Question of the week: I don’t want to miss my team play basketball in the March Madness tournament, but I have to go on a business trip to Europe next week. How can I watch U.S. TV when I am traveling overseas?

This is a great question. TV has never been better, so it's hard to miss an episode of The Walking Dead or House of Cards when traveling. As for sports - when you're team is doing great, it's not enough to just read about it online. For our friends outside the USA, March Madness, the annual NCAA college basketball tournament, is in full swing and fans are following closely (think the UEFA Champions League or World Cup.) College basketball fans eagerly follow as 64 teams progress through the rounds to the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, the Final Four, and at last, the championship game known as “The Big Dance.”

When in the U.S., you can watch on CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV, as well as live stream current games and replays through the NCAA March Madness Live web site and downloadable app for mobile devices. But when you’re out of the country, you often don’t have access because of geo-restricted content. You may have seen messages similar to this one from YouTube, that says, “This video is not available in your country.”

Use a VPN service to access geo-restricted content

Many expats and travelers use a VPN service to access streaming services while living or traveling in foreign countries. The VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows you to securely connect to a server of your choice, so that it acts as a “proxy” from a different location than where you are.

Avast SecureLine VPN is one of those services. If you are traveling in Europe, then select a server in the U.S. to access geo-restricted sites. When you log on to CBS, Netflix, Hulu, etc, the service will identify the server as coming from the correct location, and allow you to log on.

VPN adds security when using free Wi-Fi

Another benefit of VPN when traveling is the security you get when using free Wi-Fi at hotels and airports. The VPN creates a private ‘tunnel’ through the internet for your data to travel through, and everything – your web browsing history, your email, your IMs, your VOIP, everything – inbound and outbound through the tunnel is encrypted. Even if your data is intercepted, your identity is protected, since the VPN masks your IP address. Read more about the security aspect in our previous blog, Avast SecureLine protects your Android or iPhone from cybercriminal surveillance.

How to get Avast SecureLine VPN

Avast SecureLine VPN is completely integrated into all of Avast’s free and premium products and is available for Android and iOS devices and PCs.

Avast SecureLine VPN is available for Android on Google Play and for iOS in the Apple App Store. You can also download our VPN for PC right here.

Thank you for using avast! Antivirus and recommending us to your friends and family. For all the latest news, fun and contest information, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Business owners – check out our business products.