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11-03-2008 11:10 AM |
How to access BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Fancast, Pandora, any other region-restricted sites
Hulu.com has lots of interesting TV Shows and TV espisodes (like Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, The Office, Family Guy). But if you're outside the U.S., you will get a message that these videos are not availably outside the U.S. Other web-sites do the same:
Sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed from within the United States (Hulu, a popular video hosting service offering high-quality streaming video of TV shows and movies, primarily from NBC and FOX and their cable networks.)
We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. (Pandora, a popular personalized music service)
The video you have requested is not available for your geographic region. (CBS HD Videos)
Only viewers within the United States can watch these full-length episodes. (ABC Full Episode Player)
Thank you for your interest in The CW. This service is currently available to viewers living in the United States. (The CW TV Video)
Veoh is no longer available in County_Name or This video is not available in your region. (Veoh Internet Television)
All geographically restricted web-sites and country-based restriction relies on an IP address. Blocks of IP addresses are issued and assigned to a specific country in bulk. When an IP address is translated to be located in an unsupported country, the web-site blocks access of a user. Thus in order to overcome regional restriction you need to have an IP address belonging to a supported country (primarily the United States or the U.K.).
There are only 3 main methods to pretend having an IP address from a supported country which allows you to fool web-sites like Hulu, Pandora, ABC Full Episode Player, Veoh, the CW: using a proxy server (real proxy server or CGI proxy), a VPN and TOR network.
- VPN is not cheap. You can hardly find any free VPN.
If you need a U.S. IP address you may try freeware Hotspot Shield (Windows / Mac OS). The program was originally intended to provide secure VPN tunnel for users accessing Internet via unsecure wireless networks (like public Wi-Fi hot-spots). When you browse Internet using Hotspot Shield, you do it with a VPN IP address (in this case you can pretend to be located in the U.S.)
Unfortunately free Hotspot Shield is limited to 5 GB of monthly traffic.
Other free options: alonweb.com (1Gb per month, 2Mb per request), your-freedom.net (A rudimentary service is available for free. It will provide a bit more bandwidth than a modem connection and up to six hours of usage per day.), cyberghostvpn.com (free basic version -
connection speed cannot be guaranteed, automatic disconnection after six hours, 10GB traffic limit per month).
You may also use paid VPNs: StrongVPN, HappyVPN, HotSpotVPN, Ivacy, AlwaysVPN, WiTopia.
Please note that many VPN services require you to install their software. Few of them allow to use OpenVPN.
Also note that many VPNs limit your bandwidth and don't like when you watch too many online videos. Make sure to read the plan details carefully. Some VPNs have special plans for watching videos. For example HappyVPN offers plans for unblocking USA TV websites from abroad, for unblocking BBC and other UK websites, for unblocking German TV, for unblocking UK + USA TV from abroad.
- CGI proxy or web-based proxy has been used to stay anonymous or to avoid being blocked by corporate firewall or filtering software for along time. Proxy lists are available on many web-sites like proxy.org, privax.us. Most free web-based proxies are very limited and do not allow you to watch videos or listen to the music.
- Lists with Real proxy servers can also be found on many web-sites. Many proxy servers (IP addresses with port numbers) don't work, so it might be a good idea to use software allowing to find working proxy servers from the list.
Charon is a freeware program that searches for proxy servers and tests their anonymity. It also includes a custom filter for dangerous (fbi/gov/army) ranges!
To use an HTTP or HTTPS proxy server you need to change the settings of your web-browser:- In the Internet Explorer go to "Tools" -> "Internet Options" -> "Connections" -> "LAN settings" -> Check "Use a proxy server for your LAN". Click the "Advanced" button and enter the IP address and port number.
- In the Firefox go to "Tools" -> "Options" -> "Advanced" -> "Connection Settings" -> "Manual Proxy Configuration" and add the proxy IP address and port.
- The Onion Router (TOR) Anonymity Network
The Onion Router (TOR) is a free software implementation of second-generation onion routing – a system which claims to enable its users to communicate anonymously on the Internet (claims because TOR does not, and by design cannot, encrypt the traffic between an exit node and the target server, any exit node is in a position to capture any traffic passing through it which does not use end-to-end encryption, e.g. SSL. So don't mistake TOR's anonymity for security). Please also note that someone can use you an exit node to attack computers, distribute children's porn, send spam and many illegal activities, and so police can come to your door to ask about it!
TOR (The Onion Router) is a free software implementation of second-generation onion routing – a system enabling its users to communicate anonymously on the Internet by bouncing network communication around a distributed network of of relays run by volunteers all around the world. These relays are called onion routers. TOR works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.
It means that if the onion server is located in US, then it can be used as a trick to access US-only web contents.
To use TOR, user need to force the last node to be in the desired country (the U.S., the U.K.). To use TOR you may try applications like OperaTor or OpenPandora.
Follow these steps to use TOR to bypass U.S. regional restriction:
Click Start -> All Programs -> TOR to open torrc file.
Append the following two lines to the the bottom of the file:
Code:
StrictExitNodes 1
ExitNodes {us}
This will allow dynamically configure a US-based IP as exit node. TOR will automatically choose a suitable exit node from the
chosen country.
Instead of the country you may also show the node names explicitly. The problem is that nodes become removed or inactive. Furthermore other nodes can still be alive but other nodes have a better bandwidth and throughput.
You may also use freeware Advanced Onion Router (AdVor) which is a client for OR network and is intended to be an improved alternative for Tor+Vidalia+Privoxy bundle for Windows users. It is able to "force" a program and its plugins to use the Tor proxy regardless of its configured proxy
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