Watching American TV When Living Abroad

[Ro_Laren]

Now that I'm living in Russia, I really miss my American TV. I know that because of my current IP, I can no longer view web-sites like Hulu. Is it possible for me to just manually change my IP to my old IP back home in order to "trick" the internet into thinking I still live in the United States?

I know that there are services out there that give you an American IP so that you can "trick" the internet. But, since there are a lot of services out there so it is hard to know who is legit. Plus, if I can just use my old IP from back home then I would rather do that.

 

[Paradon]

Well, I actually prefer British TV...not that I watch much of any TV. [chuckle]

 

[Roger Wilco]

You could use bittorrent to download what you want.
A tool I sometimes use when I want to pretend having a US IP is Ultrasurf, but I don't think it works with Hulu.

 

[ares93]

you're going to need a VPN connection, mate. Look around on the webz.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

You need software that sets up a virtual private network (VPN) like AlwaysVPN. A couple of the other free options like HotSpot Shield and Ultrareach have apparently been blocked recently by Hulu. There are many paid options as well.

I haven't used any of them though (no need), so I can't recommend a safe one. But that should give you a place to begin searching.

[edit] Ninja'd by ares.

 

[Paradon]

I think British humor is much better. They just say it like it is! I mean there are people in third world countries who could care less what our problems are because they have much bigger problem to worry about... As they say: lighten up guys! I wished I did in secondary school...maybe Julie would have gone out with me.

This is why I love Dr. Seuss! [chuckle]

 

[Danoz]

Now that I'm living in Russia, I really miss my American TV. I know that because of my current IP, I can no longer view web-sites like Hulu. Is it possible for me to just manually change my IP to my old IP back home in order to "trick" the internet into thinking I still live in the United States?

I know that there are services out there that give you an American IP so that you can "trick" the internet. But, since there are a lot of services out there so it is hard to know who is legit. Plus, if I can just use my old IP from back home then I would rather do that.

I live in Japan . It depends on what kind of programming you miss.

NEWS:
I get most of my full-hour news programs (CNN/MSNBC) using video podcasts through iTunes. I also listen to NPR everyday (All Things Considered/Talk of the Nation have free streams). Most of the programs on MSNBC have full-episode podcasts. If all else fails, Justin.tv often has a live stream of CNN International running and you can tap into that.

SITCOMS
Torrents, hands down. In the States I was hesitant about this, but when you live abroad it can be necessary. If you have a show you really like, you can often purchase digital files and streams on iTunes (but be forewarned that Amazon and other sites like Netflix etc. do not stream outside of the US.) I like to watch Modern Family and Mad Men-- both of which I download on iTunes and pay episode-by-episode out of respect for the shows. For old shows, Star Treks, Highlander, Seinfeld--- namely impulse-watches Megavideo streams are very fast (though sometimes out of sync and/or unreliable and not particularly safe to search for if you're running Windows).

LIVE SPORTING EVENTS
This can be tricky. My cousin plays college basketball and during March Madness ALL the cames are streamed for free. During the regular season, I often get lucky on Justin.tv and other free T.V. sites.

TALK SHOWS
The Daily Show with John Stewart and Colbert Report both stream internationally-- and these are really the only shows I watch that would fit into that category. Definitely check local websites about this!

OTHER OPTIONS
If you are truly hankering for just "channel-surfing" style of T.V. watching you were used to in the States (personally I've never been much into that)-- there are some services like http://www.habu.tv/ that I have never tried. I'd ask around, but these sites claim to give you full, DVR-style access to pretty much any channel you could access on cable T.V. in America from anywhere in the world for a monthly fee.

Hope this helped! Good luck living abroad .

 

[Roger Wilco]

LIVE SPORTING EVENTS
This can be tricky. My cousin plays college basketball and during March Madness ALL the cames are streamed for free. During the regular season, I often get lucky on Justin.tv and other free T.V. sites.

The go-to-site for me for that used to be myp2p (RIP), unfortunately shut down a couple weeks ago and it doesn't look like it's coming back. Adequate alternatives are rojadirecta and livetv.ru.

 

[Sean Aaron]

You need software that sets up a virtual private network (VPN) like AlwaysVPN. A couple of the other free options like HotSpot Shield and Ultrareach have apparently been blocked recently by Hulu. There are many paid options as well.

