The new world of on demand movies and entertainment is amazing. An stimulus starved consumer can now get a subscription to have games, movies, television, and music all delivered straight to their laptop. This is a fantastic set of tools to have when you are travelling, but there is one problem. Most of them do not work outside of the US !!!! (when you usually want to use it most).
Well, there is really an easy work around to this: Keep your computer “virtually” back in the US via VPN software. This way the services above will not know your physical location, and they will think you are in the US (as long as the VPN server is hosted there).
How does this work:
IP’s (the address your computer is given when it connects to the Internet) all have a public mapping to where they are physically located. Pandora and other sites can simply reference this database and find out where you actually are in the world. They will block out sending anything to places that they do not have a licenses to broadcast to. In all most all cases this is anywhere outside the US.
VPN software communicates to the sites you are trying to access through a server, and encrypts the data from that server to your computer. This is very handy to keep prying eyes off the data you are transmitting over WiFi or other unsecured data lines. The server basically does all the work of talking to the websites you want to see (Yahoo, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon), and repackages everything to the computer you are working on into an encrypted bundle. In other words, the website does not see past the server and knows nothing about your computer.
So … all you need to do is find a server in the US, and you can “Virtually” keep your computer back in the US. Or .. if you live overseas, you can pretend your computer is located in the US and enjoy the streaming services available there. This also solves the Facebook blocking in China too !
There are several companies out there that will set up the VPN for you with a US hosted server:
HotSpot Shield: Free and probably the best known. It is super easy to set up, and very fast ! Only problem is that it takes over your browser and puts up annoying ads. But still it is free and will let you get up and going right away.
VPNGates: The service is $120 a year, but offers a lot of other services like unblocking of VoIP and extra encryption.
HotSpotVPN: Service is $8.88 per month and works on iPAD’s and they provide a second instance for PDA’s and other devices.
Enjoy your downtime a little more next time you travel !
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the info, Mike! This is awesome! I signed up for a “proxy service,” which many companies offer online for a small amount per month but your suggestions is far better. Getting it for free is sweet!
Cool thanks. I guess this is an easier way of doing it rather than the way I had previously read from another blog.
Glad you liked the pointers ! Charles, give HotSpotShield another chance. Sometimes it gets flaky.
You must log in to post a comment.