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How to Watch BBC Iplayer on Your Ipad From Outside the UK

February 26, 2013 Apple iOS / ninja / TV
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If you want to watch BBC Iplayer on a PC/Laptop – Try this post first – How to Use a Proxy to access Iplayer

My brand new shiny IPad has been in my possession for a few months now, but to be honest I’m still not sure how it works. My lack of knowledge is mainly due to the fact that I don’t get to use it that much as all my family just loves it.   It’s nearly always in use for web browsing, games, apps and that sort of thing.

However after writing this post about watching the BBC Iplayer outside the UK on a PC above, I kept getting emails about whether you could also use Identity Cloaker on the iPad as well.

Anyway so I thought I’d better check it out  and surprisingly, it’s actually pretty simple to do.  The reason is that the vast majority of their security servers are VPN enabled. That means  all you have to do is set a simple VPN connection on your IPad to a specific server and then you can enable it when required.   The functionality is built into the iPad so nothing too difficult is required – let’s show an example for accessing the BBC Iplayer channels abroad.

So How Can You Watch BBC Iplayer Abroad? Even From the US on Your IPad?

Right, so most of us have discovered that if you happen to be outsde the UK, then the BBC Iplayer won’t work properly.  When you connect to the IPlayer site it checks your IP address to see where you are located.  If it discovers that you are connecting from outside the United Kingdom then you won’t be able to watch anything ! To be fair, BBC Iplayer is not the only media site to do this.   Hulu blocks all non-US access – the same goes for ABC, NBC and Pandora too. The great little media player from the French broadcaster M6Replay is also limited to access within France (if you know someone learning French get them to check it out – it’s great practice watching the Simpsons in French!)

The solution on the PC is very simple, you just use something like Identity Cloaker to conceal your true IP address and present one from the correct country.  The solution is actually similar on the IPad (you can use the same technique on the Mac/Iphone/Ipod as well) – you just need to connect to a server based in the UK (or which ever country you need).

For this all you need to do is to set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to the country in question, for the BBC it’s obviously the UK.

Here’s how you set up the VPN on the iPad it takes about a minute if  you have the information to hand.

On your iPad -

  1. Select Settings
  2. Select General
  3. Select Networks
  4. Select VPN

This should bring you to this screen -

Ipad VPN Connection Screen

You can see in this screen I’ve already set up a US VPN which I use for Hulu and Pandora.  Here you just need to select Add VPN Configuration and you should reach this screen.

It looks complicated but honestly it’s not.

You just need to leave it set to L2TP at the top and then put the following details in.  You’ll need to get the details from Identity Cloaker for section 2 and 6 which you can find in their members area.  If you’re using a different VPN provider it’s likely you’ll have to do the same (although a couple publish the information I think)

  1. Description – Give it a name like UK VPN, US VPN then you can select quickly which country you need
  2. Server – Get the enabled VPN server names from the members area.
  3. Account Name – Your IDC Username
  4. RSA SecurID – Ignore this
  5. Password – Your IDC password.
  6. Secret – Get the VPN Secret Name from the members area.
That’s the tricky bit over with, next click Save from the top right hand corner.  The next step is to enable your VPN connection.
Connecting to the UK VPN
To do this you simply select whichever VPN configuration that you need, so if you’re in the US and want to watch the BBC then create and enable a UK VPN.  In this screen just select enable and it will turn on your VPN – this will route your connection through the UK VPN servers.
The status will change to connected and in the top left hand side of your Ipad it will show that the VPN is connected like this.
UK VPN Connected
When this VPN is connected, all your traffic is encrypted and routed through whichever server you are connected to.  It’s best to disconnect after watching unless you want all your browsing routed through the UK.
If you haven’t got Identity Cloaker yet – I can definitely recommend it, it’s probably best to try the 10 day trial first to see how you get on with it.  They have a very professional set up and the servers can cope with streaming video without any issues .  They have many UK and US servers plus ones in France, Germany, Poland, Ireland, Sweden, Australia to name but a few – all included in the subscription.
This method  should also work with other VPN providers who have set their servers up properly though – just ask them.
07/04/13 – Updated section on VPN – as someone pointed the explanation wasn’t very clear.

