hengehog was kind enough to create a Google Wave gallery highlighting this process, but since not everyone’s got access to Wave just yet, we’ve republished his all-image step-by-steps (for both Firefox and Chrome) below.
How to Access the BBC iPlayer from Outside the UK with Firefox
How to Access the BBC iPlayer from Outside the UK with Chrome
In a nutshell, he details how to set up a proxy using FoxyProxy with Firefox or an extension called Proxy Switchy! with Chrome. In each case, he sets up the extension in use with a proxy located in the U.K. (92.52.125.17:80) to access the iPlayer.
All in all, it’s a good primer for using proxy extensions inside Firefox and Chrome, whether or not you want to access the BBC iPlayer. The same basic steps, with a different proxy substituted depending on where you wanted to access content, should work almost anywhere, as the author points out:
If you want to access this to get in to Hulu or another site that only lets you in if you are in a certain geographical area you just need to search google for [insert target country here]proxies. Then put the IP address and port number in the correct places.
Thanks hengehog!
JustPassing
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 10:30 AMJust note that these sites know about proxy servers and often block them.
Mark
Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 3:16 PMi find using a VPN is the best solution and fastest. I use a VPN called VPN Authority – setup in less than 30 seconds… Just make sure you connect to their UK server. :) It’s super easy and the customer service is phenomenal!!! highly recommended.
Devz
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 11:14 AMAlso known as the ‘steps to defeat the australian internet filter’ :)
Graeme
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 12:00 PMI’ve tried this a few times and the available proxies are either blocked by the BBC, blocked by the proxy owner or so over subscribed as to be treacle slow and useless. It looks like the only reliable way to do this is to pay for a UK based VPN account, this will also be useful for Australians for all sorts of things if the filter goes ahead.
UK Fan
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 10:23 PMCan now watch shows, but still can’t download any shows from iPlayer site. Any suggestions besides the obvious …
Mike
Friday, April 2, 2010 at 2:20 PMHmmmm… Doesn’t work for me. Am I doing something wrong?
Scotty
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 5:19 PMIs there a source for searching proxy addresses? Are new ones released regularly ?(to find some not yet blocked by BBC)
Dr_Stef
Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 7:29 PMDoesn’t work. PAC not loading errors on every proxy I try,
de- installing, waste of time.
wildsoda
Monday, April 5, 2010 at 10:25 AMYeah, it didn’t work for me, either, kept getting that “PAC not loading” error, too. I tried searching for some other proxies, but it seems most of the free ones want you to go through their website, and the ones available as IP addresses are subscription. The few other free ones I could find as IP addresses didn’t work, either.
Charles Wb
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 6:39 PMPretty pointless really. Doesn’t seem to work at all.
Andy Hutchinson
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 11:41 PMProxies are next to useless for this type of activity. The vast majority of them simply can’t handle the bandwidth required to stream video. And the ones that can handle it only last about a day before they get swamped and disappear.
Paid-for proxies such as HideMyIP are similarly useless – they don’t suffer from the bandwidth problems but the limited bank of IP addresses gets blocked pretty quickly.
The only reliable way I’ve found of accessing iPlayer or Hulu is via a good VPN connection. There are a few providers that supply solid connections but even they are susceptible to IP blocking by the content providers.
Eric S.
Saturday, October 1, 2011 at 6:42 AMAs mark mentioned I find that using a UK based VPN is the best solution. I use a product called ClearVPN http://www.clearvpn.net and the throughput and bandwidth have been fantastic. It really is the only option for me.