a VPN based in India, it illustrates the point perfectly.
Although it sounds slightly complicated,it really isn’t. You make a connection to a VPN based in India, then suddenly you have an Indian IP address, click on to a US VPN and you have a US IP address and so on. It’s not difficult and requires zero technical knowledge to use. As you can see from the video, initially we’re denied access to Hotstar’s media site because of our British IP address. Then as soon as we click on an Indian VPN server in NordVPN then the site is completely accessible.