Buy UK Residential Proxies with UK IP Addresses

What is a Proxy?

A proxy is a computer application that can run on behalf of another user and request resources from a server. It sits between the client’s browser and the server, intercepting requests and responses. A proxy can be used to hide the true IP address of a user, which may be used by hackers to gain access to sensitive information or carry out malicious activities.

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Which of course makes it ideal for hiding your true location and using a false one instead.

So you may have heard that to bypass all these region locks that you simply need to use a proxy, right? To be able to watch Match of the Day on your laptop whilst relaxing on a Greek Island, you just need to buy UK IP address to hide your location? Well that used to be the case but it’s a little out of date.

The use of these regional restrictions is growing everyday and unfortunately the companies are enforcing them even more aggressively. A couple of years ago, you could simply search online for a free UK proxy to hide your real IP address and watch sites like the BBC from anywhere. Sure they were often a little slow, but any of these servers would do to stream the BBC and there were plenty to choose from. Nowadays you’ll see lots more adverts for dedicated private proxies, ghost or squid proxy networks.

Why It’s NOT So Simple to Just Use a Free UK Proxy

Unfortunately the day of the proxies have now gone as the BBC like all the other media companies now block the use of proxy servers which hide your IP by default. If you connect to any large media site and try and use a proxy even if it’s in the United Kingdom, then you’ll get some sort of message like the following –

This one is from Netflix, but as you can see the site detects the use of proxies and simply won’t work any more. The BBC was the last company to implement this particular detection, so there’s literally no point anymore in going to buy UK proxy IP address for watching TV online. Same goes for other countries, a US proxy won’t really help you access most major American websites either. Don’t bother with those proxy list sites you can find online either, they may suggest that many of the proxies are ‘elite’ but all the free ones are easy to detect. What’s more many of them are extremely risky to use, as they’re infested with malware and viruses too.

So if proxies are dead, how are people able to bypass these region blocks? The reality is now you need to use something slightly more sophisticated like a VPN which can’t be directly detected. These work in a similar way except that they are virtually impossible to detect automatically. So for example, instead of using a UK proxy server you would instead connect through a UK based VPN before accessing the site you needed. Effectively it would be like choosing from a UK IP address list, or a US IP address from a USA based server.

Although the sites cannot detect the VPN easily they do proactively try and spot them, mainly by identifying specific IP address ranges which are supporting lots of connections. This actually takes a lot of resources though because these addresses can be switched very easily.

How to Buy a Proxy with UK Residential IP Access

It can be confusing to work out what exactly you need, the proxy market is growing all the time and there’s a lot of choice and many different proxy provider companies. Proxies can be used for all sorts of purposes – making money online, research, advertising and e-commerce for example. Many people for example promote and run multiple social media accounts in a commercial way, to do this they have to route these through multiple IP addresses. This is because most platforms block and filter people with these multiple accounts so it’s important to keep their origin hidden.

Some of these accounts are worth a small fortune so their owners invest in the best private proxies often with exclusive access in order to protect them. Much of the proxy market is based on creating and maintaining multiple digital identities, however if you’re just interested in avoiding blocks and bypassing filters then you don’t need this sort of proxy access. You’ll also come across something called residential proxies designed to use home assigned IP addresses to be even more covert. Using a residential proxy is needed for managing things like social media marketing and Instagram accounts but not yet required for streaming TV channels.

For region blocks from mainline entertainment sites like the BBC, then mostly shared IP addresses will be fine as long as they’re in the right countries (although check out the update at the end of this post). So for watching BBC iPlayer of subscribing to Britbox then a much cheaper alternative than using UK private proxies is to use a VPN with multiple locations.

Why should I Buy a Proxy from One Company over Another One?

Here’s one that still works perfectly in 2021 for example called Identity Cloaker –

It’s important to try out these VPN services before you subscribe for a long time. Many of them have been blocked by the larger media companies and are no more use than a proxy. The BBC has blocked thousands of servers used by some of the VPN services so it’s important to validate first. Remember though, these IP addresses are shared between all subscribers so they’re not the best proxies for Bots or social media management.

Also the IP addresses are registered in datacentres so many platforms will block multiple access from these locations, at the moment though they’re fine for watching the BBC and most online media sites.

