Last Updated on January 20, 2024
2024 British Web Proxy Servers
Many people end up on this site, because they’re looking for a method to change their IP address to a UK one, for instance using a British IP proxy.
There’s a variety of different reasons for this, quite often it’s British Expats who have moved abroad and still want to watch the BBC or ITV, some people who just like UK Television or simply those who realize that a British IP address is much less likely to get blocked or filtered than their own. Even things like academic subscriptions have restrictions – read here about how Oxford University Press restrict access based on your IP address.
funny but completely irrelevant
It’s kind of sad really, the internet used to be a very level playing field, and one that was open and accessible to everyone – irrespective of location.
Those times have changed though, and wherever you are based you’ve probably come across one of those “video not available in your country” or “sorry that’s not available” type messages. The reality is web filtering and blocking is becoming increasingly common, even if you’re based in somewhere like Europe or the USA. Having said that the likelihood of it happening increases greatly if you’re in a country like Turkey, China or Iran whose governments heavily filter the internet.
In any case, although these blocks are common place, there’s no doubt that having something like a US or UK IP address means that you’ll get denied a lot less often. In fact if you use the advice in this post, you can actually ensure you’ll never get blocked at all, ever.
But let’s start with getting something from a UK IP address list. Your IP address is the number (internet protocol number) assigned to you when you connect to the internet. It is actually completely unique to you and can also used to link you to a specific location. Most of the major web sites do this when you connect, they look up your IP address and then check your location. If you’re in the UK, your ISP will only assign addresses from a UK IP address range.
Why You Need a British IP Proxy if You Travel
So why is this a problem? Well just have a look at this screenshot, which I took last week when I was waiting for a plane in a Turkish airport.
As you can see it didn’t work, a polite but firm message informing me that I could only watch the BBC iPlayer when I’m in the UK. It’s been like that for many years and it doesn’t matter where you are – France, Spain, Canada, Japan or the US – anywhere outside the UK and you’ll be blocked. The reason is that you won’t have a British IP address which is the mechanism the site uses to control access.
You’ll see exactly the same thing happen on thousands of other sites. Try and access Hulu from outside the USA or the music site Pandora, then exactly the same happens. It wouldn’t perhaps matter so much if these were small unimportant sites, but the reality is that most of the biggest, best and most important media sites on the internet do this. What’s more the number of sites doing this is growing all the time.
But fortunately there is a way to bypass these blocks by hiding your real IP address as and when you require. You can also show the site you’re visiting a completely different one if you need as well. It’s all done through using an intermediary server which sits between you and the web site your visiting. These servers are called proxies and you can use them to bypass virtually any country based filter. You just use a proxy in the correct country before you visit the site – so a UK IP proxy will allow you access to the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 for example.
In fact there’s now a mini industry built up giving people access to a variety of these proxies in different places, precisely to bypass these blocks. There are even a few that sell a software tool so you can simply click at the country you need and they do the rest. Which means you can switch from using a UK proxy online to a US one, simply by clicking on the right server.
It’s Simple to Use a UK Web Proxy to Change to a UK IP Address
Here’s one of the best UK proxy programs being demonstrated in this video –
This is a program called Identity Cloaker, a security program that as well as protecting your internet connection by encrypting everything you do, also allows you to hide your real location when you need to. So you just click on the country you need and that will be the IP address assigned to your connection. Switch from UK for the BBC, choose an Irish IP for RTE, grab a US address for American only sites like Hulu and so on. It takes literally a minute to switch from country to country.
If you’ve ever been blocked or filtered from a site this is your solution. It also works if you live in a country which blocks websites itself. It’s very popular in countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Thailand for example both to hide your location, bypass blocks and keep your browsing private.
Additional Information
Finding your IP Address on Windows – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/find-computers-ip-address#1TC=windows-vista
HI do you know if it’s possible to get a free UK IP address please……
Hi there, thanks for the question. There are a couple of methods but unfortunately they’re not great for streaming video. You can use a free VPN called Hola which can offer you a free remote UK proxy, however in exchange they resell your connection to paying customers. If you’ve got fast computer/connection and don’t mind the privacy implications then this could be an option. The other one is Tor which has add ons which allow you to select your exit node (and choose a UK one) – main drawback with this is it’s very slow especially if you want to watch media online.
Hope this helps and good luck!
Can I use this for the other UK TV stations like ITV?
Yes although ITV is now the ITV hub and you need to create an account. It’s no problem though connect to a UK server then go to the ITV registration page. Fill in the details and put a UK postal code in (any UK code will do), you’ll get an email to confirm the account – click the link and you’re done. Just remember to connect to a UK server before you go to the main ITV hub site and everything will work perfectly.
Hello, would this allow me to watch the different versions of Netflix, I am currently in Canada but I’d like to see the UK version if possible.
Hi Maggie, yes just pick a country before you connect to Netflix. The US version is by far the biggest but there is a lot of unique stuff on the UK Netflix too.
When I go to the BBC or ITV website I seem to get a different web site when I’m not in the UK. Is this something to do with my IP address?
Yes, if you access the BBC website from outside the UK you’ll get an ‘international version’ with slightly different content and none of the live streaming links of the main BBC website. However if you connect from abroad using a UK IP address via a proxy you’ll get the UK version – complete with access to all the programmes. Hope that makes sense.
I’ve been reading up on this and I think I understand, but have a question. I’ve read that some systems won’t allow you to download stuff from the BBC site only stream it. Will Identity Cloaker allow you to download programmes as well?
Hi Stephany,
Yes Identity Cloaker allows you to stream and download from the BBC Iplayer site because the connection is encrypted (VPN).
Basic proxies will only allow you to stream from BBC iPlayer, they also don’t work on some other media sites like Sky GO, Hulu, Netflix etc. Hope that helps.
I travel around a lot would it work for me whichever country I’m in? Basically want two things – all the UK TV channels and to be able to listen to Pandora (the US online music site)?
Hi,
Yes it works for both those, in fact I love the Pandora site too. Only thing you have to remember is to use a UK server for British TV and then switch to a US one when you want to listen to Pandora. Hope that helps.
Will this allow me to watch stuff in UAE that is normally inaccessible? I don’t mean just the TV stations but things like Skype, some social media sites which rarely work?
I think Skype is currently unblocked in UAE, but might be wrong. But yes it will allow you access, what you can do is specify specific applications to be routed through the UK proxy. This means you can leave Identity Cloaker on and have it route things that get blocked.
I normally have one browser that runs through the ISP (IE) and another (Chrome) which is encrypted and routed through the British IP address. Works well for me.
Hi,
So I can enable a UK IP address even if I’m in Spain? Does all my browsing switch to British stuff then ?
Thanks
Joel
Yes Joel, your browsing will be UK based wherever your located when it’s enabled. For example Google will send you to Google.uk instead of the Spanish version. But when you turn it off and restart your browser all will revert back to the default (i.e wherever you are located)
Hope that helps