Using a French Proxy for M6 Replay

September 28, 2012 ninja
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France Ip

A couple of years ago I spent a small fortune on a French Language course issued by the BBC for my eldest son.  He was struggling with French at school so I bought this course which was based on the adventures of some cartoon character called Muzzy.  It was pretty boring in French and English and my son hardly watched it at all, much to my annoyance !  What I should have done though is introduced him to the wonderful media channel based in Paris called M6 Replay.

If  you live outside France you’ve probably never tried it as you need a French proxy to access it.  However it’s a wonderful site and has all the top US and European shows as well as some French stuff.  On it you can find the shows like the Simpsons that teenagers actually like but they are all dubbed into French.

It’s a great way to practice and learn your vocabulary and it’s way more interesting that the frankly rather boring BBC character Muzzy – pictured here.  The site is really slick and well designed and just really features all the shows and films that the channel broadcasts throughout France.

Getting Access to M6 Replay Through a French Proxy Server

So if you do try and access the media site from anywhere outside France you’re going to get blocked by default.  The site looks up your IP address when you connect and if it’s in France  you’re ok but if you are not then you’ll get the following warning.

Which in case you’re interested says something like  - “This video is unavailable.  Please try and access it later”

But it’s not worth it as you’ll always get blocked as long as you are connecting from a Non-French IP address.  However as we have seen with lots of other media sites across the planet – this is relatively easy to bypass as long as you have access to a proxy or VPN server that is  based in France.

Now you can find these online if you search hard enough, but the problem with the free ones is that they’re not very safe and most of them are so overloaded that it’s impossible to stream video across them.  So if you want to access M6 replay or any French sites often then it would make sense to invest in a a private proxy service.  There’s a few with French servers but make sure you check first before subscribing to any of them.

To illustrate I’m going to show you how I use my copy of the security software Identity Cloaker to access m6 Replay.   It has a selection of different proxy servers included in the subscription there are UK, US, European and Australian proxies including some French proxies too.

 

You can see in this graphic the user screen of Identity Cloaker, all you need to do is to scroll down the list and select one the French servers and then press connect.  As soon as you do this you’ll be connected through a secure SSH tunnel to one of the companies Paris based servers.   Identity Cloaker is primarily security software which also encrypts your connection – if you’re just watching video then you should turn the encryption off at the bottom of the screen.

Now when you go to the M6 Replay site instead of seeing your IP address they will see the address of the Identity Cloaker proxy server.   As long as you have selected one of the French servers the site will think you are based in France and not block access to any of the content.

As I mentioned it is possible to find French proxy servers which you can connect manually too, unfortunately it’s fairly difficult to find suitable ones.  If you want to try have a look at this site which lists open proxies by country – http://proxy.org/proxies_sorted.shtml they change by  the hour though so keep checking back.

For those who don’t have hours to spend searching there are lots of commercial alternative which offer fast, secure and safe proxies in a variety of countries.  Here’s the service I recommend - Identity Cloaker, it’s inexpensive and extremely easy to use – the program sits in your task bar and you can switch proxy servers at the click of the button.  Try the 10 day trial first to see if you like it – you’ll find it opens up so many possibilities with proxies all across the world including a French Proxy !

BitTorrent Monitors – You Are Being Spied On

September 5, 2012 Just Interesting / ninja
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It’s no great surprise to me, but at least when it gets covered on the BBC News then more people will believe it’s true. We are not anonymous online and in fact there are people actively tracking and spying on us for a variety of reasons. The BitTorrent story is related to a study completed by Birmingham University, who concluded that anyone using the file sharing service BitTorrent was being monitored.  The study is published here – The Unbearable Lightness of Monitoring: Direct Monitoring in BitTorrent

The study points out that there are at least 10 large monitoring firms logging details of illegal downloads using these sites.  If you start downloading a pirate copy of a popular film or album, your IP address will be recorded within 4 hours by these firms.  So if you don’t fancy being on a list of individuals guilty of copyright theft sitting on the desk of some sneaky litigation lawyer – then you’d better be careful using torrent sites like this and Pirate Bay.

