If you’ve been using a free VPN and it’s no longer working, your VPN has had all of its IP addresses blocked.
While free VPNs are good at providing you with an anonymous internet connection, if you’re using a free VPN to watch streaming services, often, these sorts of VPNs will stop working.
The reason this is happening is because free VPNs don’t have measures in place to ensure they reliably work with websites, apps, streaming services and other online platforms.
To work consistently, VPNs need to stay one step ahead of the VPN blocking methods used by certain websites. And to do that, they need a lot of infrastructure behind them. Free VPNs simply aren’t able to do this because they’re free.
This article will explain why your free VPN isn’t working and how you can fix it.
See also:
- How to bypass NBA League Pass blackouts in the US: The EASY and AFFORDABLE way! (2023)
- How to watch US UEFA Champions League coverage in the UK: The EASY way! (2023)
Free VPN not working: Fixes
Below is a list of fixes you can try to resolve your free VPN not working.
Go through each step in order. If one doesn’t work, move on to the next until you can use a VPN reliably again.
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Delete Cookies
A good place to start when trying to fix a free VPN not working is deleting your Cookies.
Cookies are small files designed to make your online experience more streamlined. The problem is, in order to do that, Cookies contain information disclosing your physical location.
If the location stored on your Cookies differs from the location you’re using with your VPN, the website or streaming service you’re visiting realises the discrepancy and blocks the connection.
Try deleting your Cookies, closing your VPN and then opening it to see if that fixes the issue.
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Change to a different server
The main reason a VPN stops working is because the app, website or platform you’re visiting has scanned your IP address, figured out it’s an IP provided by a VPN and has blocked it.
To get around this, you can change to a different server. This will give you a different IP address, and if this one hasn’t been blocked, your VPN will work again.
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Reinstall the VPN
On occasion, your VPN can inadvertently download bugs or errors. These can result in the VPN not working correctly.
A good way to eliminate bugs is to reinstall the VPN software completely. This will give you a clean version of the VPN, removing any bugs or errors causing the VPN to not work.
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Upgrade to a better VPN
If the above fixes didn’t fix your issue, you need to upgrade to a better VPN.
Unfortunately, free VPNs regularly run into problems. Strangely the main reason for this is because they’re free.
Free VPNs have a lot of customers because they don’t cost anything. This can be an issue because free VPNs often can’t keep up with the massive demand. Also, streaming services, websites, and apps know this and use it to their advantage.
Basically, the more customers a VPN has, the less likely it’s going to work.
The best way to get around this issue is to upgrade to a VPN that has the infrastructure in place to ensure its customers can reliably use its software. This means you need a VPN that can release constant updates, new IP addresses and changes when required. The best VPN on the market for this is ExpressVPN ($6.67/month).
ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) is an incredibly reliable VPN with infrastructure behind it that ensures it works reliably anywhere in the world. It has a 24/7 customer support helpline, has lots of IP addresses, constantly evolves to ensure it works and utilises its very own VPN protocol called Lightway.
If you upgrade to ExpressVPN ($6.67/month), you won’t encounter the same problems you’re running into with your free VPN.
Are free VPNs good for streaming services?
While free VPNs often do a good job of providing you with an anonymous internet connection, they aren’t nearly as reliable for watching streaming services.
Streaming services constantly monitor the IP addresses connecting to their servers to prevent any VPNs from gaining access to their platforms.
They do this by monitoring for an abnormal number of connections coming from the same IP address.
See, usually, only a household of connections visits a particular streaming service via the same IP address.
Because free VPNs have so many customers, they force their customers to share IP addresses. This means hundreds or even thousands of customers are using the same IP to access the same streaming service.
When streaming services see this, they block the IP address, and it no longer works.
To get around this, you need to use a VPN that is constantly updating its IP addresses and has a lot of IP addresses to connect to. Both ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or NordVPN ($3.19/month) do this.
What are the issues with free VPNs?
Unfortunately, nothing is ever truly free. Free VPNs often come with some severe drawbacks.
