Watch Hulu videos outside of the US with Hotspot Shield
Since our recent invite bonanza, we've enjoyed the heck out of our Hulu membership. But, since its inception, Hulu has been a US-only party. And, while OPENHulu or TVparadise opened up Hulu to a crowd of non-invitees, international users were still out of luck.Of course if you're willing to trick Hulu into thinking your non-US computer is actually connected to a US internet connection, you can get around that restriction. One way for non-US residents to watch Hulu videos is by using a program called Hotspot Shield. We say "it seems" because, since we are inside the US, we don't have a method of testing whether or not this works.
Here's how it done:
Hotspot Shield is a free program which creates a virtual private network between your computer and a wireless router. While its focus is mainly on protecting your private information from hackers (you've seen them before: those shady characters sunk deep into a comfy chair at Starbucks, a Dell on their lap, a dark beanie almost covering their eyes, a decaf java chip mocha Frappucino melting silently on the table next to them), in this case, it keeps Hulu from recognizing that you are outside the US. Therefore, because Hulu doesn't know where you are from, it assumes the best and gives you full, unadulterated access to all content.
The best thing is, if this works, it will work for all US-only sites (Hello, Pandora)!
International Download Squad readers, please let us know if this works for you in the comments.
[Via profit42.com, thanks Denis!]
Comments
39
Subscribe to commentsdougJan 8th 2008 12:58AM
This is great! works with joost also! im in Australia, and i was never able to get channels like Gong or MTV to work... Now they run perfectly! Thank you DSquad!
Geoff RJan 7th 2008 8:52PM
Hey Simon,
Anchorfree is a good option, but a much better and faster option is to use something called UltraSurf, which is a program developed to bypass the Great Firewall of China. (http://www.ultrareach.com/company/download.htm)
It automatically connects to the fastest possible US proxies. You can also set it up to route only one browser (IE for example) or tunnel other traffic such as BitTorrent.
We students come up with great ways to bypass the school's firewall.
www.gearfire.net
GonJan 8th 2008 5:05PM
Man! Ultrareach works great!! I can now use Pandora. I can't try Hulu, cause I need an account... waiting list here I come!
Thank you Simon and Geoff for such good tip!! :)
TomJan 7th 2008 8:59PM
yeh, hotspot shield WORKED for me...
then i went past its 10gb monthly bandwidth that they don't tell you about, and its not working anymore
all i was doing was watching Hulu videos,
tip to everyone outside the states watching Hulu through Hotspot shield, connect to hotspot, start watching the movie, and then disconnect, it should work just fine...
ksJan 7th 2008 11:24PM
Works perfectly in Tokyo, Japan at Mac OS X Leopard. And fast!
Diego GarciaJan 7th 2008 11:16PM
@krishna try to disable your firewall.
Works good, greetings from Mexico City.
IsNoGoodJan 7th 2008 11:45PM
Well sorry to be the one that say so, however I have no idea how its to be able to "VPN" anything from a any WIFI router to you client software to me that's just gas you cant make a VPN link using only client software and I don't remember seeing any of the Linksys or D-links, Cisco AP supporting something like this,
And personally I don't trust a company that under products also have "Rewards Bar"
If you don't have a "real" VPN solution don't use a Hot spot for anything other than Websurf, don't access you Pop3 or Google mail, that's my 5 C,
Anybody know better her is you cue.
DimkaJan 8th 2008 4:47AM
Hotspot Shield is awesome! Thanks AnchorFree!
It is a true enabler that gives us (users) a truly private online experience
dpJan 8th 2008 4:54AM
Another UK user...
Hotspot seems to work okay, but as Geoff R said above, I'd think there are any number of ways to approach the task.
As a means of testing I'd be interested in seeing a list of low-bandwidth sites in several countries. Does anyone know of sites around the world that are generally blocked? I'd guess the freedom-of-access campaigners would have some sort of list.
alokJan 8th 2008 8:46AM
IsNoGood : Is there any other way to achieve same functionality without using anchorfree. Only useful thing about this app is that it is hiding IP address. Can it be done by some other method. Thanks in advance.
schoashJan 8th 2008 9:39AM
would be nice to know the settings. Because it doesn't work on Linux at the moment.
coriolJan 8th 2008 4:56PM
works fine here from Spain
Win XP.
Great post!
lalalaJan 8th 2008 6:34PM
Funny ... on the Hotspot Shield homepage it says
*This product is currently offered to U.S. residents, only.
fredderickaJan 9th 2008 6:24PM
add me on
pjbJan 10th 2008 5:11AM
works here in India. thanks.
JASMINJan 14th 2008 12:43AM
i need to downlaod but i couldnt can i get a help please
EugeneJan 28th 2008 2:11PM
you can download it and install it at www.hotspotshield.com
mickJan 18th 2008 5:27AM
do i need a wifi connection for Hotspot Shield to work?
EugeneJan 28th 2008 2:10PM
No you dont need wi-fi connection