How to unblock websites

Almost every page on this subject opens with "use a VPN", which is right about two-thirds of the time and useless the rest. Websites get blocked in at least four distinct ways, and the fix depends entirely on which one you are looking at.

Diagnosing it takes about thirty seconds.

Work out which block you have

1. 1

   Try the site on mobile data, with Wi-Fi off

   The single most useful test.

   Loads on cellular, fails on Wi-Fi → it is a network block. Your school, office, landlord or hotel is filtering it.

   Fails on both → it is a country block, a geo-restriction, or the site itself.

2. 2

   Check whether the site is down for everyone

   Before assuming a block, confirm the site is actually up. A down site and a blocked site look identical from your chair, and people have bought VPNs to fix outages.

3. 3

   Look at the error you get

   The message is diagnostic:

   • "This site can't be reached" / DNS error → likely DNS-level blocking, the weakest kind
   • A block page from your network naming a policy → network filter, and it knows what it is doing
   • "Not available in your country" → geo-restriction, the site is choosing
   • A government or ISP notice page → country-level block
   • "Access denied" / 403 → the site is blocking your IP specifically
4. 4

   Try changing DNS

   Switch your device or router to Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 or Google's 8.8.8.8 and reload.

   Works → it was DNS-level blocking, and you are done without a VPN.

   Still blocked → the block is at IP level or deeper, and DNS was never the mechanism. Move on.

The four blocks and their fixes

1. Network blocks — school, office, hotel, public Wi-Fi

The network is deciding, usually with a filtering appliance and a category list.

Fix: a VPN. The network can no longer see which sites you are reaching, only that you have an encrypted connection to one server.

When that fails: many institutional networks also block VPNs, by port, by protocol signature, or by blocklisting known VPN addresses. Then you need obfuscation — see below.

Worth saying plainly: getting around a school or workplace filter usually breaches an acceptable-use policy you agreed to, and on a device the institution owns, monitoring software may see what you did before it was ever encrypted. That is not a scare tactic, it is how managed devices work.

2. Country-level blocks

A national filter, applied at the ISP level or above. China, Iran, Russia, the UAE and Turkey all operate some version of this, with different scope and different enforcement.

Fix: a VPN with obfuscation, not a plain one. National filtering systems specifically identify and block VPN traffic, so an ordinary connection fails.

This is the case where the cheaper options start dropping out — CyberGhost, for instance, has no obfuscation at all and will not work.

3. Geo-restrictions — the site is choosing

Streaming catalogues, some news sites, regional storefronts. The site works fine; it is showing you a different version, or none.

Fix: a VPN server in the country whose version you want. This is the easiest case and the one most people are actually asking about — changing your VPN location covers the mechanics, including the caching problem that makes people think it failed.

4. The site is blocking you personally

A 403, or a captcha loop that never ends. Your IP has been flagged — sometimes because it is shared, sometimes because of automated traffic from your address range.

Fix: a different IP, which a VPN provides. If the VPN's addresses are also blocked (common on banking and government sites), the answer is a dedicated IP add-on, or split tunnelling to send that one site outside the tunnel.

Obfuscation: the feature that matters here

Ordinary VPN traffic is identifiable. It goes to a known address, on a known port, with a recognisable handshake. A firewall configured to block VPNs blocks it easily.

Obfuscation wraps the tunnel so it looks like ordinary HTTPS on port 443 — the same traffic as every website you visit. A network cannot block that without blocking the web.

Providers name it differently: obfuscated servers (NordVPN), Camouflage Mode (Surfshark), Stealth (Proton VPN, Windscribe), Scramble (IPVanish). Same idea.

VPN	Stealth mode	Countries	Avg speed	2-year price
NordVPN	Yes	118	712 Mbps	$3.39/mo
Surfshark	Yes	100	655 Mbps	$2.19/mo
Proton VPN	Yes	117	541 Mbps	$4.49/mo
ExpressVPN	Yes	105	598 Mbps	$4.99/mo
Mullvad	Yes	49	590 Mbps	$5.40/mo
Windscribe	Yes	69	445 Mbps	$5.75/mo
PIA	Yes	91	480 Mbps	$2.03/mo
CyberGhost	No	100	470 Mbps	$2.19/mo

The trade-off is speed. Obfuscation adds a layer, and the stealth modes typically run over TCP rather than UDP, which is slower. Use it when you need it, not by default.

What does not work

Free web proxies. A short list of well-known addresses that network administrators blocklist, and they do not encrypt — so the network sees exactly which sites you reach through them. Fine for a quick geo-check on something you do not care about; useless against real filtering.

Free browser VPN extensions. Same problem, plus they only cover that browser tab. And several have been found operating as residential proxy networks, meaning strangers' traffic leaves your connection.

Google Translate and similar tricks. These worked years ago against naive filters. Modern filtering appliances handle them.

Tor for everyday unblocking. It works, and it is slow enough that you will stop using it. It is also blocked by many of the same networks, and using it draws attention in exactly the countries where that matters. Right tool for a narrow set of problems, wrong tool for reaching a news site at work.

If a VPN gets you through but a specific site still refuses

Common on banks, government services and streaming platforms, all of which blocklist known VPN ranges.

1. Switch server. Most providers have dozens per country and only some are flagged.
2. Clear the site's cookies. Sometimes it is remembering the flag, not re-detecting it.
3. Use split tunnelling to send that one app or browser outside the tunnel. Better than disconnecting entirely and forgetting to reconnect.
4. A dedicated IP add-on if the site matters and nothing else works — an address nobody else uses is not on a shared-IP blocklist.

The order to work through

Mobile data test → check the site is up → read the error → try public DNS → then a VPN → then obfuscation if the VPN itself is blocked.

Most people start at step five and skip the diagnosis, which is why "I bought a VPN and it didn't fix it" is such a common outcome. Thirty seconds of checking tells you which tool you actually need.