In a world where the internet seems to make us closer, there are some rules clearly dividing "what belongs to whom" that many people are not aware of. In this case, I'm talking about access to US websites from countries outside the US and it's territories (and military bases). Some of these are popular websites known to almost all Americans, including Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and other TV, movie, and music streaming sites. Other websites are more obscure, and while I wouldn't know all of them, I can guess that they fit the bill of being either a streaming media site or a secure account of some kind.

The reasons these websites are unavailable outside the USA basically fit into two categories. One, is that these websites actively block foreign IP addresses. In the case of streaming media sites, this is to honor contracts with the media corporations, limiting viewership to customers inside the US.

The other is that these websites are blocked by a non-US country because of their political, religious, or entertainment content. Facebook is blocked in China. Skype in the UAE. YouTube was blocked in Brazil and Turkey for a period of time, and is still unavailable in Egypt.

Regardless of the reasons why, it's a major nuisance for Americans overseas, and in some cases a method of oppression by foreign governments. The desire to overcome these restrictions ranges from not wanting to miss the newest episode of "The Walking Dead", to needing a social media platform to organize like-minded revolutionaries.

Virtual private network technology comes in to play in most cases, as it can provide anyone, in any country, with a US IP address on their smartphone, computer, laptop, or internet TV. The methods of installation vary greatly, but the results are the same. After download, installation, and configuration, it's possible to connect to the virtual private network and choose an IP address from the USA and many other countries.

The basic idea of how a VPN works is that you can securely 'tunnel' information to private network overseas using the same type of encryption and privacy that banks use. The same way ordering something on Amazon is secure, and cannot be viewed by a third party, so will all the information you send and receive from your device be secure and private.

Methods of encryption and tunneling vary based on the device you use, but the industry is changing to make much of this process automatic. In just the past few years many VPN services have adopted a plug-n-play policy and have made their VPN software more user-friendly. This means of course that lengthy installation tutorials are no longer needed, and it makes getting a US IP address more accessible to a wider range of people.

VPNs have multiple applications, but changing your IP to access blocked sites is one of the more popular and well known. Because of the large number of world-famous apps, websites, and services, US IP addresses are in demand and offered at many VPN service providers.