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

The country is not in a good place, corruption is rife, millions live in abject poverty and incidents like the collapse of the clothing factory which killed hundreds are all too common albeit on a smaller scale. Given the many problems the country face – you’d expect that people would be protesting, but perhaps about something other than calling for the death of certain bloggers.

This is what happened in Dhaka last week – thousands took to the streets calling for the execution of bloggers deemed blasphemous against Islam.

Depressing isn’t it? Journalists who tried to cover the protests were attacked for various reasons. One woman reporter was attacked and beaten by the protesters who deemed that being a journalist was an unfit profession for a woman. Several bloggers have already been attacked by fundamentalists and indeed one brave young man – Ahmed Rajib Haider was brutally killed by a gang armed with machetes.

The prospects of any sort of freedom or tolerance are looking bleak in this country. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) are investigating advanced content filtering systems which would be used to block such sites which are morally inappropriate or contain material which is harmful to national unity or religious beliefs. Which in a country as corrupt as Bangladesh means they are going to block whatever they want.

It’s not stopping there though, the Bangladesh Government have already released their own custom search engine called – Piplika which will probably end up being the only allowed search engine. It’s a fantastic place to get a wide array of search results though – try it here. Here’s what you get if you search for sites on information on poor Ahmed Rajib Haider –

Notice how all the search results point to different articles on the same site – the first two pages of results are all the same – the Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Sun. You won’t be surprised to hear that the Daily Sun is apparently more of a propaganda tool for the ruling party (the Awami League) than a real newspaper.

It’s a bleak prospect for the country, bloggers are scared to blog, journalists being attacked and intimidated if they speak out and the BTRC already ordering thousands of posts to be removed from websites and blogs deemed to be insulting to Islam.

If any bloggers in Bangladesh need some security and a way to bypass these filters the kind people at Identity Cloaker have given me a few free subscriptions which I’m happy to send out.

The HOSTS.TXT was maintained by a Network Information Centre and distributed by a single host. Any client would pick up a fresh copy every few days to see if any new hosts had been added to the network. Slowly there were problems as the network got bigger – here’s some of the biggies:

• Traffic – the toll on the SRI-NIC (the computer which held the master copy of HOSTS.TXT) became unbearable. Network traffic and CPU utilization was overloading the host.
• Name Collisions – No two hosts on a network can be the same. There was no system to enforce this uniqueness of host names – duplicates started to appear in the host list as it got bigger.
• Consistency – making sure that everyone had the correct version of HOSTS.TXT became extremely difficult. Machines on the far edges of the network would take so long to get an update that it was

It didn’t work, name resolution started to cause havoc on the network as it grew, mailservers fell over as duplicates appeared. Hundreds of versions of the HOSTS.TXT file caused loads of issues and the reliability of the network plummeted.  A new system was needed and it was needed fast, that system was delivered by a chap called Paul Mockapetris.  He released two RFCs  - 882 and 883 which were the first definition of the Domain Name System – or as we mostly refer to it as DNS.    These RFCs have now been superceded many times as security, administration and implementation problems have been identified and rectified.

The Internet as we know it relies not on some huge text file but the Name resolution delivered by the Domain Name System.  DNS is simply a huge distributed database, local control of this data is allowed.   However this data is accessible across the whole network through a client/server set up.  Now this is where the history lesson finishes – I don’t want to start talking about Name Servers, resolvers or caching as you can find that stuff in other places.

Here on theninjaproxy.org we like our information is little more practical – so lets have a look at a little legacy of the HOSTS.TXT file that is used as a first step of resolution by Windows TCP/IP.

There’s the little fellow  - a text file called hosts which contains your computers first port of call in Name resolution before it uses methods like DNS for example.

It can be used to block or filters websites, hackers use it to infect clients with viruses and trojans by redirecting to nasty sites.  Also plenty of places still use it to make web based applications work properly or to redirect clients to specific computers.

It’s quite simple to use – here’s a brief illustration.  We are going to redirect a web site to a different place using the hosts file -

Let’s redirect our web surfer to somewhere pleasing to the eye – playboy.com.  First we find the IP address of the site by pinging it -216.18.172.158.   Next we need to make some simple modifications to our hosts file – you’ll usually need administration access to alter this file.

You can see we have added a line telling the computer that the site www.google.com can be found at the address 216.18.172.158 (oh no it can’t!).

Of course you’ve guessed what will happen when anyone tries to visit Google on this computer!

Sometimes doesn’t work as great on the bigger sites that rotate their IPs over lots of servers and you may have to clear your cache with CCleaner beforehand.  But you get the idea, another slight modification is that you can use the hosts file to block access to sites to.   Instead of redirecting a site to different IP address you can just redirect to your local computer using 127.0.0.1.

For example perhaps you are getting pissed about all the adverts that are served on websites from ad.doubleclick.net, simply add this line to your hosts file.

127.0.0.1     ad.doubleclick.net

This will have the effect of blocking access to that website (and blocking it’s adverts).  It’s a crude but reasonably effective way of blocking access to specific websites on a particular computer.  Many companies or schools use this method on public facing or ‘kiosk’ machines.

