The International “Hulu” Method
Section 1: Why Doesn’t Netflix and Hulu work in my country?
Most video websites have a way of telling where a visitor is located. This information is called an IP Address.
Once they have your location, they decide whether or not your country is on their blocked countries list.
If you’re in a current blocked country, you cannot access videos. Full stop.
But there is a easy way to get around this. Here is our free guide to unblock whatever you want
Thousands of people everyday use these simple tools to watch their favorite American Tv shows and free movies on Hulu and the premium movies on Netflix.
My story
Watching content from your computer is fast becoming the easiest way to get your favorite programs. Since 2007 in the US, Hulu.com and Netflix have offered free and paid services respectively for watching movies and a lot of popular shows legally. So if you’re not in the US, you’re out of luck.
That is really annoying.
I ran up against this problem when I went to Europe in the summer of 2009 for a vacation. Looking to relax in England, I tried to pop on an Netflix streaming movie, only to run into this message: Content not available for your location.
I pay for my Netflix subscription the same as anyone else, why should it not work wherever I am? I’m not asking for an actual disc to be sent out to me in Leytonstone, just an online stream of a movie: so, what’s the problem? Is the internet really a series of expensive tubes?
The same goes for Hulu. Works in the US and not in Canada and overseas. That makes more sense, seeing as they rely on advertisements bought on the basis of the users being from the United States. That still sucks, however.
That gets more to the reason behind the ban. The deals Netflix has set up with their content providers precludes international access, even for Americans overseas.
I’m not going to wax on about this anymore, I will just provide you with the links and tools I used to get around this.
Basically, Netflix and Hulu’s websites rely on your IP-address to figure out where your location is. They have nothing else to go on. And it happens that if you want to get around this it is not too difficult. I signed up for a “proxy service,” which many companies offer online for a small amount per month. They basically lease a fast computer they have based in the US to their customers to connnect through and it tricks the websites into thinking you are sitting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, or Maine or California. Pretty simple concept and simple to set up. If you have heard of the Firefox web-browser, they provide an easy way to change your settings so that once you have a proxy service you can set it up quite easily.
The way I have my computer set up is I keep Firefox with the US-ip, so that it is always running with that, and then use my other web browser for normal computer work. If you get a reliable proxy company, the speed is broadband speed. I can watch movies in high quality on Netflix with no problem.
Tools You Need
To connect to Youtube, Hulu, Netflix other websites you are currently being country-blocked from you will need to get a subscription to a VPN site.
VPNs are now incredibly cheap: about US$5-10 [£3-6] a month because of their growth in popularity over the past 18 months. In years before, access to such a service for the amount it would cost to stream online videos was over $75 a month.
A couple of years ago, it was still possible to find fast, free proxies — most of them came from American universities– but they have been abused so much lately that they are no longer fast enough to stream videos
Recommendations:
Most Reliable:
  Rating:  
StrongVPN is definitely the biggest, most reliable player in the market at the moment. That’s why it gets my recommendation.
It’s also got the most install options of any proxy service. It’s got a bunch of options for Mac which is great for me, and of course for PC too. Also Strong works with iphones, which I’m looking forward to testing out soon. [11/28: Iphone review coming soon]
Cost: US$7 per month. Choose “Lite PPTP 3 Months $21 NO SETUP FEE” plan for best deal.
This is the one I’ve signed up for.
Cheaper
if you are more comfortable with a month-to-month plan. This is for PC only, but otherwise it’s okay.
I also signed up for a service at www.privateproxysoftware.com which was a little bit cheaper for one month ($10 a month) but unfortunately its for PC only and I mostly use a Mac.
If you have any other VPN services or proxies that you have used and stream video really well, please leave me a comment instead of email.
As it stands, StrongVpn is the best deal I’ve found for the most services.
Proxy + Netflix you’ve got entertainment for about $15 per month. I’m really happy with it along with BBC’s Iplayer.
Step Two: Order & how to set up
From main site, click green ORDER button.
Best deal: Scroll and choose “Lite PPTP 3 Months $21 NO SETUP FEE” from the drop down menu. It might seem stupid to get 3 months off the bat, but one month is $7 + a $15 set up fee— It’s just a better deal to get 3 months.”
If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.
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