You may have noticed that many of the big web sites have decided that they are not too keen on this big, free, sharing model of the internet. Not so long ago you could log in to a machine anywhere in the world and surf around with impunity – but not any longer.

The businesses involved have decided they prefer a sort of restrictive model that also makes them lots of cash. So now people get filtered based on their location - for example forget watching BBC Iplayer abroad in the US or Japan for free, it’s not going to happen (well not without some sneakiness of course). Yep and the loveable BBC have decided against the public spirited World Service model of sending out their content for free, instead they restrict it just to people in the UK. This is especially annoying for the people like me who already pay the license fee but can’t watch the BBC when they’re out of the country.

But don’t worry here’s a way which will allow you to access anything you like including the BBC, Hulu irrespective of your location. It doesn’t matter where you’re based, you can choose. The solution works in most scenarios so for an example – here’s how to use a proxy to access BBC Iplayer outside the UK.

BBC Iplayer Proxy Workaround.

Firing up BBC Iplayer outside the UK you’ll pretty soon try and watch something and be greeted with the following message.

Ha Ha No IPlayer for You

It looks like some technical wizardry of the highest order, but fortunately for us it’s not. When we connect to BBC Iplayer, the site records your IP address and looks up which country it’s registered in – if it’s a UK address the show will start playing otherwise you get the above platitude.

Now for these illustrations I’m going to use my subscription to Identity Cloaker, you can theoretically use free UK proxies for this though. Unfortunately finding any free proxies capable of streaming video is a full time occupation but if you try it – good luck !!

Choose a UK Proxy for IPlayer

I just open Identity Cloaker and scroll down to select one of the UK proxies and that’s it. From this point even though I’m connecting through the Wifi at an overpriced Spanish hotel in Barcelona – it doesn’t matter. The BBC will think I’m in the UK as it looks at the IP address of the proxy server and not mine.

So using a BBC Iplayer proxy works incredibly well, here’s what I see now.

Latest Dr Who from BBC Iplayer

Here’s a video of the process …that I hope explains it.

Instead of the warning when watching BBC Player using a proxy I get the play button and can watch whatever I want. In fact the IP check is at start of the show so if I need to I can just disconnect from the proxy using Identity Cloaker software and stream it directly through my Spanish connection.

Is it enough to cheer me up after just having my wallet stolen in a Barcelona bar? Well probably not but being a fanatical Dr Who fan it might just save me from an evening spent drowning my sorrows drinking overpriced San Miguel from the Minibar.

(Note to all visiting Barcelona - if some nice couple seem overly concerned about marks you have on the back of your jacket and offer to help you. Then punch them/call police – you are having your wallet stolen – yes I did fall for it!)

Just for the record – you can use a free proxy for this, the reason a legendary skinflint like me doesn’t is simple. It generally takes several hours of searching to find a fast enough UK proxy to stream from the BBC Iplayer site. That actually wouldn’t be too bad if you only had to do it once but the next day it will almost certainly have disappeared. For a one off it might be worth it though.

Here’s the link for Identity Cloaker – I can recommend the 10 day trial if you’re just away on a trip or holiday, or just to see if it works. There are loads of other services who offer something similar though, but this is simply the one I found to be fastest and best value.

If you want to watch using an Ipad – try this post about watching BBC Iplayer on the Ipad Abroad.

Updated – 07/05/2013

A Fake UK IP Address

April 7, 2013 TV

3 comments

So why would anyone want to change their IP address to a fake UK one? There are a variety of reasons actually but the usual answer is either TV or they’ve been blocked/banned from some forum somewhere and want to get back on. Anyway there is an answer for people who want to watch the UK TV channels on the internet from anywhere in the world. It also works if you’ve been banned from your favorite forum because some moderator just decided to ban you.

So whether it’s a pining for Match of the Day, the BBC News, documentaries or any of the wonderful UK TV channels that are only accessible to those who have a UK IP address, or disguising yourself so you can rejoin a forum – the answer is here.

The problem is that the BBC, ITV and Channel Four like most media companies online use something called geotargeting. It all sounds a bit geeky and technical but in fact is rather simple. It’s a shortened term for geographical targeting and is a simple way for a website to deliver different content to readers in different locations.

Here’s a very simple example – here’s a search conducted with a US IP address for an electrician -

You can see that the search engine has looked at the location based on my IP address and given me US based results. However on the very same computer if I use a fake UK IP address – the same search yields quite different web addresses.

I now get results based on electricians in the UK rather than the USA. Which is of course exactly what I need if I was in the United Kingdom at the time. Google looks at your IP address when you connect and uses that information to tailor it’s results and adverts.

So in this situation geotargeting is actually quite useful and you’ll find nearly all big web sites will use this technique to some extent. Unfortunately often it’s a case of blocking access rather than customising your content. For instance every large media site does this – Hulu, NBC, BBC, ITV, M6 Replay etc.

How The Web Site Determines Your Location from Your IP Address

It’s actually a very simple procedure, the moment you connect to a web site, your IP address is recorded. It is then looked up in a Country directory or database. It’s quite easy to do for your own websites too.

