NordVPN’s browser extension for Chrome and Firefox enables you to use the VPN without installing a separate app. It comes with a money-back guarantee that you can take advantage of any time in the first 30 days, no questions asked. How to use a VPN to unblock websites at school, work, or abroad.

Everyone knows YouTube. It is the world’s most visited website after Google.com, even beating Facebook in number of visitors. It has gone from a basic video-sharing website to a full-on mini-internet where communities flourish. Yet not everyone always can access YouTube videos, which is why we’ve put together this quick and simple guide on how to unblock YouTube.

YouTube can be blocked for any number of reasons. Maybe you’re in a country that censors the internet or your boss is frustrated that you’re wasting time watching YouTube videos when you should be updating spreadsheets. Some record companies only make part of their video selection available in some countries, for example, which can get annoying.

No matter the reason, if YouTube is blocked, we have the fix below. Before we get to how you can unblock YouTube videos, though, let’s have a look at the reasons behind your blocked YouTube access.

Why Is YouTube Blocked?

Currently, only three countries have blocked YouTube completely (the number varies): China, Iran and North Korea. In all three, the objective is to make sure their populations are protected against foreign internet influences that may make people think that poisoned water and regular authoritarian oppression aren’t the norm everywhere.

However, most of the world’s population lives in a place where the internet is (relatively) free — at least, for now — and the reason they can’t watch videos is simply because someone put a block on the site. Webmasters in large corporations, as well as small businesses and universities, often have standing orders to block all access to YouTube video content.

The most brutal and unfair regimes are often found in families, of course, where tech-savvy parents have put parental controls on what websites homework-avoiding teens and curious elementary-school kids have access to (read our guide on how to protect your kids online for more on that).

YouTube isn’t blocked just to make sure people’s lives are the worst possible — though it may seem that way — it could also be a way to keep bandwidth usage low or ensure that people are working rather than goofing off (says the writer who’s listening to a YouTube playlist while belting out this piece). Nor should children be looking at videos concerning subjects beyond their ken.

Since YouTube couldn’t care less about who will access it and when, getting past these blocks — be they governmental, corporate or parental — is easy as pie. This includes the blocks YouTube itself places that are based on geography. You basically have four options when you want to watch blocked YouTube videos. We’ll rank them real quick for you here, before going into more depth below.

How Do I Unblock YouTube?

1. Use a proxy
2. Use a VPN
3. Use HTTPS
4. Change Your DNS server

Unblock YouTube With a Web Proxy

The easiest and cheapest way to get around a YouTube block is by using a web proxy. The best YouTube proxy will be easy to use and fast. We have put together a list of the best proxy providers, but note that you should never use a proxy except for YouTube or bad things might happen.

This is because proxies aren’t very secure. They don’t protect your internet connection so if, for example, you are torrenting with a proxy, it’s pretty much the same as waving a big red flag at copyright authorities. We talk more about web proxy security in our VPN vs proxy article.

Unblock YouTube With a VPN

A much better way than using a web proxy to get past any block is to use a virtual private network. The linked article has more information, but using a VPN basically sends your internet connection through another location, meaning you can fool a receiving website into thinking you’re accessing it from another device, house or country. It can bypass geoblocks and is a foolproof way to access YouTube.

Any of our best VPN picks will breeze through parental controls or admin permissions like they were made of digital paper. A good virtual private network costs money, so that may be an obstacle for some. However, it’s not uncommon for a VPN to have at least a money-back guarantee in place. We have also put together a list of the best free VPNs, but all of them have some kind of bandwidth cap.

Whatever you do, never, ever go with any of the virtual private network services we talk about in our worst free VPN article, with special mention going to the botnet Hola. Each of those VPN providers will sell your data, which, by our reckoning, is too high a price to pay to access YouTube videos.

If you just want a quick idea of which VPN services may be best, we recommend you check out our ExpressVPN review for speed, our NordVPN review for the best value for your money over the long term and our PIA review if you want to spend as little as possible on a VPN in the short term.

