I imagine that upon first accessing the US Netflix library, most Australians begin to belt out the classic Aladdin jam “A Whole New World” - it truly is like stepping into an alternate, content-filled universe of TV and movies. Unfortunately, since Netflix cracked down on VPNs at the beginning of 2016, its been much harder to access the US library, but fret not! Here’s some reliable VPNs that will grant you a golden ticket to Netflix-and-chill-ville.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) have many legitimate purposes. They're also used to cheekily circumvent geo-blocks on overseas sites like US Netflix - often against the express wishes of rights holders. Like most online technologies, government legislation is currently a bit vague on what is and isn't allowed. So is it legal to stream restricted content through a VPN? Let's find out.

Since it launched in 2015, the Australian version of Netflix has been adding a steady stream of content each month. While the selection of movies and TV shows is getting better, it still pales in comparison to the US version due to national licencing deals. Here's how to get the whole US catalogue in Australia - without getting slugged by the exchange rate.

Whether you're conscious about online security or just want to access overseas streaming services, a virtual network provider (VPN) is absolutely essential. One of the fastest and most reliable options in Australia is PureVPN, which we recently shortlisted as a top five VPN provider of the year.

PureVPN's pricing is usually pretty steep - as the adage goes, you get what you pay for. But not today. For a limited time, you can score up to 80% off a range of PureVPN plans and pay as little as $1.91 per month. Here are the details!

Court-enforced online roadblocks, demanded by movie studios, appear to be stopping only half of Australia's would-be pirates from reaching The Pirate Bay; even fewer once you allow for Aussies hiding behind a virtual private network, or VPN.

Australian internet service providers have blocked a range of piracy websites since December 2016, including The Pirate Bay and SolarMovie, after the Federal Court enforced site-blocking laws at the behest of a consortium of copyright holders headed by Village Roadshow.

This week, Village Roadshow co-CEO Graham Burke announced the company will start suing Australians who infringe on its copyright. This means anyone who has streamed or downloaded a movie via an illegal pirate site is potentially in its cross hairs.

But when will litigation begin? Who will be targeted? And how much money will you need to pay? We spoke directly to Burke to get some answers.

The Federal Government's Metadata Retention Scheme has now become compulsory for telcos and internet service providers in Australia. This means your metadata - including text messages, location information and internet connection details - will be stored for two years and available to Government agencies to access on request without a warrant.

If you value your privacy, you're going to need a virtual private network (VPN) to help mask your online activity. Here are some tips from the consumer protection group Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), along with the best guides from our archives.

As of now, Australia's telecommunications service providers have to store your metadata -- records of your phone and internet activity, which can reveal a huge amount of detail -- for two years. Approved government agencies can access that data without a warrant. It's not private information, either.

One way to circumvent Australia's draconian metadata retention scheme is to install and use a VPN on your phone and on your PC. Here's what a VPN is, what it does, and why -- and how -- you should get one.

There's no end to the purposes you can put a Raspberry Pi to. Here are 12 of our favourite DIY projects for the popular and tiny computer.

A study by researchers from Data61/CSIRO, UC Berkeley, UNSW Sydney and UCSI finds that several popular VPN services on Android open up a variety of security holes, including injecting JavaScript for ads and tracking services and traffic redirection to commerce sites.

We last updated our list of best VPN providers in 2014, but a lot has changed since then. With Netflix blocking VPNs and privacy becoming more of a concern than ever, the parameters of a good VPN for Aussie users have shifted. Some popular choices have fallen out of favour of late, so we've had a look at what VPN users in Australia are recommending now and for the year ahead.

Windows/Mac/Linux: A few months ago, Opera launched its own free, built-in VPN, but you could only get it if you manually enabled it in the dev version of the browser. Now, it's available for everyone in the stable version of Opera.

Windows/macOS/Linux/Android/iOS/Chrome/Firefox: The best VPNs encrypt your data and protect all of your communications from prying eyes. The best browser-based privacy tools keep you from being tracked behaviourally based on the sites you visit. Windscribe is a utility and service that does both in one package.

The popular VPN provider UFlix recently announced it will no longer support foreign Netflix access following a spike in geo-blocking measures from the streaming giant. If you were a UFlix customer, this means you no longer have access to Netflix's extensive US library of movies and TV shows. Thankfully, there's one VPN provider that still appears to be working.

If you've been on the lookout for a decent VPN on Android that won't break the bank, your wait is over. After releasing on iOS earlier this year, Opera's popular free and unlimited VPN is finally available for Android devices.

We have some good news for fans of galaxies far, far away: Star Wars episodes 1 (A New Hope) through to VII (The Force Awakens) are now available on Netflix! The only catch is that you'll need a virtual private network (VPN) with access to servers in either the Netherlands or Belgium. Here's how it's done.

"How can I watch the English Premier League in Australia?" This is a question countless Aussie football fans have been asking since Optus stitched up the streaming rights in our country. Non Optus customers now need to pay a separate subscription fee of up to $20 per month; plus a $250 installation fee if they want the satellite service.

If that sounds like a lot of money, you might want to consider VanishedVPN's new Sports Service which includes access to popular sports channels like Sky Sports, Bein sports, BBC, NBC, Fox, CBS and ESPN. In addition to the English Premier League, it provides "free" access to the 2016 Olympics, Cricket, F1, NFL, La Liga, Budesliga and many more. Here's how it works.

iOS: Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are often a costly affair, but Opera, the company best known for its browser, released a free, unlimited VPN for iOS today that allows you to access the internet securely from a variety of locations.

Last week, Opera added a VPN to the dev version of its browser, which was certainly good news. The bad news is that unlike the more robust VPNs it tries to replace, it leaks data that should be encrypted all over the place, namely your private IP address. Here's how to fix it.