# Access to US recipes blocked?



## Sally W (Jul 10, 2018)

just going into a couple of US sites I regularly use for low carb recipes & im receiving a message to say ‘this site is not available in your country’....

I can’t understand this and wonder if it’s a result of GFPR? I don’t copy recipes as I’ve saved them all but now wondering how I get back on the site.

Any ideas what’s happening?


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## Northerner (Jul 10, 2018)

Sally W said:


> just going into a couple of US sites I regularly use for low carb recipes & im receiving a message to say ‘this site is not available in your country’....
> 
> I can’t understand this and wonder if it’s a result of GFPR? I don’t copy recipes as I’ve saved them all but now wondering how I get back on the site.
> 
> Any ideas what’s happening?


Yes, I'm pretty sure it's GDPR (assuming that's what you are referring to). I have been blocked from a few news sites based in the US. Not sure how you would overcome it.


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## Matt Cycle (Jul 10, 2018)

Dunno Sally.  Not sure how many recipes they can have for supersize burger and fries and deep fried everything else with a soda to go.  Have a nice day y'all.


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## Sally W (Jul 10, 2018)

Northerner said:


> Yes, I'm pretty sure it's GDPR (assuming that's what you are referring to). I have been blocked from a few news sites based in the US. Not sure how you would overcome it.


 sorry typo should have been GDPR.

What a nuisance. If I’d known I’d have printed out my I suspected as much


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## Sally W (Jul 10, 2018)

Matt Cycle said:


> Dunno Sally.  Not sure how many recipes they can have for supersize burger and fries and deep fried everything else with a soda to go.  Have a nice day y'all.


US have a wealth of low carb recipes due to the huge number of people with diabetes...
In fact most of my recipes are from States online,...


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## Ralph-YK (Jul 10, 2018)

It is interesting that sites can actually have a good idea where you are. What machine you're using, os and browser. So much for private browsing.
The fun begins when google (as part of it's security) asks which city your usually in when you use e-mail.
It thinks it's London, even though you haven't been south of Barnsley for 30 years.

Or Google thinks your in Lancashire, and Facebook says Yorkshire.


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## Lanny (Jul 10, 2018)

Would having VPN help?


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## Mark T (Jul 10, 2018)

A VPN would certainly help if you want to appear to be somewhere else.

But yes, a website has a good idea of where you are because, when you request a page, you provide your IP address which can be roughly geo-located and it also reports your user agent which gives lots of information about your computer.


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## Sally W (Jul 11, 2018)

Oh great idea....I’m going to give this a go and report back. Thanks all


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## Northerner (Jul 11, 2018)

A drawback with VPNs is that they are used by a lot of spammers, so often the IP allocated is blacklisted on various sites even though your use of them may be innocent.


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## Sally W (Jul 11, 2018)

Northerner said:


> A drawback with VPNs is that they are used by a lot of spammers, so often the IP allocated is blacklisted on various sites even though your use of them may be innocent.


Thanks for that info Northerner. IT is not my thing. I will give them a try anyway as so much of what I rely on day to day for cooking has potentially been lost.


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## Sally W (Jul 11, 2018)

Benny G said:


> A vpn (virtual private network) is commonly used to avoid geo blocking. There are several vpns available, some are free others are paid for.
> Free version suitable for USA low carb sites
> https://windscribe.com/features/use-for-free


@Benny G Ive installed wind scribe but when I open the app I am ‘disconnected’ and have a message confirming I need to allow configuration. Think I tried to allow this but the screen isn’t doing anything. Do you have this & know how I proceed pls? I’ve signed up for free access at mo until I know for sure I can look at websites I want to.....


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## AndBreathe (Jul 11, 2018)

@Sally W - I look at a number of US sites too, bu haven't yet experienced an issue.  Would you be happy to share which sites you're having issues with to try to establish if it's widespread or whether it's perhaps a setting on your machine.

Spending a lot of time overseas, we have a paid VPN subscription, usually used to "be in the UK" when overseas, as some banks get very nervy about overseas logins - even if you tell them.  Of course, when overseas one would never, ever want to catch anything on iPlayer.  Of courrse not!


