How to get a UK IP Address on your Router (VPN Router UK Setup)

Your IP address is important in many ways.  It is the unique network identifier which both controls what you can access but also identifies you when you’re online.  An IP address can be traced back to the specific computer fairly easily if you have the resources.

For the average web user, your IP address affects your online experience in two ways – privacy and accessibility.  Fortunately, there are ways which you can control and protect both these situations and your IP address.

Most people search online about switching or hiding their IP addresses because they are unable to access some online resource.   Many of the biggest web sites control access to their features based on physical location.  This is determined by your IP address, yes they have nationalities – connect to the internet from Paris and you’ll have a French IP address, connect from Cairo and you’ll have an Egyptian address and so on.
Unfortunately, this is where the restrictions start, to watch Hulu you’ll need a US IP address, for the BBC you’ll need a UK IP address such as this.   Which is where we come across VPNs.  A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is an encrypted tunnel between your computer and a VPN server.   The important factor with regards filtering is that if you connect via a VPN your real IP address is hidden. So you can use a UK VPN to watch things like the BBC News live from anywhere in the world.

Setting up a UK VPN on Your Router

Most people install a VPN on their computer, laptop and tablets.   It’s mainly easiest because most of them come with easy to use client software.  You install the software and then enable the VPN connection whenever you like.  Most of the time, it’s pretty much point and click on a map or a country list.

Here’s a picture from the NordVPN client software –

As you can see it’s just a map which you can scroll around and select which server to connect to.    It’s usually the easiest method however there is another option which works extremely well in certain circumstances.

Why Install VPN on a Router

So why would people want to setup the VPN on their router instead?   Well, there’s a few reasons and here’s some of the most common –

VPN connection on router -affects entire network – all devices connected to that router can be protected.  Instant encryption for any device on your network.

Games consoles, smart TVs etc – can’t install the software.  There’s often no way to enable a VPN directly on something like an Xbox or Smart TV.  If you want to watch the BBC from abroad – then you’ll need to enable the VPN on the router instead,

VPN Router UK – Instructions

NordVPN have some excellent tutorials for setting up routers, with step by step guides for many brands.

This can be configured directly from your computer however in some cases it’s easier to set up a VPN router with a UK IP address.  This means that any device connected through that router would be anonymous and be assigned a UK address.

Here’s how you can set up a VPN connection from Identity Cloaker on your router.

Not all routers are capable of supporting these VPN connections, however the better models should be able to. It’s important to remember that the router is acting as the client here and making a connection directly to the VPN server. Most routers will support inbound VPN connections but only some will support outbound VPN client connections, make sure you check before buying a VPN router to set up with a UK IP address.

Setup VPN Router with UK IP Address

Whilst the VPN connection is enabled, every device on your network will have the same address as the VPN connection.

So, for instance, if you were in Spain and you enabled the UK VPN connection on your router – any device connected would also have a UK IP address. People use this option particularly when they want to use a VPN on devices like Smart TVs and devices which have limited network configuration options.

Remember when this VPN is enabled, all your other web activity is affected too. So, a Google search on your phone would yield UK results or whichever country the server was based in. Most people using this configuration would set up multiple VPN client connections for different countries which you can enable as required.

Identity Cloaker subscriptions give you access to lots of different IP addresses in many countries all of which support these client VPN connections.