First, a lot of free VPNs cap your usage. They do this by either giving you a limited amount of time with the software or a limited amount of data. Once your limit is up, you have to wait a day to get access again.
The second problem with free VPNs is they often have a limited number of servers you can connect to. If one server stops working, there are not many others to connect to. Also, you won’t be able to change your location anywhere in the world like you can with ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or NordVPN ($3.19/month).
The third and probably most significant issue with free VPNs is more often than not, they aren’t as secure as they claim to be. Free VPNs are much more likely to track your internet usage and data. This means they’re not safe, and you won’t be given an anonymous internet connection to protect you from online threats.
What are the best VPNs?
The best VPNs meet certain criteria:
- They need to have the infrastructure in place to ensure they can work reliably anywhere in the world.
- They need to have servers all over the world
- They need to be secure
- They need to have measures in place to ensure there is always an IP address for you to connect to
Unfortunately, free VPNs don’t meet these criteria.
Below is a list of the best VPNs that all meet these criteria and will work reliably.
The best VPNs
1. ExpressVPN 🥇
Why You Should Use ExpressVPN? It’s the fastest and MOST reliable VPN of 2023
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 10-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- ❌ Expensive
Special Offer for you!
Get 3 extra months free when you sign up for a 12-month ExpressVPN plan. That’s 15 months in total for the price of 12.
Number of servers: 3,000+ | Speed: >80% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 160 in 94 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $6.66/month for 15 months
- $9.99/month for 6 months
- $12.95/month for 1 month
ExpressVPN ($6.66/month) is still the best VPN. And importantly, it ALWAYS has servers that are open with major streaming sites such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, etc.
ExpressVPN is usually very good at playing Cat and Mouse with online streaming sites. Meaning, whenever one of its servers is blacklisted it creates a new one – giving its users a constant stream of servers that aren’t blocked. Needless to say, this is a valuable attribute if you’re looking for a VPN to unblock streaming sites.
Its app is easy-to-use and free to download on pretty much any device you can think of. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, FireStick, Android TV, Roku, PS4, Xbox, Linux, even Apple TV (with a workaround). It’s got it all covered.
The app is another main reason this VPN is so good at unblocking TV streaming sites (that claim they block VPNs) is that its software takes a pragmatic approach to user management. While other VPNs tempt customers by promising them access to hundreds/thousands of servers in multiple countries, ExpressVPN does things differently.
With ExpressVPN you only have a handful of server locations to choose from. Once you select your location the app takes care of the rest. Assigning you to the fastest available server that’s not oversubscribed. This simple technique is so important, as it keeps ExpressVPN’s servers operating at lightning-fast speeds and prevents its IPs from getting blacklisted for “abnormal” usage in the first place.
Check out our full ExpressVPN review.
Special Offer for you
(30-day money-back guarantee)
2. NordVPN 🥈
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ No logs
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 6-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
Cons
- ❌ No refunds for purchases from iTunes/App store
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for a 3-year plan with Private Internet Access and save 83% + 3 months free. That works out at $2.03/month.
Number of servers: 5,000+ | Speeds: >80% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 62 countries | Devices supported: 6 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $3.49/month for 2 years
- $6.99/month for 1 year
- $11.95/month for 1 month
NordVPN is the most widely-used VPN in the world. And it’s easy to see why. It’s a polished app that delivers fast connections (more on this later) to a massive network of VPN servers.
It’s the most reliable at unblocking popular streaming services too – US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. This is because NordVPN hired a full-time technical team (that’s responsible for monitoring its servers’ connections with popular TV streaming services) and has been aggressively investing in its network of IP addresses in key locations.
Another interesting thing to note is that NordVPN is an industry leader in its development of Nordlynx technology. Nordlynx is built using the WireGuard, a new VPN tunneling protocol designed to outperform current standards (OpenVPN and IPSec). The benefits, according to NordVPN, are dramatically faster transfer speeds while connected to a VPN. My tests – New Zealand to London – confirm that Nordlynx is currently the fastest VPN on the market. However, the difference isn’t dramatic, a few Mbps is all.
Read our NordVPN review.
SPECIAL OFFER – SAVE 70%!