Unfortunately hackers also use this method too, viruses modify your hosts file to redirect your machine to malicious websites instead of popular sites like Facebook or similar.  So it’s always worth checking out your hosts file occasionally to see all is in order.

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.

Iranians will still be able to use the approved VPN providers, although why those who are  concerned with state spying and internet filtering would want to use these is completely irrational.   The reality is that it is an information war that the Iranians will lose, for every block or control they put up someone, somewhere will figure out a way around it.   For example you can block access to web sites and indeed VPN services in a variety of ways.

Create Blacklist of  Proxies and VPN Services 

This is what a lot of countries like Iran do initially and how many commercial filters work.  You just build up a database of specific IP addresses and URLs of known services and just completely block access to them.  This means that the user will not be able to make that initial connection to encrypt or bypass the content filters.  But there is a huge flaw with this technique, anyone with a little knowledge could set up a VPN or proxy service on a hosted server somewhere in minutes.  There are customised scripts and simple installations of proxies like Glype and Squid that can be set up by anyone on a shared server.  It’s simply impossible to keep track of all these servers – remember it’s the Iranian Regime’s IT workers VS the rest of the Internet – who’s your money on?

Deep Packet and Pattern Inspection

You can attempt a more sophisticated technique by trying to look inside the traffic and figure out when a VPN or proxy is being used.  Even if you control the internet boundaries in your country this is very difficult to do.  For a start it’s almost impossible to analyse every packet that leaves and enters the country via the internet.  The amount of resources you will use would be enormous, not to say you end up pretty much crippling internet access at the same time.  So you have to restrict your checks to certain patterns – perhaps selecting traffic leaving or using specific ports – maybe 443 for example.  This is still going to use an enormous amount of resources and of course there’s nothing to say a specific service has to use a specific port number for connection.

Just look at one of the configuration screens of my preferred security software – Identity Cloaker.

Just look at the options there in one screen for cloaking, modifying port redirection and simply changing individual elements of the connection protocol.   It’s extremely difficult to look for specific patterns when there is this amount of customization is available in the connection methods.  Of course most  security/VPN software don’t  offer anywhere near this level of sophistication, but the market would soon be created if there is a demand created by increased filtering.

Wrecking the Digital Economy

This might not be of concern to Iran, but for countries like China it is a very real issue.  Whether they like it or not any successful business needs the internet, if you start breaking or restricting the infrastructure they’ll simply go elsewhere.  Any multinational business will use VPNs to connect back to their corporate networks safely and securely.  Will they be prepared to use Iranian approved VPNs instead of the tried and tested commercial alternatives?  Every web site that is blocked, every VPN closed down makes it more and more difficult to operate in a specific country.  The benefits of a digital economy are eroded and a countries economy will without doubt suffer.  As mentioned it may not matter if religious and political ideals are the primary goal, but as we have seen from the Arab spring – economic woes causes revolutions too.

These are just a few simple reasons why many believe that the technological reasons mean that inevitably the level of control required by someone like the Iranian Government will lead to an intranet.  Just to clarify  that would involve blocking all access to the outside and internet and restricting access to content created and hosted in Iran.  Sounds fun, doesn’t it but Iran has been working on this since the Spring of 2011 and is the only way they can control what people see from their phones and laptops.  Of course they’ll be dragging the country back into the dark ages when they do it but perhaps that’s not a problem.

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 -

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.

The list does include some pretty horrible sites including child pornography but is also slowly expanding to include drug related sites, suicide information web pages and many others.  However it illustrates exactly what happens when a Government believes that no-one cares about censorship and it has a remit to control as it sees fit.    The list will grow and grow, in the last few weeks an entire blogging platform called L.J.Rossia has been blocked.   Apparently there was some paedophile content  uploaded to the site, but instead of blocking the specific pages or actually taking action against the individual involved the whole platform was banned.

Remember this is a blogging platform just like LiveJournal or WordPress, so when you block the platform you are also blocking all the bloggers and individuals who use that platform.  People like Andrei Malgin, a journalist who is very critical of the Russian Government or perhaps Vladimir Pribylovsk,  the author of  Anticomprat.ru and another journalist who is vocal in their criticism of Putin’s regime.   Potentially thousands of bloggers are now blocked in Russia because of a couple of pages uploaded onto the site.

Censorship simply doesn’t work in protecting the right people, any  paedophile who operates online will use VPNs, maybe an Australian proxy or security programs like Identity Cloaker to bypass filters and URL blacklists.   This is becoming mainstream technology and completely eliminates  the effectiveness of simple URL black lists held at an ISP.    Simple technology exists which individuals can use to protect children that can be installed very easily on a PC in fact most modern security/AV programs already have the feature.

In reality, it is simply a way for a Government to impose their own control over the internet.

It didn’t last long.

The problem is that although content filters can be quite effective at blocking sites, they are actually pretty rubbish in deciding what should be blocked. The helpdesk of this hospital was soon swamped with calls asking why they were being blocked from different sites. Some of the issues -

Medical sites being blocked because the pages had too many flesh coloured pixels (filter thought they were pornography) – see here for details.