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## Sally W (Jul 11, 2018)

AndBreathe said:


> @Sally W - I look at a number of US sites too, bu haven't yet experienced an issue.  Would you be happy to share which sites you're having issues with to try to establish if it's widespread or whether it's perhaps a setting on your machine.
> 
> Spending a lot of time overseas, we have a paid VPN subscription, usually used to "be in the UK" when overseas, as some banks get very nervy about overseas logins - even if you tell them.  Of course, when overseas one would never, ever want to catch anything on iPlayer.  Of courrse not!





AndBreathe said:


> @Sally W - I look at a number of US sites too, bu haven't yet experienced an issue.  Would you be happy to share which sites you're having issues with to try to establish if it's widespread or whether it's perhaps a setting on your machine.
> 
> Spending a lot of time overseas, we have a paid VPN subscription, usually used to "be in the UK" when overseas, as some banks get very nervy about overseas logins - even if you tell them.  Of course, when overseas one would never, ever want to catch anything on iPlayer.  Of courrse not!


@AndBreathe thanks so much for this. The sites I can no longer get into are: geniuskitchen.com;foodnetwork.com and Oprah.com. Some of the blogs are ok but I’m concerned I need to copy everything in case they follow suit....I don’t mind paying for VPN if it works. Any advice would be much appreciated


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## Sally W (Jul 11, 2018)

Benny G said:


> I have  the free version which works as an 'addon for firefox' web browser. It works as expected. Yes you have to allow configuration.
> If you open your confirmation email, click the confirmation button again, and your account details will open in a new tab. The windscribe icon will be on your toolbar, you can check options there.
> 
> As @AndBreathe, has suggested post a link to one of the geo blocked sites and we can check it for you.


Thanks Benny - let me try that. Sites are www.geniuskitchen.com; www.oprah.com; www.foodnetwork.com. Thanks


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## Sally W (Jul 11, 2018)

Benny G said:


> @Sally, I'm out to work in about 10 minutes, so I'll check the sites later and post after 10pm


@Benny G thanks....in your own time/convenience. Really appreciate it.


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## Sally W (Jul 12, 2018)

Benny G said:


> @Sally W, all those pages are geo blocked, but can be worked around.
> www.foodnetwork.com has a uk version www.foodnetwork.co.uk, but the us version can be reached through windscribe
> View attachment 9472
> 
> ...


@Benny G I will check these out and report back once I’ve taken a look....I can live without the videos, although I do watch them. This information is very helpful to me so I much appreciate it! Thanks a lot Benny


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## Sally W (Jul 13, 2018)

Benny G said:


> @Sally W, all those pages are geo blocked, but can be worked around.
> www.foodnetwork.com has a uk version www.foodnetwork.co.uk, but the us version can be reached through windscribe
> [=full]9472[/ATTACH]
> 
> ...


@benny after resetting my IPad I tried the recipe websites and they worked! Oprah tells me I look like a boy and may have to reset my Java settings.....I’ll take a look and see what’s happened. I am so happy and very grateful for your help! I use Pinterest to save all my recipes but my absolute favourites will be copied or printed now. Huge thanks


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## Sally W (Jul 19, 2018)

Benny G said:


> @Sally W, all those pages are geo blocked, but can be worked around.
> www.foodnetwork.com has a uk version www.foodnetwork.co.uk, but the us version can be reached through windscribe
> View attachment 9472
> 
> ...


@Benny G Ive been getting on fine since you helped me. Just a few days in I’ve used my data allowance. Not been looking at videos. I presume I’ll have to wait 4 weeks to try again? Or maybe beginning of next calendar month. Any ideas?


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## Sally W (Jul 19, 2018)

Benny G said:


> That's a lot of data to get through.
> Have you been turning the geo blocker off  when you are using UK sites and back on only for the blocked US sites?
> Yes, you will have to wait until your allowance renews.


Good point well made! That’d be it Benny, I’ve just left it on to look at everything. Now you’ve made me aware I won’t be doing that next month.  Thanks Benny. Ps browsing recipes and saw your chocolate and almond cake with sprinkled nuts on....looks amazing and professional


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