All three are excellent VPN services with good track records of providing a way to access YouTube and keeping your data private. Plus, all three are quick to install and among the best VPNs for Chrome thanks to their user-friendly browser extensions, making them easy to use, as well.

Other Ways to Unblock YouTube

VPNs aren’t a cure-all that always works to unblock YouTube. Some people balk at the cost, while others cannot install the necessary software because an admin has limited permission to do so. Let’s take a look at two other ways to get to the YouTube content you want.

Note that those who are suffering from governmental control should, under no circumstances, access YouTube using the following tricks. Your only option in these cases is to check out our articles on the best VPN for China or the best VPN for Iran and pick a virtual private network service from there.

Unblock YouTube With HTTPS

The first trick to unblock YouTube is the easiest, but you’d be surprised how often it works. Many places that block websites do so by entering the website’s address into a program, usually leaving the address as “http://.” Therefore, one way to unblock YouTube is to change the address field to read “https://www.youtube.com” (note that extra “S”). With this tweak, you may be able to ignore the block altogether, with additional internet security, to boot.

Change DNS Server

Another super simple way to unblock YouTube is to change the DNS address of your server. Many blocks run your request to their own server, so by bypassing that, you’re bypassing the block. Each flavor of operating system is a little different, but they all work more or less like this.

• Go to “network settings” (sometimes you’ll have to find a label for “adapters”)
• Find a “network connection properties” (or similarly named)
• Under “IPv4,” you should find a tab or label called “DNS server”
• Change the server to “8.8.8.8” or “8.8.4.4” and restart the computer

You can also do this in some web browsers instead of on your computer. Just search for the name of your browser and “change DNS settings” and that should do the trick.

Final Thoughts

There are several handy ways to unblock YouTube videos. Our favorite way to access YouTube is using a VPN because a few clicks and a few bucks don’t just get you into YouTube video content, but around other geoblocks, such as the Netflix VPN ban, as well. Other methods are more hit-or-miss, but that’s no reason not to try.

Check out our VPN articles if you’d like to learn more about your options, or give the rest of our site a read for the latest and greatest in cloud applications. We have, of course, a wonderful Cloudwards.net YouTube channel you can follow, too, once you’ve used our tips to unblock the site.

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What do you think of our ways to unblock YouTube? Do you know any others? Let us know in the comments below and, as always, thank you for reading.

Unblock YouTube FAQ

This article has been up for a few years, and to make things easier for you, we’ve put together this list of the most frequently asked questions.

How Can I Get on YouTube at School?

Generally speaking, people still in school usually have no money, so we recommend you use a YouTube proxy to get past any blocks in place. The nice thing about using a web proxy is that it only takes a few minutes to set up, and you can unblock YouTube, Facebook and even Instagram in one fell swoop.

How Do I Unblock YouTube on Google Chrome?

We recommend using a web proxy extension for that. Most of the proxies we recommended above have a Chrome extension that will patch you through to the proxy server without any hassle.

This tutorial will show you step by step how to unblock blocked websites in a few different ways by using tricks, free software, online services, and applications.

Contents

How to access blocked websites using:

• DNS over HTTPS (settings)
• DNS (settings)
• Tails (a live operating system that can run off a USB flash drive)

Related article

Blocked websites

When you're bored at your office, school, or at home, and have some spare time, then you might want to go online and visit your favorite site, like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo, Yahoo, Gmail, VK, Reddit, Pinterest, Google, LinkedIn, or another website to check your email, check what your friends are sharing, watch videos, play video games, chat with someone, or do other things online.

So you open your web browser and visit your favorite website but then you find out that the site is blocked.

And:

You might get one of the following messages in your web browser: DENIED, ACCESS DENIED, This site can't be reached, Hmm. We're having trouble finding that site. We can't connect to the server at vimeo.com. or Hmmm..can't reach this page.

There are schools, companies, and countries that block certain websites like social media, video sharing, political, news, and adult sites.

When it happens only at work or at your school, then it's probably blocked by the network administrator of the company or school.

But:

There are also countries where governments (authorities) block certain websites.