(30-day money-back guarantee)
3. Private Internet Access
The BEST low-cost VPN for streaming!
Pros
- ✅ Fast and reliable servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 10-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- ❌ Only 48 server locations
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for a 3-year plan with Private Internet Access and save 83% + 3 months free. That works out at $2.03/month.
Number of servers: 25,000+ | Speed: >75% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 70 in 74 countries | Devices supported: 10 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $2.03/month for 3 years
- $7.50/month for 6 months
- $11.99/month for 1 month
Private Internet Access is one of the leading no-log VPN services with over 1-million paying customers.
This VPN is one of the best in the industry at beating streaming sites’ VPN bans. It provides reliable connections with US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+ Amazon Prime Video, etc. It also allows 10 simultaneous devices to be connected to its servers at the same time, so you can share the account with your close friends.
If – for whatever reason – you’re not happy with Private Internet Access, there’s a 24/7 live chat support available to assist you with your problem. PIA also offers the industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee.
From my tests (from New Zealand) I was able to get download speeds of 70 Mbps while connected to a UK server using the Private Internet Access VPN (my non-VPN speed is 100 Mbps).
Special Offer – Save 83%
(30-day money-back guarantee)
4. Ivacy
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ Dedicated streaming servers
- ✅ 5-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
Cons
- ❌ Only 5 devices
- ❌ Sometimes runs slow
- ❌ Occasionally block by streaming sites for several days
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for Ivacy and enjoy a 7-day trial with no strings attached
Number of servers: 1,000+ | Speed: >65% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 275 in 100 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $1.16/month for 5 years
- $3.50/month for 1 year
- $9.99/month for 1 month
If you’re looking for an excellent VPN, with an even better price tag, Ivacy ($1.16/month) is a great option.
This VPN has all the features you need to stream BBC iPlayer, in HD, from any country in the world. I’ve been testing the app recently on Mac, PC, Android, iOS and FireStick and the results have been impressive – unlocking BBC iPlayer, US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. with ease.
The Ivacy app is a little different in regards to its UX (user experience). Instead of just selecting a UK server, you need to select the specific BBC iPlayer server. Don’t worry, this isn’t a bad thing – by connecting to a dedicated BBC iPlayer server, it simply means that you’re connecting to an IP address that Ivacy knows works with BBC iPlayer.
For an extra $1.99/month (£1.74) you can add-on a dedicated IP. This will buy you sole access to an IP address in a country of your choice, meaning you won’t have to share your IP (and speeds) with any other use. I don’t recommend this though, using the regular Ivacy servers is enough 95 per cent of the time.
Special Offer – 7-day FREE trial!
(30-day money-back guarantee)
5. CyberGhost
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ 1-day free trial
- ✅ Reliable servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 7-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
Cons
- ❌ Expensive
- ❌ Average speed scores
SPECIAL OFFER – 1-DAY FREE TRIAL
Take advantage of CyberGhost’s 1-day FREE TRIAL!
Number of servers: 1,000+ | Speed: >65% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 275 in 100 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $2.75/month for 3 years
- $3.69/month for 2 years
- $5.99/month for 1 year
- $12.99/month for 1 month
CyberGhost is one of the more established VPNs on the market. It has a well-established, and well-tested global network of servers that perform well.
From my tests over the past several months, CyberGhost has no trouble at unblocking major streaming services – US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max etc. This VPN performed well at maintaining download speeds, well above 65 per cent of my regular (non VPN) ISP speed.
That said, there’s nothing really unique about the service. Which forces you to look at its price-point. And there’s nothing special here. Its short-term $12.99/month price tag puts is well above the industry average of $10.10/month. Similarly, its long-term $2.75/month for 3 years deal isn’t much of a “deal” either.
Oddly, CyberGhost’s most unique feature is its a 1-day, no obligations, free trial. This is an appealing offer to customers who are new to VPNs. However, it’s important to remember that most reputable VPNs will offer customers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so try not to be too seduced by the offer.
SPECIAL OFFER – 1-DAY FREE TRIAL
(30-day money-back guarantee)