So why are these firms doing this?  What are they actually planning to use these huge lists of illegal downloaders for?   Well there’s probably a certain amount of ‘just in case’ – the data could potentially be lucrative so they are grabbing it now.    The biggest clue comes in the various court cases that have appeared over the years – one of the most famous being the slimy bunch from – ACS Law.

This UK Law Firm obtained thousands of these names and IP addresses from the ISPs of individuals who’s computers had been used for downloading illegal copies of films (mainly pornographic).  Instead of taking them all to court for copyright theft, they decided to send each and every person on the list a demand for a sum of money usually around £500 in order to stop any further action.

These threats were often a complete surprise to the receivers,  they included the list of the films that were downloaded illegally.  Often they would know nothing about these films because of course the person who received the letter was merely the person who paid the ISP invoice.  So grandparents were receiving letters about downloading illegal porn films that others had downloaded using their connection.  Fortunately this horrible practice was eventually stopped but not before thousands had paid up to these threats.

Take a look at these logs which were what the solicitors had obtained from the ISPs.

It’s a new business model for the porno industry.   Instead of making a cheap, low budget porno flick and sell it online for a few bucks – you monitor ISP logs and then blackmail anyone who had downloaded a pirate copy.   I mean even the innocent are going to have some nerve to stand up and defend themselves from the charge of downloading a pirated copy of “Freddie’s British Granny F*ck Volume 1″ !!  No of course I didn’t download it dear, don’t you believe me !!!!

So don’t use Torrents if you’re going to download pirated stuff, there’s a whole army of commercial lawyer leech types waiting to track you down if you do.  It’s very easy for them to pay a firm to monitor the downloads of files from P2P sites – they can see your IP address in  the Peer list of the tracker or even just join the download when they’ll directly connect to your computer.  Your IP address (and hence your name and address – check this) is then directly linked to the illegal download and you’ll be on a list like the one above.

Use proxies and security software like Identity Cloaker to protect your self and hide your identity.  There are also a few Private Usenet feeds you can subscribe to with SSL to encrypt your connection – like Astraweb and Bintube.

 

Should Facebook Be Blocked at Work ?

July 28, 2011 ninja
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So do you think it’s legitimate to use Facebook at work? Is it ok to spend an hour or two catching up with friends in your lunch hour or is it strictly a leisure time site.

A couple of people who read my post about how you can get passed facebook blocks at work got a bit annoyed about me suggesting it should be banned. Although this is not surprising as the comments were from my friends who are a pretty anarchic lot and would get upset if they were banned from invading Burma. I suspect the phrases ‘infringing on my democratic rights’ and ‘subverting the masses’ might be used.

I mean I hate filtering and censorship more than most people, but really if I was paying someone to do a job and they instead spent thirty hours a week messing about on FB then I have to say I’d be pretty annoyed. So although I hate the blocking aspect I think an employer has the right to do this within reason.

After all this afternoon I opened up Facebook and was confronted by this rather witty post -

A Sample Facebook Post?

Now if you can try and focus on the caption below it’s rather witty, but I think most of us would recognise that having images popping up like that on your screen at work is probably not that appropriate. The problem is that the image is from a wall post and you have little control about what appears there. If that image popped up on your brand new 40″ LCD monitor – there’s a very real chance someone would take offence.

The Problem With Filtering is The Technology

Of course that particular image may get blocked anyway even if you don’t specifically target certain web sites. Many of the advanced content filters make assessments on each image that is downloaded. So the algorithm might for instance assess the number of flesh colored pixels and block on that basis. Certainly the market leaders have this facility although you can see massive problems in this as well. After all the lady from our Facebook picture seems to have forgotten her underwear but to be fair her impressive behind has very few flesh colored pixels on display (umm).

So the following picture would definitely trigger the flesh pixel trigger on some content filters I’ve used.

Facebook Censored Images

Although most of us won’t find that terribly erotic ( although the world is wonderfully diverse and it’s great that someone will!) – it will likely trigger the erotic/porn filter on many filters. Algorithms aren’t great at this sort of stuff, they miss things – lines of code deciding what you can or can’t do is never going to be that desirable.