Countries may block websites for the following areas of activity:

• Political: Views and information in opposition to those of the current government or related to human rights, freedom of expression, minority rights, and religious movements.
• Social: Views and information perceived as offensive or as socially sensitive, often related to sexuality, gambling, or illegal drugs and alcohol.
• Conflict/Security: Views and information related to armed conflicts, border disputes, separatist movements, and militant groups.
• Internet Services:
  • Email services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook.com, and AOL Mail)
  • Search engines (e.g., Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Baidu)
  • Translation (e.g., Google Translate, WorldLingo, SDL FreeTranslation, and Bing Translator)
  • Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services (e.g., Skype, Google Hangouts, and Vonage)
  • Censorship or filtering circumvention methods
  • Web hosting

In most cases, you can try a few different methods to unblock websites that are blocked.

Many people use a proxy site, but you can also unblock websites without proxy sites.

On this page, I will show you how to bypass and access blocked websites in a few different ways.

How to unblock a blocked website using DNS over HTTPS (DoH)

DNS over HTTPS is a protocol for performing remote Domain Name System resolution via the HTTPS protocol.

You can also use this to try to unblock blocked websites.

How to enable DNS over HTTPS in Google Chrome

1. Open Google Chrome.

2. Type chrome://flags/#dns-over-https in the address bar.

3. Press Enter.

4. Click on the selection button located next to the “Secure DNS (DNS over HTTPS)” flag and then click on Enabled.

5. Click on the restart button located in the bottom right corner of the browser.

DNS over HTTPS is now enabled.

How to enable DNS over HTTPS in Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Firefox.

2. Click on the menu button.

3. Click on Options.

4. Scroll down to Network Settings.

5. Click on the Settings button.

6. Check (select) the Enable DNS over HTTPS option located at the bottom of the settings window.

7. Click on the OK button.

DNS over HTTPS is now enabled.

How to enable DNS over HTTPS in Brave

1. Open Brave.

2. Type brave://flags/#dns-over-https in the address bar.

3. Press Enter.

4. Click on the selection button located next to the “Secure DNS (DNS over HTTPS)” flag and then click on Enabled.

5. Click on the restart button located in the bottom right corner of the browser.

DNS over HTTPS is now enabled.

How to enable DNS over HTTPS in Microsoft Edge (Chromium)

1. Open Microsoft Edge.

2. Type edge://flags/#dns-over-https in the address bar.

3. Press Enter.

4. Click on the selection button located next to the “Secure DNS (DNS over HTTPS)” flag and then click on Enabled.

5. Click on the restart button located in the bottom right corner of the browser.

DNS over HTTPS is now enabled.

How to unblock a blocked website using different DNS service

DNS (Domain Name System) is what lets users connect to websites using domain names instead of IP addresses. It's the phonebook of the Internet.

You can use Google Public DNS or Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 public DNS resolver to try to unblock blocked websites.

Change DNS settings in Windows 10

1. Open settings.

2. Click on Network & Internet.

3. Click on Network and Sharing Center located at the bottom.

4. Click on your network.

5. Click on Properties.

6. Select (highlight) Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).

7. Click on the Properties button.

8. Select the Use the following DNS server addresses option.

9. Enter the IP addresses in the Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server fields.

For Google, you enter 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. For Cloudflare, you enter 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1.

10. Click on the OK button.

11. Click on the Close button.

Your DNS settings are now changed.

Change DNS settings in Android 9

1. Open settings.

2. Tap on Connections or Network ∓ internet.

3. Tap on More connection settings or Advanced.

4. Tap on Private DNS.

5. Select the Private DNS provider hostname option.

6. Enter the DNS provider hostname in the field below.

For Google, you enter dns.google. For Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), you enter 1dot1dot1dot1.cloudflare-dns.com.

7. Tap on Save.

Your DNS settings are now changed.

Note: If you have a smartphone with an older version of Android, then you can use an app, like Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 app.

How to unblock a blocked website using a VPN (Virtual Private Network)

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a network technology that allows you to create a secure connection to another network over the Internet.