I haven't used any of them though (no need), so I can't recommend a safe one. But that should give you a place to begin searching.

[edit] Ninja'd by ares.

A friend of the family in Israel uses OpenVPN's PrivateTunnel and rates it.

 

[TheGodBen]

The Daily Show with John Stewart and Colbert Report both stream internationally

They used to, but not any more, at least not in some territories. Since roughly two years ago, if I try to watch videos on their site this is what I'm met with.

Which is bullshit as Channel 4 don't show The Daily Show, More 4 used to but now they only air the edited, bastardised Global Edition that cuts a week's worth of shows into 20 minutes. So now, rather than using a website that they could use to serve me ads and thus profit out of my viewing the show (like I used to), I'm forced to resort to less-than-legal methods that don't profit them at all. I fail to see the logic in this for them, but whatever.

 

[Paradon]

I don't watch that show very much. Trust me! You're not missing much!

 

[Sean Aaron]

The Daily Show is about as funny to me as Saturday Night Live now: I haven't lived in the States so long that I don't know who the public figures are or the cultural references being made.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I don't watch that show very much. Trust me! You're not missing much!

Well, no, because he's watching through less-than-legal ways. If he didn't watch it at all he would be missing much.

 

[Count Zero]

A lot of tv shows are also on YouTube and DailyMotion.

 

[TheGodBen]

I don't watch The Daily Show that often. I used to watch it regularly back during the 2008 election, these days I'll only watch an episode if I hear that there was a particularly good bit in it.

 

[Danoz]

I personally catch every episode of Daily Show that comes up, making me a fairly religious viewer. I listen to and read quite a bit of news on a daily basis, and Stewart officers a lighter, comedic take on it. It's one of the few things on television that consistently gets me to laugh out loud no matter where I am haha (I had to stop streaming it at work because of that ). The man is brilliant, thoughtful, and has stirred interesting in some very important issues (particularly health benefits for 9/11 responders).

 

[Ro_Laren]

You could use bittorrent to download what you want.
A tool I sometimes use when I want to pretend having a US IP is Ultrasurf, but I don't think it works with Hulu.

Isn't bittorent where you download different files of shows that people have uploaded? It kinda scares me... I feel like I'll download a virus.

I've also heard of free IP blockers like Ultrasurf or Hotshield. But, I've heard that they download trojans on your computer. They monitor your web-site usage and flood you with ads in exchange for the free TV programs.

I have a feeling that I'll end up paying for an IP blocker/VPN generating web-site. I'm fine with that as long as I find a legit service (and it's not over $100). But, it's kinda hard finding a legit site that does this service. There are many of them out there and they seem kinda shady.

 

[Sean Aaron]

I have a feeling that I'll end up paying for an IP blocker/VPN generating web-site. I'm fine with that as long as I find a legit service (and it's not over $100). But, it's kinda hard finding a legit site that does this service. There are many of them out there and they seem kinda shady.

OpenVPN seems pretty legit to me and they do have a customer support telephone number and address so you could check them out.

I also avoid torrents, but I suppose I'm just paranoid. Mostly I cannot be bothered.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I have been using bittorrent for a decade and never got a virus through that (except once on a questionable porn site, but the site itself was contaminated, not the torrent). Maybe it's part experience, but you can tell pretty easily if a torrent is fake or real, and even the fake ones the worst that could happen is that it's something else than it's supposed to be; just read the comments if you're unsure.

One site I used for a long time for tv shows is eztv.it (though it seems to be down at the moment) because they always just list the new stuff, and guaranteed no fakes or anything. Piratebay is still ok too, if you know what you're looking for, but their interface is annoying imo. The program I use is utorrent, free, and as far as I can tell safe and reliable. Just never pay for bittorrent. Sites that demand money for access are always scams.

And I wouldn't bet my life on Ultrasurf being safe, but so far I haven't had any bad experiences with that.

 

[Count Zero]

There are also plenty of sites that offer downloads via one-click-hosters like rapidshare and the like. I don't think it's wise to discuss this here in the open, though.
Whenever you download a file you should check it with your virus scanner before opening, anyway. But I've never caught a virus that way and I've been to very shady sites in my time.