After all if you’ve got a dirty mind ( I confess I have) then you would presume masses of flesh colored pixels would mean PORN. But it’s not always the case as I hope the above picture illustrates – it’s not that clear cut – just like life!

Censorship should be restricted in my opinion to genuinely criminal or illegal stuff, otherwise you just start on that road of banning things that are embarrassing, inconvenient or you’d just rather keep quite about. It’s certainly not a basis of democracy, and nobody will die from seeing a slim, pert behind climbing into a helicopter!

The solution in my opinion at least for work is a simple Internet Usage policy which relies on people’s common sense. Let employees use the internet in their own time for ordinary tasks – don’t overly restrict but make it clear that you should have consideration for your fellow workers, don’t access porn, gamble or run a far right political party at work. You can do that at home, or travelling home on the train with your smart phone.

Additional

But ok some times jobs are just too boring without some sort of distraction – so if you want to access Facebook even if it’s blocked – check this post on proxy avoidance about half way down there’s a link to download the demo version of Identity Cloaker which is free and works for Facebook and a few other sites.

 

Facebook is Blocked at Work – How Can I Access ?

July 26, 2011 content filtering / ninja
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Yes I know it is addictive, yes I know you love to spend hours on there – which is probably the reason Facebook is blocked at your work. I did some work on a content filter last year at a medical company – we didn’t actually block anyone but just monitored the sites the employees were visiting. The amount of time some individuals spent on Facebook, MySpace and Ebay was simply incredible – one female was spending 30 hours a week regularly on these sites !!!

The idea of monitoring these sites initially was to make a solid case for blocking them. You see the company had quite a relaxed Internet Usage Policy and they were quite happy to allow people personal access during lunch hours, breaks and after work. But obviously if you’re spending that amount of time surfing the web you aren’t doing much work!

So we Blocked Facebook …..

Now for ordinary people who just want to keep in touch, or check in with friends occasionally this can be a bit annoying. So I want to tell you a bit about how these sites are blocked and how you can access them. First of all though you should check your employment and internet policies – if there’s stuff in there about not using the internet for personal use etc, etc and phrases like subject to disciplinary action appear – then you’re probably best waiting until you get home. Accessing sites that your employer has blocked on purpose is likely to get you into trouble – but hey that’s your choice.

Facebook Blocked By Firewall – Using A Web Proxy

The very simplest way to block access to a web site is just by using a proxy or firewall. Here you just create a simple black list of web sites which will not be allowed through. So for instance in this case we might have the URL – www.facebook.com or perhaps the IP address of the Facebook servers or perhaps both. All internet traffic will go through the firewall or proxy so when you request any sites in this list you just get redirected to another page (usually a warning page).

This is the way everyone used to do this, however it’s pretty easy to get round now. If you look on the internet about ways to access Facebook at work or school you’ll normally find the suggestion to use an external proxy (they’ll have names like ninjaproxy or shadow proxy or something stupid like that! What happens here is you go to a proxy web site where you type in your URL (e.g. Facebook) into the proxy, which then fetches the page and displays it in a little frame for you. From your site you are communicating with the proxy server (not Facebook) and so the Firewall does not block your request.

In most places this doesn’t work anymore for a variety of reasons, but the two main ones are:

  1. The proxy sites themselves are blocked by the firewall
  2. Most companies now use more sophisticated content filters which look inside the packet for the blocked site. Meaning using just a proxy won’t work.

If your company doesn’t bother with these, then you’ll be able to use the web proxies online to access most content you like. In fact if your place is that lax on security you may be able to find a free proxy online and surf directly through it. Just search for some free proxies, find their IP address and input it into your browser under this screen which you can find under internet options/connections/LAN settings or something like that.

Facebook Blocked - Using A Proxy

Here you relay all your request directly through an external proxy which is usually quicker and you don’t have advertisements and little frames added to your browsing session. If you find a fast proxy then you will not even notice the difference from normal surfing.

Remember this only works in extremely lax environments so check it out before hand. Most places you shouldn’t even be able to modify those settings in Internet Explorer (there’s ways around this as well but that’s for another post).

