Canadian’s Can Access Netflix USA

August 14, 2011 in Culture, featured, iPhone, Mac, Movies, Technology with 12 Comments

This is something very cool that I quite literally stumbled on by accident. If you have a Netflix Canada account (I mean really, it’s $8.. even if their movies suck, what I’m about to tell you is going to make it worth it!).. Anyway, as I was saying, if you have a Netflix Canada account, you can access the whole Netflix USA library.. and it’s not hard to do at all.

Simply install a VPN on your computer or iOS device (I use HotSpot Shield on my MacBook.. it’s free!!) All you do is turn on your VPN, then go to netflix.ca and sign in as you usually would with your Canadian login information. Netflix reads your IP address, and since your VPN is spoofing a US address, the netflix site thinks you are in USA, and allows you to access the US Netflix system.

I’ve done this with my computer, and I also tried it tonight with my iPhone, and it works great. I now have a whole new library of GOOD movies available to me!

If you need details for getting Hotspot Shield to work on your iPhone, as they’ve stopped supporting it, please click here

Try it out, and let me know if it works for you down in the comments!

NOTE: I thought this went without saying.. but you HAVE TO HAVE A NETFLIX CANADA ACCOUNT… you can’t just watch the movies for free, you need a Canada account in order for this to work.

12 Responses to “Canadian’s Can Access Netflix USA”

Shahabmirzaei August 19, 2011 at 1:24 pm #

I get this error every time:
“Error N8307″

Reply
- Chris Burke August 28, 2011 at 12:55 pm #
  
  Don’t know what to tell you… I haven’t gotten any errors.. Works great for me
  
  Reply
- zubi October 18, 2011 at 5:26 pm #
  
  I got found the fix, download this version of silverlight
  
  http://soft.softoogle.com/ap/p7076.shtml)
  
  should fix it
  
  Reply
Megz August 21, 2011 at 10:10 pm #

The error I continue to get everytime is a connection error. It says playback suspended due to connection error, if this problem persists call netflix.

My entire setup is wireless – is this a factor? I can only get a movie to run for a few seconds – and yes, I start the VPN first and THEN go to netflix. And yes, I DO have a netflix account.

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- Chris Burke August 28, 2011 at 12:55 pm #
  
  I don’t know what to tell you.. My system is wireless too.. It even works on 3G.. It does take a few minutes for things to load, but it does work
  
  Reply
Olivia September 3, 2011 at 8:02 pm #

For me, it keeps saying that “there is a problem playing protected (DRM) content on your system, if the problem persists call netflix.”

I started the VPN first and then logged in on netflix, yet it still won’t work. Any ideas on how to fix this?

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Liz October 6, 2011 at 1:51 pm #

Is this still working for you? When I try I get a message on the Netflix site telling me that Netflix hasn’t come to my part of the world yet.

Is it possible that Netflix has closed this loop? Or is there something I’m missing.

I can access other US content (like Hulu), so I know my Hotspot Shield is working.

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- zubi October 18, 2011 at 4:49 pm #
  
  I sometimes get this error too, just reconnect your vpn software untill it goes away its just netflix being picky for some reason
  
  Reply
Jove November 4, 2011 at 3:43 am #

thanks…totally worked first time I tried. Funny thing is, I had a corporate VPN on my machine and just tried now. WOrks flawlessly. Have access to so much more.

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Rossy December 19, 2011 at 5:27 pm #

Hey Chris,

Awesome trick – I know that you have had several people ask if you can get it on Apple TV but i didnt see a response.

Thanks!

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- Chris Burke January 3, 2012 at 12:40 pm #
  
  I’m not sure. I don’t own an apple TV (yet) so I have no way of finding out
  
  Reply