How Does Channel 4 Block VPN Traffic?

Channel 4 blocks VPN traffic to protect licensing agreements it has struck with content owners, and to promote the sale of its original content outside the UK.

To enforce these restrictions, the streaming service monitors IP addresses accessing its content. If it detects numerous simultaneous instances using the same IP address, it will blacklist it.

Channel 4 also runs checks on whether an IP address is “residential,” or if it belongs to a data center (VPN services mostly use data center IP addresses).

Finally, Channel 4 will also run IP addresses against a database of known VPN ones, automatically banning any matching IP.

In order to keep avoiding detection, the VPNs we recommend in this guide have to constantly update their UK IP addresses and obfuscate their traffic to make it appear as “normal.”

Yes, it is legal to use a VPN to watch Channel 4. However, doing so goes against the Terms and Conditions of the streaming service.

Term 16.5 states that “you must not, and must not allow third parties to:
(a) access, view and/or purchase your Channel 4+ functionality or Channel 4 Content using a virtual proxy network.”

The worse that could happen is that your account is terminated, but over the years we have yet to hear of accounts being closed because of VPN use.

Can I Watch Channel 4 without a VPN?

When you’re overseas and want to catch up on Channel 4, you’ve got a couple of safe and legitimate alternatives to a VPN: Smart DNS or NordVPN’s Meshnet.

Smart DNS services, like Control D (from Windscribe), work by letting you modify your device’s DNS settings. This clever trick helps you bypass geo-restrictions and access content that’s usually blocked in your location.

The key aspect to remember with Smart DNS is that it doesn’t encrypt your internet traffic. It’s therefore less secure than a VPN service but costs roughly the same.

NordVPN’s Meshnet offers a different approach. It lets you connect directly to another device’s local network and funnel your internet traffic through it i.e. using its IP address and location.

For example, if you have a computer in the UK, you could connect to it from overseas using Meshnet and appear to be in the UK.

For Meshnet to work, both the device you’re connecting from and the device you’re connecting to need to have Meshnet installed and enabled.