Wondering how to watch The US Office on Netflix when it’s blocked in your region? Well, it’s as easy as downloading and installing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) app. Don’t know where to start? Just follow the link for some reliable providers that work with Netflix. Then scroll on to find out how it all works.
How VPNs Can Unblock The Office
Ever wondered how online services like Netflix know your location? It’s easy – your device’s IP address contains info about your country, city, and even ZIP code. Kind of like country codes at the start of phone numbers when you need to make an international call.
To watch shows like The Office on Netflix when they aren’t available in your region, all you need to do is – well, change your region! It just so happens that VPNs can change your IP address depending on what server you connect to. In our case, The Office is currently streaming in the UK, so just do the following:
- Launch your VPN of choice.
- Connect to a VPN server in the UK.
- Look up the show on Netflix (or refresh the page if you’ve already done so).
In some rare cases you might need to restart your browser or clear your cache and cookies. Regardless, the Dunder Mifflin gang should be right there waiting for you to binge the show for the tenth time. Plus you can watch shows on other region-exclusives platforms like BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and more.
Provided you have the right VPN, of course.
Why Don’t All VPNs Work on Netflix?
If you weren’t already aware, Netflix doesn’t really have a great relationship with VPNs. In fact, they block VPN traffic on their platform (like most streaming sites out there). They do so by using IP aggregating services like MaxMind to collect VPN server IP’s and blacklisting them.
Even top tier VPNs aren’t safe from being blocked. Fortunately, they have the funding necessary to regularly refresh their IP’s and get by Netflix’s best efforts. Free VPNs, not so much. Even newer services tend to be blocked fairly quickly. So if you find one that works on Netflix, don’t expect for it to work much longer.
Of course, that’s the least of your problems if you use a free VPN. Most of them sell your data to shady third parties and advertisers or inject ads into your browser to cover their costs. Nearly half of all free VPNs on Android are also infected with malware, while 80% of the top 20 free VPNs on the App Store violate Apple’s data collection policies.
All in all, not a great trade-off – not even to watch The Office.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t trustworthy providers that offer free services. However, they’re few and far between, and don’t focus their services on unblocking Netflix. They throttle your bandwidth to keep speeds equal for all users, impose data caps, and have small server networks (think single digits).
As you can tell, they’re more suited for light browsing than streaming. Thankfully, most sub-based VPNs have 30+ day money-back guarantees in place so you can test them out at your leisure.