Facebook Blocked By Content Filter

This is the most difficult scenario to bypass because most of the content filters actually look at the data in each packet. So you may be surfing through a proxy or using a web proxy site but the content filter will still see the URLs you are accessing. So not only do you need the protection of a proxy server, but you also need some way to stop the content filter reading the URLs you are trying to access.

The solution is encryption, if you encrypt your connection nobody can see anything but the IP address of the server you are accessing. To do this you need either to set up a VPN between you and a trusted server or use something like Identity Cloaker which encrypts everything by default anyway. Of course Identity Cloaker is a paid service but if you just want to get round a facebook block then you’re in luck as the demo version is available for free which allows access to Facebook!

Accessing Facebook through Identity Cloaker

Click on the graphic to go to the download page, use the demo account supplied and you can run a secure encrypted tunnel to any of Identity Cloaker’s servers. Through this you can surf through all of the most sophisticated content filters and security set ups. Of course this version will only work with the listed sites but at the time of writing – Facebook and Twitter are both on the allowed list.

So if Facebook is blocked and you want a solution – there you have it. But as mentioned earlier if your manager walk by and sees Facebook on your monitor – then they’re going to know you’ve bypassed their filter !!! So be aware of you company policy. This will also work in all those countries who have blocked and filtered Facebook as well. There are other sites allowed in the demo modes which have also been blocked by many countries – such as Blogger, Twitter, Squidoo and Wikimedia for instance. If you want to use it for accessing other sites like BBC Iplayer, Hulu, Pandora etc, etc normally blocked by location – upgrade your subscription and help the Identity Cloaker guys out – it’s a great deal, I like watching some of the Australian and Canadian TV channels from the UK.

Anyway hope this helps people and don’t get in to any trouble !!

Why Can’t I Use a Proxy

July 13, 2011 filtering / ninja
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We’ve all been there – you’re stuck in work or school, and frankly bored out of your brain.   Sure you have internet access but all the most interesting sites are blocked -

  • Facebook Blocked
  • Youtube Blocked
  • MySpace Blocked
  • World of Warcraft (games and forum) Blocked

So why’s it happening and what can you do about it?

Your company or school controls your access to the internet at several points and is blocking your access at several levels.

The first control is probably through their own proxy server.  If you go and look in Tools/Internet Options/Connections/LAN Settings or  something like that in different browsers you’ll probably see a proxy server set.  That address will be a server controlled by your company where they force all internet traffic.  If they’ve done a decent job you won’t be able to change this.

The settings will normally be deployed by something called GPO (group Policy Objects) which are the way most organisations control what their computer looks like.  These apply settings like specific desktops, screensavers, Internet Explorer settings each time you boot up your computer.

Therefore absolutely everything you request goes through the company proxy server.  You might think you’re being clever searching for ninja proxy sites on the internet but I’m afraid you’re not.  All you are doing is creating a log of you searching for ‘ninja proxy sites online’, and letting administrators know you want to bypass their settings. The proxy server will be set to filter out all such requests by a variety of methods.  The most common one will be a huge list of URLs containing all the dodgy one page, Glype proxy installations online.

So you need to bypass this proxy server or do you?

If the organisation has their network set up properly then even by using an alternative browser or modifying the proxy settings in IE will not work anyway.  The reason is that your company firewall, the hardware device which controls all the traffic in and out of your network should only allow web traffic out from one specific address – the proxy server.   So if you bypass this your request will come from your specific IP address and get blocked.

Then a couple of things might happen -

  • The alert will be flagged on the firewall (Web requests from an incorrect internal client)
  • The administrator will track down the PC and find out it’s been modified.

But don’t worry in reality probably nobody ever looks at  the logs and most firewalls generate so many alerts that nobody ever looks at those either.

The point is your searching for online web proxies is simply a waste of time.  To bypass most corporate proxies you need to go through that proxy and not around it.  Through it because any other originating IP address will get blocked and may possibly  wake up your IT Department.  But you need to stop the proxy blocking access based on the content (what you are requesting) and the URL (the actual site you want to visit).

There are two things you can do to allow this – first you need encryption so that nothing can see inside your web request and secondly you need some low key server outside the network to relay your request.  These two requirements if implemented correctly will allow you to tunnel through any corporate network firewall or proxy and also keep your surfing private from the administrators and logs.