You can access one of these country databases from companies like Maxmind, download it and load it into a database or a spreadsheet. You can pay for a service or just run your own scripts to determine which country a particular IP address is registered to.

So this is what happens every time you get blocked from accessing a resource online because you have the ‘wrong’ IP address. So for instance here’s what you need to use the following sites -

BBC Iplayer – UK Address
Hulu – US Address
Pandora - US Address
CTV – Canadian Address
RTE – Irish Address
M6 Replay – French IP Address

There are obviously many more. One of the problems is many of the people who are blocked are just travelling, working abroad or Ex-Pats who just miss their home TV stations.

But of course it wasn’t long before people figured a way to bypass these restrictions. Initially discovering that you could use proxy servers to sit between you and the website you were trying to access. The proxy server IP address was the one that was checked so you could use a UK proxy for the BBC and a US proxy for sites like NBC and Hulu.

So now a mini industry has built up supplying proxies and VPNs to allow people to access the sites they wish. The very best of them supply you with a huge list of servers in different countries so that you never need to get blocked again. Many openly advertise themselves as TV proxy services but I’d be careful with those as they tend to get shut down.

Of course I use Identity Cloaker whose software is easy to use and offers access to servers in about a dozen different countries (including USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and quite a few more).It works with just a click of a button and you can change your address to a US or a fake UK IP address or whatever you require. Their trial offer is here - Identity Cloaker. You can see it in action on this page – Watching BBC Iplayer - there’s a video towards the bottom of the page you can watch too.

There are loads of other services available though, but be careful as it’s easy to set up a proxy server and sling up a fancy TV web site. The hard part is providing fast, secure servers especially important if you’re going to be streaming video from the like of Hulu and the BBC.

Updated Post and links.

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

22 comments

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 -

Select Settings
Select General
Select Networks
Select VPN

This should bring you to this 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)

Description – Give it a name like UK VPN, US VPN then you can select quickly which country you need
Server – Get the enabled VPN server names from the members area.
Account Name – Your IDC Username
RSA SecurID – Ignore this
Password – Your IDC password.
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.

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.

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 out it was a bit rubbish.

Finding an Australian Proxy

July 15, 2012 TV

No comments

If you’ve ever had a need to find an Australian proxy then you’ve probably discovered that it’s not easy. Actually finding a decent free one is pretty much impossible – believe me I’ve tried. The reason I’ve tried is that I have a few friends from Sydney who are working in the UK for a little while and they really miss their TV shows and news from ABC (the Australian one). Now normally I wouldn’t be arsed about this – from what I’ve heard Aussie TV is pretty awful. However this bunch are great and I guess you get homesick so I wanted to try and help them out.

To access the shows and stuff on ABC they have a system a bit like BBC Iplayer but their version is called IView. It only allows you to stream shows not download them and unfortunately like the majority of these sites – most of the content is Geo-Blocked. Basically it means that if you connect from outside Australia then you’ll get blocked from viewing.

Blocked to copyright reasons, digital rights – blah, blah, blah, which is what you’ll get for any non-Australian IP address. So you need to view using an Australian VPN or proxy to watch most of the content on the ABC site. If you want to try and find a free proxy to use then this site is probably the best chance – Proxies filtered by country. I looked for a few days and never found one fast enough to stream video unfortunately but you might be luckier.

The other free option I looked at was to use TOR and Foxy Proxy. Basically this has the same problem with finding an Australian exit node which works well _ I’d give this a miss unless you have about 10 hours a day spare (every day!).

After making some calls I discovered that one of the main reasons that Australian proxies are so hard to find is that bandwidth costs are extremely expensive in Australia and so running an open proxy will get extremely expensive very quickly. These costs unfortunately are reflected in the private companies who offer these services as well – they’re either very expensive or completely overloaded. The vast majority don’t even bother with Australian servers due to the high cost.

So I’ve highlighted two companies which offer the best deals – both offer very reasonable subscriptions and short term/trial options which don’t lock you into automatic subscriptions (which many do!). They both also include Australian servers as well as servers in loads of other countries – e.g US for American sites like Hulu, NBC and Pandora and UK for the BBC Iplayer. Lots of other countries included for free as well.

Don’t sign up for a long subscription with anyone initially. There can be routing and speed problems to Australian proxies from some ISPs – you should check with a trial or short account first. Although check out the Aussie sites you need first, ABC for instance seems to change – some of the content is accessible to anyone a lot of the time. Check first that you are actually being blocked – you might save yourself some cash

Australian Proxy/VPN Recommendations.

Anyway I checked a load and these two are way better than everything else I looked at.

Overplay – Nice interface, reasonable price, special Australian configurations and loads of other countries included. If you want the most countries included – no one else is close to these guys.

Identity Cloaker – Have now added some Australian proxies to their subscription, they have more servers but in less countries (focus on UK and USA servers). Worked very quickly with the latest version of Identity Cloaker software. Use the 10 Day trial to test, very good support.