Access to a page on a surgeons site blocked, because the word ‘tramp’ was used. It actually was the discussion of an autopsy of a tramp who had died.

There were many, many more – lots of completely harmless sites blocked because of some word, link or picture being deemed unsuitable due to the content filter. Needless to say they simply didn’t have the resources to deal with these issues and the filter was turned down significantly.

It highlights a problem that is beginning to affect China, in the modern world many people need the internet to do their job. If you restrict access then you put yourselves at a significant disadvantage.

A perfect example is from this article in the Wall Street Journal, where a Swedish businessman was having problems trying to copy back some files to his headquarters servers.  Every time he tried his internet connection went down for an hour or so. The mystery was solved when it was discovered that the files were named after the town of Falun where the client worked. Unfortunately it is also the name of a meditation group – Falung Gong which is banned by the Chinese Government and thus blocked by the Chinese firewall. When the files were renamed they could be transferred without any problems.

The Swedish businessman in the story got so fed up with the constant internet difficulties that he moved his business to Thailand were he could operate without restrictions (although it should be said that Thailand also censors the internet to some extent).

This is the crux of the problem China faces – it wants to control and restrict access to the internet, yet it needs and demands a high level of economic growth. They are to some extent mutually exclusive, businesses need the internet to operate globally – a highly restrictive internet policy is a huge disadvantage to companies operating there. The reality is that they will simply move elsewhere, the digital world means where you locate a business is not as important. Businesses need fast, reliable internet access – in China the Great Firewall ensure they have neither.

 So when you think about it, the reality is a little more worrying. It’s really about everything you do online being monitored. Now that’s does scare me – mainly because it happens. How much of your life happens via a phone or the internet?

Anyway the worry I have is this – most Western Democracies have access to everything you do online for the last couple of years.  Of course there’s some vague idea that it’s all about catching terrorists but frankly that’s a load of rubbish.   I’ll take my chances on any plane if the terrorist has been thick enough to post his plans online on Facebook or Twitter – chances are they’ll blow themselves up on the way to the airport or at the car park ticket machine.  After all it’s not difficult to fix yourself up with a false IP address!

Not going to happen – so what our agencies and governments are really interested in is all the other information …..like this……………………

From my ISP logs dated 21/12/11 when I returned home from the Cross Lanes Hotel ( Geo location enabled on my Iphone).

My location established from my phone.
After drinking one bottle of South African Shiraz and paying my bill – (via internet enabled till) I watched the Kylie Minogue Agent Provocateur Video several times in a row.  When I go for that high powered Government job – it could be a difficult interview question,

or perhaps I could just show them the video ……..

All red blooded and nothing to be ashamed of? Sure but remember they have every web site you visited …in the last two years..

Reporters without Borders (or “RWB”) is a French, non-profit organization that advocates freedom of information and press. This organization has compiled a list of countries that are deemed “Internet enemies” due to their methods of cyber censorship. The flagged nations are: Armenia, Bahrain, Belarus, Burma, People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

In 2009, Belarus was added to the “Enemies of the Internet” list, was subsequently removed, and was added again in 2012. In 2011, Egypt was added to the “Enemies of the Internet” list. In 2012, Tunisia was added to the list after being removed in 2011. Egypt was also removed in 2011 and was added again in 2012. The small kingdom of Bahrain was also added to the list in 2012.

Countries under Surveillance

The RWB further compiled an “Under Surveillance” list. Nations under this category are considered to give cause for concern about the possibility of increased Internet censorship. The current list spans the following countries: Australia, Egypt, Eritrea, France, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The “Countries under Surveillance” list, introduced in 2008, listed 10 nations which used surveillance on users’ Internet activities or otherwise impeded people’s rights, without blocking massive amounts of information. Between 2008 and 2012 the number of countries listed grew to 16 but subsequently fell to 14. Jordan in 2009, Tajikistan in 2009, and Yemen in 2010 were dropped from the list.

Australia in 2009, France in 2011, Russia in 2010, South Korea in 2009, Turkey in 2010 were added.

Bahrain, Eritrea, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka dropped from the list in 2010, but were added again in
2011. Libya dropped from the list in 2009, added again in 2011, and then dropped in 2012. Venezuela was added in 2011 and then dropped in 2012.

Internet Freedom Setbacks

Azerbaijan, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Russia, and Sri Lanka are seven nations that are at particular risk of suffering Internet freedom setbacks in 2013.  These nations are relatively free of government interference and censorship on the Internet for their citizens; however, they also maintain separate governments either known to be: a) repressive of freedom of the press in traditional forms of media, or b) they have recently introduced laws that significantly affect online freedoms of expression in negative ways for their citizens.

There are two ways to address internet censorship. The first is to change an IP address to an address under a non-censored nation.  The second is to access a search engine website that acts as a host by displaying all results through their site. Governmental censorship reduces freedom of expression, while simultaneously revoking basic, human rights. For more information on this cyber suppressive trend, refer to the Internet Censorship infographic found below.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_by_country
Source: http://march12.rsf.org/i/Report_EnemiesoftheInternet_2012.pdf