A VPN can be used to access region-restricted websites, shield your web browsing activities on public WiFi networks, and more.

There are many paid and free VPN services and applications for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, and iPhone (iOs).

Four examples of well-known VPN services are:

• IVPN
• Mullvad
• Cryptostorm
• Windscribe (also offers a free account)

Most VPNs are very easy to use.

Some VPNs (like Windscribe) also offer a browser extension for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

How to unblock a blocked website using the built-in proxy in Epic web browser

Epic Privacy Browser has a built-in encrypted proxy.

You can download Epic Privacy Browser here.

1. Open Epic Privacy Browser.

2. Click on the red plugs icon located at the top right of the browser.

3. Click on the On button.

4. Select a location.

How to unblock a blocked website using Tor Browser

Tor Browser is a web browser that protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world.

Tor Browser allows you to access blocked sites.

You can use this browser on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and Linux computers without installing it.

And:

Yandex mail review. This browser can also run off a USB flash drive.

You can download the Tor Browser here.

Just open Tor Browser and visit the blocked website.

How to unblock a blocked website using Tails

Tails is a live operating system that you can start on almost any computer from a USB stick or a DVD.

It allows you to use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship.

Tails forces all Internet connections to go through the Tor network.

You can download Tails here.

You can install Tails on a USB flash drive, then boot a computer from the USB flash drive, open the web browser and visit the blocked website.

How to unblock a blocked website using proxy sites

A proxy site is a website hosted on a server that redirects your web browsing activity. A proxy site acts as an intermediary between you and the website you want to visit.

You can use proxy sites to access blocked websites.

1. Visit any of the proxy sites listed below.

• https://www.hidemyass.com/proxy
• https://www.proxysite.com
• https://proxysite.site
• https://unblockwebsites.net
• https://hide.me/en/proxy
• https://kproxy.com
• https://hidester.com/proxy/
• https://whoer.net/webproxy

2. Enter the URL (web address) of the website you want to unblock (e.g., www.reddit.com, www.spotify.com, etc.).

3. Press Enter.

Note: Some companies, schools, or countries block proxy sites, and they might update their list of proxy sites regularly, so you might want to make a list of proxy sites.

How to unblock a blocked website using an IP address

Sometimes only the URL of a website is blocked (e.g., www.facebook.com, www.twitter.com, etc.).

But:

You might still be able to visit the website by its IP address (e.g., 206.189.189.27).

Note: There are websites that cannot be accessed by their IP address.

How to find a website's IP address using an online service

1. Visit any of the online services listed below.

2. Enter the URL (web address) or domain name of the website (e.g., reddit.com, www.spotify.com, etc.).

3. Press Enter.

The group of numbers is the IP address of the website (e.g., 185.60.218.35).

How to find a website's IP address using Windows Command Prompt

In this example, I'll be using Facebook.

1. Open the Windows Command Prompt.

2. Type the following command:

3. Press Enter.

The group of numbers is the IP address of the website (e.g., 185.60.218.35).

How to find a website's IP address using the Mac OS X Terminal

1. Open the Mac OS X Terminal.

2. Type the following command:

3. Press Return (Enter).

The group of numbers is the IP address of the website (e.g., 185.60.218.35).

How to find a website's IP address using the Mac OS X Network Utility

1. Open the Mac Network Utility.

2. Open the Ping tab.

3. Type the site's domain name (e.g., facebook.com, twitter.com, yahoo.com, etc.).

4. Press Return (Enter).

5. Set the number of pings to 1.

6. Click on the Ping button.

The group of numbers is the IP address of the website (e.g., 185.60.218.35).

How to unblock a blocked website using a URL shortener

Maybe the URL (web address) of the website you want to visit is blocked, but converting the URL to another shorter URL with the help of a URL shortener might help you access the blocked site.

1. Visit any of the URL shorteners listed below.

2. Enter the URL (web address) of the website you want to unblock (e.g., www.reddit.com, www.spotify.com, etc.).

3. Press Enter.

The URL shortener will now create a custom short URL, and this URL can be used to visit the blocked website.

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