Q&A - 2018

Such redirection likely occurs due the web site identifying (from your IP address) that you are located in Canada – and deciding, therefore, that you must want Canadian content! A possible solution is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), and to select a server located in another country, thus making it appear that you are based in that country.

The Internet Service Provider (ISP) “owns” the IP address assigned to each of their users, and all IP addresses owned by the ISP are presumed by any remote web server as being in the same country as that of the ISP. So, if a web site interrogates a user’s browser request, it will identify the user’s IP address as being based in Canada.

If the user implements a VPN, the VPN software encrypts the data for each browser request and routes the traffic through the VPN’s server, before sending it on to the target web site. The encryption process is the primary reason for using VPN’s; however, there is a second feature that can be useful. Since the target web site is receiving data from the VPN’s server, the IP address associated with the request is attached to that server. Most VPN’s offer servers in various parts of the world. Consequently, subscribers to a VPN service can select any one such server and so have it appear that their computer – based on the VPN server’s location – is located in another country. For example, if the VPN’s server is located in Dallas, Texas, then the user’s IP address will appear to be an IP in the United States.

A number of VPN’s offer free versions of their software that can be useful, at least to explore the features that a VPN might provide. Most free VPN’s have limitations over the features that their paid-for cousins provide. Generally, this comes in the form of a data cap (of perhaps 500 MB of Internet traffic in any given month), a reduced number of servers and locations to choose from, and/or limited transmission speed.

Some suggestions for free VPN’s are as follows: