How to Change VPN Location: A Step-by-Step Guide

Why You Might Need to Change Your VPN Location

Accessing Geo-blocked Content

One of the primary reasons to change your IP address and VPN location. Since a predicted geographical location is tied to each IP address, switching it makes websites think the user comes from a new location.

Most geo-blocked content is restricted by the perceived IP location. So, changing VPN location to a place where the content is available automatically makes it viewable. Some websites may have more advanced detection algorithms than just IP location, but these are few and far between.

Enhancing Privacy and Security

Another reason to get a new IP address through a VPN server is to hide your tracks. Your IP address may be known to some websites, especially if you visit frequently. Additionally, any online activities are automatically tied to your IP address as well.

Getting a new one basically resets a major part of any tracking that may be being performed. As long as you don’t leak important information with your new IP address, the VPN server will make it seem as if a completely different person is performing the online actions.

If you change your IP address, but log in with the same account (or otherwise tie activities to identity), that won’t add a lot of privacy, however. You can still be detected through other means if you only change your IP address.

Bypassing Censorship

Another reason to use a VPN service is to bypass governmental or institutional restrictions. Most blocking that happens on a country or institution level is only possible if the traffic is routed through specific servers.

A VPN server first routes traffic to another server, allowing you to bypass censorship. As long as you pick the right VPN location, such restrictions won’t be a problem.

Do note, however, that many governments and institutions know that their censorship can be bypassed by using a VPN service. As such, those countries may have restrictions on how you can legally use a VPN service. Make sure to stay up-to-date with any relevant laws.

Avoiding ISP Throttling

Like with censorship, there are ways to avoid various ISP throttling practices. Using a VPN server won’t help if your bandwidth is limited as they only scramble the data that’s being used up.

If your ISP, however, throttles based on website usage or through other similar means, a VPN service will encrypt all of that data. The ISP won’t be able to pick up exactly what you’re doing, so they won't be able to throttle you.

Finding Better Deals

There’s a rather niche use case for VPNs when traveling. Flight and accommodation prices are calculated based on numerous factors, including locations, previous purchase history and some other.

Switching up your VPN location can help you, sometimes, find slightly better prices for either flights or accommodation. Make sure to make such purchases carefully as other settings may be changed – you don’t want to get automatically switched to some other airport.

How to Change VPN Location: Step-by-Step Guide

Get a Reliable VPN Provider

If you don’t have a VPN provider at this point, find one that offers a reliable service. You’ll likely want to look at a few things at once:

1. Supported devices.
2. Number of locations.
3. Price.
4. Additional security and privacy features.

Many VPN providers focus on various additional security and privacy features, so a lot of the price comes from the research and development process. If all you need is a virtual location so that you can watch streaming services – look at the amount of offered VPN server locations and price.

For simplicity sake, we’ll be picking CometVPN for further steps throughout the guide.

Install the VPN App on Your Device

CometVPN is available on most devices, so all you need to do is register an account, purchase a subscription and download the associated app.

For mobile devices, the app will install automatically as you finish downloading it since it comes either from Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

For Windows and other desktop machines, you’ll need to download the installer from the website and install it manually.

Once everything is set up, boot up the application and enter your login information.

Open the VPN App and Select a Server Location

If you’ve logged into the VPN app successfully, just a few steps remain. Under “Current Location” simply select the VPN server location you want to connect to. Then tap the large “Power” button.

Establishing a connection might take a few seconds, but once that’s completed, you don’t need to do anything else. You have a new IP address from the server location you’ve selected.

In case you want to get a new virtual location, simply select a new server location and ensure that the VPN app is turned on.

Test Your New Virtual Location

While everything should be working fine, you may want to use third-party tools to verify that the virtual private network is functioning as expected.

Usually, all you’ll need to do is visit a website like What is My IP Address to verify that it’s showing a different location and IP address.

Common Issues When Changing VPN Location and How to Fix Them

You can run into a few issues when you want to change your IP address through a VPN. Luckily, there’s usually not a lot to be done to fix those issues.

First, if there’s issues connecting to the VPN server itself, you may need to select another one with the same VPN server location. There may be congestion or other issues with one particular server, but others could be working fine.

If that doesn’t help, try restarting the entire app, relogging, and selecting the same VPN server location. Any issues that were happening on your device should be fixed with a simple restart.

Finally, if you notice performance degradation when using your VPN location changer, there could be several reasons. First, check that your own internet connection is performing as expected. Then, try picking a new server and, potentially, virtual location.

Doing both of these actions will ensure that any issues that can be solved on your end will be. There may be cases where a particular IP address or an entire pool is down for maintenance or for other reasons. In that case, you’ll just have to wait it out.