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How to Watch ‘The Neighbors’ Online From Outside of the US

By Paul Liu
Monday, November 18th, 2013

The Neighbors is a science-fiction, satire and sitcom TV series which premiered in September’ 2012. The series was developed by Dan Fogelman for the ABC Network and produced by Kapital Entertainment and ABC Studios. Even though the series debuted to mixed reviews from the critics, it has garnered a more positive response from the audience (IMDB Rating of 6.1). The Neighbors was nominated for People’s Choice, Young Artist and Primetime Emmy awards for its first season and the show was also renewed for a second season in 2013.

The Neighbors Plot And Storyline

The Neighbors focuses on the Weaver family that has relocated to an affluent gated townhouse in New Jersey. As soon as they arrive at their new home, the Weavers discover that the entire population of the community consists just of extraterrestrials who have been stuck on the planet for a decade. The alien community has its own set of quirks and is waiting for instructions on how to return to their home planet, Zabvron. How the Weaver family settles down and adjusts with their neighbors forms the crux of the story.

The Neighbors Broadcast Schedule And Availability

For its first season, The Neighbors was telecast during Wednesday nights at 8:30 P.M. However, ABC decided to move the show to Friday night 8:30 P.M. slot for its second season. The series episodes are also available on the ABC website (abc.go.com/shows/the-neighbors) but their availability is restricted only within US mainland. When visitors from another country try to watch the episodes of the show online, they just see the message – “You appear to be outside the United States or its territories. Due to international rights agreements, we only offer this video to viewers located within the United States and its territories”. These restrictions even apply on US expats and tourists and they are unable to watch their favorite shows from abroad just because of their location.

How ABC Blocks Access To The Neighbors Online

ABC has tied up with many international channels to distribute The Neighbors outside USA (for instance, CTV in Canada, Seven Network in Australia and Star World Premiere in India). As a part of content sharing agreements signed with its partners, ABC is legally restricted from broadcasting the show outside United States. To enforce the restrictions online, ABC checks the IP address of its viewers and just allows visitors with a US IP address to watch The Neighbors series online.

If you are interested in watching The Neighbors from an overseas location, you need to get rid of your default IP address and switch to a USA IP by subscribing to an IP changing service. While the subscription is going to be an additional expense for you, it would allow you to access US-only sites from any location. VPNs and proxies are the most popular IP changing services available but only VPNs deliver high speeds and unbreachable privacy that is essential for unlocking streaming services.

How To Unlock The Neighbors From Outside Of USA With A VPN

Step 1: Subscribe to a highly reliable VPN service which provides US based IPs. To unlock The Neighbors from abroad, we recommend checking out the US VPN plans of providers like HIDEIPVPN, VyprVPN, LeafyVPN, StrongVPN or ExpressVPN. These companies not only provide IP addresses from several US cities but also offer unrestricted speed and bandwidth through their network.

Step 2: Create a new VPN connection on your computer or mobile device by following the step-by-step instructions provided by your VPN vendor. Depending on your operating system and vendor, it may even be possible to setup the service through a custom VPN client.

Step 3: Save the VPN connection parameters and reboot the system if necessary. For mobile devices such as tablets and Smartphones, it is also essential to close and restart the ABC Player app so that it becomes possible to unlock the location restricted ABC shows.

Step 4: Start the service by clicking on VPN Connection name in the Start menu or by double clicking the VPN icon on the desktop. Depending on your current internet speed and how far you are located from the server, it could take few minutes for the service to connect to its default server.

Step 5: Change your VPN server if the IP address allocated to you is not from United States. This issue doesn’t arise for manually configured connections but for custom VPN installations, it is necessary to verify that you indeed have a US IP address before visiting the ABC website. The procedure to change the VPN server is extremely simple; you just need to browse through the list of servers available with your provider and choose a US based server that is located closest to your current address as your new VPN server.

Step 6: Open The Neighbors’ page on the ABC website through the browser or ABC Player app. Click on the episode names of the show and verify that you are able to watch the videos without encountering any IP based restrictions. In case you are unable to unlock the episodes on your mobile device, close and restart the ABC Player app after changing your IP address. You should now be able to unlock full episodes of The Neighbors from any location.