As far as entertainment options go, watching television is, still, right at the top of the list when it comes to people’s preferences. For better or for worse (depending on the perspective you have), the invention of TV altered our lives in ways that we can’t even imagine. Exposure to national and international audiences augmented exponentially, and most of the free time that the human being used to have is now dedicated to being spent in front of a box, a big screen, or a phone device.
In such a stressful world, many people are only focused on getting back home after a long day at work to tune in to their favorite channels and watch their preferred talent shows, movies, documentaries, and TV series. For some of them, doing that is the highlight of their day!
HBO has long been one of the people’s favorite networks when it comes to movies and other original productions. It has cemented its place as one of America’s top communications consortiums and a group of channels, with a sizable market share.
HBO Go is one of the numerous services associated with HBO, as it provides exciting content via online streaming: people can use their tablets, computers, laptops, and even smartphones to enjoy HBO Go and its countless productions.
However, there is one issue, though: the service is only available in the United States of America and its dependencies. For licensing and geographical reasons, the channel doesn’t want international audiences to enjoy the content.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. In this article, we will tell you everything you need to know about Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and their prowess in unblocking restricted services in all locations. With VPNs, people can acquire an American IP address and the HBO Go app will work just as if the device was located within the US territory, effectively beating the “Not in the Service Area” message.
How to Fix HBO’s Not in Service Area message
- Find a capable VPN provider with servers in the United States of America.
- Go to the VPN’s website.
- Register for the VPN service. You’ll have to provide a payment method and some personal information. In exchange, you will earn the right to use the VPN app and to configure a username, and a password.
- Download and install the VPN client to your streaming device.
- Sign in your VPN account.
- Establish a connection with an American server, if you want to have the best HBO content.
- Visit the HBO Go website.
- Enter your HBO Go account.
- Select a show and start streaming with no restrictions.
TorGuard: the best VPN to use for HBO Go
While it is true that the market is full of reliable VPN alternatives, TorGuard is the best of the bunch. It supports numerous platforms (Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, Windows, DD-WRT, Tomato, and more) while keeping absolutely no logs of users’ activity. TorGuard’s secret weapon is dedicated IPs. They are uniquely sold IPs that can’t be blocked by streaming services. You can get both a VPN and a dedicated IP for as $9 just for a one month subscription (and a better deal for a longer sub).
TorGuard has more than 3,000 servers in 55 nations of the world, one of them being the US, of course. You could watch HBO Go from anywhere with a strong refund policy, excellent AES 256-bit encryption, availability for five devices simultaneously connected, and the most responsive customer service in the industry.
In conclusion, HBO Go is a streamers’ best friend as long as the subject lives in the United States. However, with a VPN app, you could expand its use to virtually any nation in the world: you could enjoy the new season of Game of Thrones, as well as other top-rated shows, from anywhere, if you encrypt your connection details with a Virtual Private Network.
HBO: an entertainment “on the go.”
Made for travelers that wanted to enjoy the best of HBO “on the go,” HBO Go is the online service of this giant telecommunications enterprise.
One of the most enticing aspects of the HBO Go platform is its excellent compatibility qualities: it can be downloaded and used in iOS, Android, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, TV Cube, Android TV, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Roku, Samsung Smart TVs, TiVo, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Chromecast. It works with a subscription.
HBO Go and HBO Now are not the same thing: the former is HBO’s streaming service, and it needs a premium cable subscription. The latter is a separate streaming system that requires no cable.
Similar to what happens with Netflix, the HBO Go app is available only in the United States and in a handful of other countries, each one with its customized library of titles, movies, and TV series. To say it in another way: the content is classified and categorized according to location, having in mind that not all shows are a hit in every country and that there are licensing and copyright agreements to be fulfilled.
As of now, HBO Go can be obtained in the USA, Canada, South America, UK, EU countries, India, China, Indonesia, Russia, the Nordic countries. Australia, New Zealand, and numerous others. However, and also similar to Netflix, the American catalog of options is the broadest and widely recognized as the best one, so everybody wants to gain access to it.
If you try to access from an unauthorized location or a nation that isn’t on the list, you will most likely see a “Not in the Service Area” message, telling you that the content is unavailable. However, there are workarounds to try.
Available shows in HBO Go
- Game of Thrones
- Ballers
- Westworld
- Angels in America
- Big Little Lies
- Big Love
- Carnivale
- Entourage
- Generation Kill
VPN: the missing piece
If you try browsing and streaming with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) you will be able to avoid HBO’s Not in the Service Area message because you will gain the ability to “rent” a temporary American IP address. That way, the system will think you are located within American territory and grant you access as long as you have an active subscription.
VPNs are online resources that use protocols to encrypt the entire user’s shared data and traffic, as well as its online identity, in order to enhance protection against hackers, governmental surveillance agencies, and other external agents that may compromise Internet security.
The encryption is achieved by building a virtual “tunnel” in which all the aforementioned information will travel safely to remote servers managed by the VPN company, not by the Internet Service Provider (ISP.)
In addition to providing privacy and security, VPNs are excellent unblocking tools. For example, a person living in a country that does not support the HBO Go service can hire the services of a VPN provider and connect to an American IP address. The HBO Go app will recognize the user’s location as a US-based one, thus granting access to all the content.
