How to watch/record videos on Hulu from outside the US

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

Hulu.com has lots of interesting TV Shows and TV episodes (like Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, The Office, Family Guy). But if you're outside the U.S., you will get the message the message that these videos are not availably outside the U.S.


To watch videos from outside the U.S. you may use an American proxy server.

You may also use freeware VPN software Hotspot Shield to makes Hulu think you're browsing from the U.S.
Hotspot Shield runs on Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Mac OS X.

Note that many users compain that Hotspot Shield is not working for Hulu, but you can use many commercial VPNs like StrongVPN, HappyVPN, HotSpotVPN that work fine with it.

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

Problem with downloading/ripping/capturing/saving/recording RTMP streams from hulu.com
How to access BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Fancast, Pandora, any other region-restricted sites

[noob2001204]

how to use Hotspot Shield?

[katmando]

Originally Posted by noob2001204

how to use Hotspot Shield?

The following should answer your question, which was easily found using Google.

Originally Posted by Editor of Download Now

This freeware program promises to encrypt all your Internet connections, but since most public wi-fi access points in the U.S. are open, it's a bit hard to gauge Hotspot Shield's effectiveness. However, the connection itself is a bit wonky.

Once the program is installed, it creates an HTML link on your desktop. Double-clicking on it will open the application in your Web browser, and you'll be taken to a page detailing your Connection Status, IP Address, Server Address, Bytes sent and received, and the duration of the connection. Hotspot Shield is ad supported, so you'll get a big banner ad that lives at the top of every Web page, too. Closing the tab with the app's control panel doesn't disconnect the shield, though: for that, or to reload the control panel, you have to go through the green shield icon that gets loaded into your system tray. Also, there's a 5 GB transfer limit.

Overall, we can't give Hotspot Shield a strong recommendation, but as a last resort it might be worth trying out.

My sister, Lorissa, operates a Proxy Forum Site (DCSproxy.com) where you can most likely find the proxies needed.

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

Originally Posted by katmando

Proxy Forum Site (DCSproxy.com) where you can most likely find the proxies needed.

Free proxy servers are usually very slow and do not allow you to use javascript, flash and any online videos or even files larger than a couple of hundreds of kilobytes.


How to Watch Hulu and Fancast Outside the US for FREE!

Hulu and Fancast are free web-site allowing you to watch legal high quality movies, TV shows and TV episodes for FREE! You can even get watch the latest episodes for popular TV shows like Lost, The Simpsons, South Park, House, and Prison Break – all without paying anything for a software or a service - it is all FREE!

Hulu provides the most comprehensive selection of premium TV programming across all genres and formats – TV shows, TV episodes, feature films, clips, and more. It is supported by major television networks including NBC, FOX, Bravo, CNET, Comedy Time, E! Entertainment Television, National Geographic, Sci Fi Network, USA Network etc. Hulu is a supreme source of free legal online TV streaming.

The only problem is that most Hulu TV shows and movies are not available outside the USA. So if you live outside the U.S. or just traveling/working abroad, you will get a message that these videos are not availably outside the U.S.:

Unfortunately this video is currently not available in your country or region. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The only way to overcome geographical restrictions is to find a way to show Hulu that you have a U.S. IP address.

• A free VPN for watching online video outside USA
  
  А free VPN (Virtual Private Network) service allows you to fool online video web-sites by showing an IP address of a server in the U.S. Hotspot Shield is the most popular free VPN service.
  
  The biggest problem is that too many people used to watch video from Hulu outside the USA, so Hulu started banning IP addresses that Hotspot Shield used. But you can use the service to watch many other videos geographically restricted to the U.S.
  
  To use Hotspot Shield, you need to download software for Windows and install it. Then launch it, connect to the VPN and you can use your browser to test web-sites geographically restricted to the USA. Note that Hotspot Shield is limited to 5 GB of monthly traffic.
  