Unfortunately the demise of the proxies mean that there are very few free options left anymore. You can certainly have a try with TOR, which can provide some security through routing through other users computers. It’s pretty frustrating for streaming video though because of the low speed and it’s a bit fiddly to configure the ‘exit nodes’ to ensure you have a UK IP address.

Where can you buy a UK proxy in 2023?

Remember these services are fine for providing privacy and bypassing geoblocks but they are not dedicated proxies. If you want to buy private proxies for your exclusive use then there are specialist firms who run these networks, be warned they’re much more expensive though, particularly residential proxies.

My personal recommendation is for IPBurger, it’s reasonably priced, fast and well supported. It will allow you to watch all UK based media sites and lots of others in the USA, Canada and different countries.

You can get everything from a VPN with a single UK IP address to a pool of thousands

IPBurger is primarily a security program and does not have as many people ‘TV watching’ as many VPN/Proxy providers so at the moment it works very well. You’ll occasionally get blocked using a specific IP address. However in 2023, the problem is increasingly becoming shared IP addresses.

In 2023 – The Most Reliable Option – Exclusive UK Proxies

The TV and media companies obviously don’t want you to bypass their geographical restrictions. The BBC, ITV and the other UK channels want to restrict access to UK based individuals. Everyone else they want to subscribe to fee paying channels like Britbox or to shell out for box sets on disk or online. The battle has been waging for many years, with the TV companies using a variety of tools to block people using VPNs and proxies.

Mostly they have failed, for a variety of reasons usually based on the huge amount of effort and expense required to block all of the Proxies all of the time. However the UK TV channels have settled on a low cost method which is starting to work – detecting proxies by analysing concurrent connections.

What Does it mean to Buy a Proxy in the UK?

This sounds terribly complicated but actually it isn’t. All the media sites are doing is checking how many connections are being made on each incoming IP address. If it’s a few that’s fine, addresses are shared in houses, colleges, businesses etc so it’s natural to have multiple connections to a point. However the most popular VPNs will have literally thousands of users connecting to BBC iPlayer all using the same address shared out by their VPN provider.

It’s a simple configuration to automatically block access when those connections reach a certain amount, and block access to that IP address because it’s obviously a proxy network. The more users sharing the same address the less likely it is to work reliably with any media site adopting this tactic. This is exactly how the BBC for instance have blocked so many VPN and proxy services so effectively. Many are, simply because it requires little resourcing and is remarkably effective. Of course the VPN service providers could buy more and more addresses in different proxy locations but this can become very expensive.

Your Own Dedicated UK Proxy with an Exclusive IP Address

If you’re having problems using a commercial VPN or proxy to watch British TV or some other task then this is what you probably need. You’ll see reports all over the internet that VPNs don’t work with BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and so on but it’s not true. It’s just they’re sharing too many IP addresses in order to keep costs down and maximize their profits.

How to Rent an Exclusive UK proxy for low cost?

But what if you had your own exclusive UK IP address which is not shared with anyone else at all. Your own United Kingdom proxies to access through a browser, application or VPN client. It would work every single time and you’d never get blocked again, it sounds expensive and difficult but it’s not. It’s actually become much easier to buy private UK proxy access rather than relying on shared access with thousands of other users.

This company provides a full proxy with VPN client access through either software or a browser extension. The basic plan gives you a VPN with a unique, exclusive IP address which you can choose to have based in any of about ten countries including the United Kingdom.

Remember you won’t have a list of proxies spread all over the world, and you won’t be able to switch your location to match them. If you suddenly need to watch RTE in Ireland, you’ll have to add an Irish proxy address to your account. You will have one VPN connection available to a single IP address (unless you buy more). However for about the same price as a standard VPN you’ll have a connection to enjoy all the UK TV stations without any problems or interruptions at all. This is a different league from hacked free proxies or the iFrame https proxies you’ll see surrounded by adverts.

How will Buying Proxies affect my Account and Account status

It will simply protect them, as long as you use proxies carefully and stay away from the abused free ones. Being able to control which IP addresses you use when accessing different accounts will be crucial. It’s especially vital when you’re managing multiple accounts across different platforms and locations.

I think this is the way that VPNs and proxy access will move in the next few years – premium proxies with your own IP addresses. IT sounds cool to have proxies in dozens of countries all over the world, but let’s face it who uses their Russian proxies or Brazilian ones! What most of us want is the security of a VPN and an IP address in a single country which allows us unfettered access to the media sites we love – e.g. UK proxies for the BBC.