Can I use a VPN to fake my location?

I have always wondered if I could use a VPN to fake my location to different servers (even though this is not possible). If this is the case, would it be the same as doing a proxy? Or would you only be able to fake your location to a server that is on the same subnet as the server you want to fake your location? I am asking because I have some old computers on my network and I am wondering if they could still be used to spoof my location. I thought I read somewhere that it was not possible to spoof your location, but I could not find it. So if anyone knows the answer to this question, that would be great.

You can use a VPN to fake your location to whatever server you want. In fact, you can use a VPN to fake any location you want.

However, you cannot change the IP address of a server without changing the subnet. This is important because if you are attempting to connect to a server by spoofing the IP address of that server (using the IP address of a different server), then the server will not know where to send you. The server will assume that you are connecting to it from a different subnet, and since the IP address of the server on that subnet is different than the IP address you are spoofing, the server will not allow you in.

So if you are trying to connect to a server at www.example.com by spoofing the IP address of that server, then it's not possible unless you are using a VPN server, because you are telling the server that you are connecting from a different subnet than the server itself is on. The server will not allow you in.

In my experience with many VPNs, you can tell which VPN server is being used by looking at the IP address of the server. You can also tell whether the IP address of the server has been spoofed or not, because spoofed IP addresses are always from the same subnet as the server. If you have a server on a different subnet, then the IP address of the server will not match the IP address of the VPN server. The IP address of the server will be spoofed, but the server will not respond to the spoofed IP address of the VPN server because it will never have a connection to that VPN server.

So for example, I can spoof the IP address of www.

Is there a 100% free VPN?

In theory, yes.

But in practice, no. In fact, we would argue that the best way to understand the cost of a VPN is not to look at its total monthly subscription fee, but instead to look at how much it costs to access your desired content.

For example, if you use the TunnelBear service to connect to the BBC iPlayer, you might pay 4.95 per month for that privilege. But, on top of that, you are also forced to pay 1.95 per GB of data transferred. So, on a day when you watch one hour of iPlayer, you're paying 5. But if you watch the whole four and a half hours of the show, you're paying 14. That's 16.95 per hour of iPlayer content you view. In this case, it might take you a few hours of streaming to pay off your 5.95, but you'll be doing it at a rate of 6 per hour.

You can take that to the extreme, too. If you pay 8 per month to use the TunnelBear service, you can watch five episodes of the latest episode of Game of Thrones on HBO GO in that time. It's a good thing the show has finished, then!

The real value in using a VPN comes from the difference between the prices you would have to pay in the absence of a VPN, and the price you end up paying when you use a VPN. That's the kind of savings you can make if you use a VPN to watch Game of Thrones or any other content you want to watch.

How much does a VPN cost? How much you pay depends on what VPN provider you choose, and how much it costs to access your content of choice. The more you pay, the less value you get for your money.

We looked at three popular VPN services to work out how much they cost per month, compared with the prices you would need to pay if you didn't have a VPN, to access your content. These were the prices you would pay to access Netflix, the BBC iPlayer, and Sky Go.95 per GB (4.95 per GB)

TunnelBear was the cheapest VPN service we looked at.

Which VPN can I use to change my location?

I was able to change my location to the US, Australia, UK, or Switzerland with the following settings.

First, I set the country and city I wanted to visit. In this example, I want to visit the US.

I then set my actual location to the US. You can also set a preferred location that will be the default location that you will be using. In my case, I don't want to be using any VPN, so I chose to leave it blank.