If you’ve been watching Netflix with StrongVPN and you cannot play any content on the streaming service, Netflix has been able to block all of StrongVPN’s IP addresses.
This has happened because StrongVPN is no longer able to stay ahead of Netflix’s VPN blocking techniques.
But don’t panic just yet. There’s a number of fixes you can try to resolve this issue.
To fix StrongVPN not working with Netflix, try these easy fixes. If one fix doesn’t work, move on to the next one until you can watch Netflix with a VPN again.
See also:
- ProtonVPN not working with Netflix? Here’s how I FIXED that! (September 2023)
- IPVanish Not Working with Netflix? There’s an EASY fix! (September 2023)
- PureVPN not working with Netflix? Try these EASY fixes! (September 2023)
StrongVPN not working with Netflix: Fixes
See a list of methods to fix StrongVPN not working with Netflix below. Try each fix in order. If one doesn’t work, move on to the next until you can watch Netflix with a VPN again.
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Delete Cookies
Cookies are small files used to make your online experience faster and more streamlined. You may have noticed some websites ask you to accept them.
In order for these files to enhance your user experience, sometimes they contain information about your physical location.
Netflix can potentially access this information. And if there’s a discrepancy between the VPN server you’re connecting to and the location that your Cookies are showing, Netflix will block your connection.To make sure Netflix isn’t accessing your location, a good place to start when trying to fix StrongVPN not working with Netflix is deleting your Cookies.
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Change to a different server
The reason StrongVPN has stopped working with Netflix is because the IP address you’ve been given has been blocked by Netflix.
Fortunately, Netflix isn’t able to block StrongVPN entirely. Only the IP addresses it provides.Changing to a different StrongVPN server will give you a new IP address. And if this IP hasn’t been blocked by Netflix, StrongVPN will work with the streaming service again.
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Upgrade to a better VPN
If you’ve made it this far in the list, unfortunately, all of the IP addresses StrongVPN can provide have been identified and blocked by Netflix.
Netflix has been able to do this because StrongVPN’s measures designed to stay ahead of Netflix’s VPN blocking techniques are no longer working.
From here there’s a couple of things you could do. You could wait for StrongVPN to release new IPs that haven’t been blocked by Netflix, however seeing as its IP addresses have been blocked by Netflix already, it will only be a matter of time before the new ones are blocked as well.
Or you could upgrade to a VPN that will work with Netflix and has measures in place to make sure these sorts of issues don’t happen again in the future.
The best VPN for Netflix is ExpressVPN ($6.67/month). ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) has fast servers all over the world, and most importantly, it has measures in place that will stop all of its IP addresses from being blocked by Netflix.
On the off chance your IP address is blocked by the streaming service, ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) closes that IP address and opens a new one ensuring you can use the VPN to watch Netflix reliably wherever you are.
This will stop you from running into the same problems you’re coming across StrongVPN.
Why isn’t StrongVPN working with Netflix?
StrongVPN isn’t working with Netflix because all of its current IP addresses have been blocked.
Netflix does not have the rights to broadcast all of its content internationally. Licensing and copyright agreements that Netflix has with its content partners restrict Netflix from broadcasting all of its shows around the world. This is why US Netflix has different content when compared to other Netflix libraries around the world.
Because StrongVPN is a well-known way to watch Netflix outside its broadcast locations, it could be the reason for Netflix breaching its content agreements. And this resulted in Netflix being severely punished financially. To prevent that from happening, Netflix attempts to block VPNs from accessing its service.
How does Netflix block StrongVPN?
Netflix is constantly trying to block VPNs. This isn’t unique to StrongVPN. It happens to all VPNs.
Although you may have been using StrongVPN with Netflix on your iPhone or iPad reliably for a while, VPNs constantly have to stay one step ahead of Netflix’s VPN blocking techniques. And in this case, StrongVPN has fallen behind.
Netflix blocks StrongVPN, using three main techniques:
- The most common technique is all to do with the IP addresses StrongVPN can provide. StrongVPN has more customers than IP addresses, and this results in customers having to share IPs. Netflix monitors for an abnormal amount (more than a standard household) of connections coming from the same IP address. When it sees hundreds or thousands of connections coming from the same IP, it knows that this is a StrongVPN IP address, and it blocks it.
- Netflix monitors for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks that can tip the service off you are using a VPN.
- Netflix teams up with GeoIP databases like Maxmind to identify IP addresses. If the IP address your VPN provides is on one of these databases, Netflix will be able to find out where in the world you are connecting to the internet from, and it will block you.
Does Netflix still work with VPNs?
Netflix still works with a VPN, but you need to use a VPN that still works with the service. You need a VPN that has a lot of IP addresses and has measures in place to allow you to keep watching Netflix if one of those IP addresses gets blocked.
You need a VPN like ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month). These VPNs play a game of cat and mouse with Netflix.
When Netflix identifies and blocks an IP provided by ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month), they will close that IP and open a new one. This will allow you to reliably watch Netflix from anywhere in the world, and it will prevent you from coming across the same errors you have with StrongVPN.
The best VPNs to watch Netflix
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.
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2. 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).
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3. 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.
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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
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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.
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Is watching Netflix with a VPN legal?
In most countries, using a VPN is legal. There are only a handful of countries (spot the authoritarianism link) where using a VPN is illegal; these are: China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, North Korea, Iraq, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Egypt, Eritrea, Seychelles, Suriname, Namibia, Slovenia, Nicaragua and Tajikistan.
If you’re outside these countries and are using a VPN, you’re legally allowed to do so. However, it’s important to know that using a VPN with some streaming services may breach that service’s terms of use.
If you subscribe to a streaming service, you automatically accept its terms of use. If we look at Netflix’s terms of use, it states, “You may access the Netflix content primarily within the country in which you have established your account and only in geographic locations where we offer our service and have licensed such content.” And “You also agree not to circumvent, remove, alter, deactivate, degrade or thwart any of the content protections in the Netflix service; use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Netflix service… We may terminate or restrict your use of our service if you violate these Terms of Use or are engaged in illegal or fraudulent use of the service.”
This means, Netflix can stop your subscription and ban you from the streaming service if you try to access its content with a VPN turned on.
However, given the wide-spread use of VPNs, plus the many legitimate and legal use cases for VPNs, it’s fair to suggest that banning customers for using a VPN would be a heavy-handed and financially costly policy for Netflix (and other streaming services) to enforce.
If you’re trying to watch Netflix in a region where it does not traditionally operate or you’re trying to change the location of the Netflix library, you risk having your account banned. In theory. However, as the best VPNs for Netflix use military-grade encryption it is impossible for Netflix to trace where you’re physically accessing its content from.
There’s one final thing to note on the subject: Netflix has never banned anyone for using a VPN to access its service.
For more information you can check out our article answering Is streaming with a VPN legal?