  
  
• A paid VPN for watching online videos outside USA
  
  This method is not free but works perfectly for watching online streaming videos from Hulu, Fancast, ABC, CBS, NBC,...
  HappyVPN offers a VPN software that tunnels your connection through their server in the USA, the U.K. or Germany. This means that you can use their software to watch videos from Hulu, Fancast,... or from any other web-site which is geographically restricted to the U.S. Their monthly plan for watching online videos from US web-sites costs $14.99 / month (you can get a discount if you pay for 3 months or more). You can also use their $19.99 "Watch TV: UK + US" plan for watching video from the U.K. and the USA.
  
  I tried many other paid VPNs, but I can recommend few of them for watching online videos. Most cheap one buffer all the time especially during peak times. But HappyVPN, StrongVPN, and HotSpotVPN worked fine for me, especially the first two.

[placebo]

i have installed the latest hotspot shield today (HSS-1.57-install-anchorfree-247-conduit3.exe) and with it i can watch Hulu without problems.

where exactly (link please!) does it say that Hotspot shield has a 5GB limitation (data transfer limit)? i cant find anything official on their homepage. Maybe i will/would see such a message box when i exceed the 5 gig's, huh? In practice, there is NO SUCH LIMIT. You just have to Disconnect and then Reconnect before any such limit. Then the data transfer counter is reset to zero. (also the time is reset to your current local time.) And you also get a new IP number assigned!

Hot spot shield is VERY fast too. Okay, then there are the ads. But.. in Firefox you can install the addon (plugin) called Adblock Plus. => No more ads, no more commercials.

great stuff.

I don't remember any ads in the HospotShield in the past. But now there are lots of ads, so most probably the company has removed the 5 GB limit.

[placebo]

SR, where does it say (officially) anyway that there *is* a download limit? Where did you ever read it on some official page?

Yes, there are tons of ads: on each webpage! when you surf!

Originally Posted by Stream Recorder

katmando made a post on 11-07-2008. Let me get back to the past and make a screenshot for you. I'll be back

katmando? katmando is nobody official, is he/she? Even if the info is correct, i need to see something official from part of the makers of Hotspot Shield, e.g. a screenshot from their website/webpage or a recent screenshot from the software itself (with this kind of error/warning message box or dialogue). and btw, i dont know katmando. I dont believe anybody here on the forum other than SR and placebo. I dont trust people.

Originally Posted by placebo

SR, where does it say (officially) anyway that there *is* a download limit? Where did you ever read it on some official page?

Yes, there are tons of ads: on each webpage! when you surf!

katmando made a post on 11-07-2008. Let me get back to the past and make a screenshot for you. I'll be back

[placebo]

Originally Posted by Stream Recorder

I don't remember any ads in the HospotShield in the past. But now there are lots of ads, so most probably the company has removed the 5 GB limit.

HSS , Hotspotshield , Hotspot Shield , hotspotshield.com , hotspot.com , shield.com , hulu , hulu.com

Today i got disconnected twice. That was maybe after 3.5GB of data transfer, in both cases. I cant tell exactly how much data i had transferred because the files are all gone/deleted. My fault! In any case there was no error message or windows dialogue. HSS then had problems to get reconnected. (default path: Installing Updates - Uninitialized - Disconnected - Starting VPN Process - Waiting for server - Authenticating - Pulling options - Assigning IP address - Connected)

After testing hotspot shield for 1 day nonstop, i can state:
It is VERY fast, and it allows you to use up your full bandwith (with parallel download streams). It is very stable: no disconnects or other connectivity problems. HSS provides a steady line! And if you have a major problem (e.g. after ~3.5GB's and/or the reconnect doesnt work), then rebooting the machine solves all problems.

So maybe there is a download limit (for a single IP session, without reconnecting), maybe there isnt. With disconnecting/reconnecting or rebooting the PC, the download limit exists only in theory. HSS also assigns IP numbers from different ISP's (some detectable as "proxy"-type, some not!) .. really nice.
some examples:

ISP: BandCon, WebSystemConsulting, Proxy: None Detected
ISP: NLAYER COMMUNICATIONS, Proxy: None Detected
ISP: nLayer Communications, GIGLINX, Proxy: None Detected
ISP: EGIHosting, Proxy: None Detected
ISP: Hurricane Electric, EGIHosting, Proxy: None Detected
ISP: Hurricane Electric, AFNCA, Proxy: None Detected