You know that previous blog post where I talked about how to access U.S.-only websites from overseas? The main reason to do that is Hulu (and, now Netflix) and they’ve gone and blocked overseas access.  I only get 10GB of bandwidth per month, so I’m not going to waste it seeing if something like Tor would still work given that that’s more like IP address sharing. But seriously, Hulu…first you cut off Boxee and then it goes to to these lengths. Boo and hiss!

DownloadSquad is reporting that Hulu has signed on a VP for international operations. If this is rolled out, this could be a game-changer for TV watching abroad. I recently buckled and bought an AFN receiver – mostly so we had options when our internet was out (as it was for our first six months of this tour). I prefer downloading shows from iTunes, which has so far worked without VPN access so I can watch my favorite shows (Chuck, Lost, Heroes, House) shortly after they come out. This is great, but it’s expensive at $2/episode for low-def and $3 for HD. But if you have a high-speed connection in EUR, this will let you watch a good tranche of shows for free – with higher definition than AFN and fewer commercial interruptions. It’s not likely to be much use to me, as I don’t see the Jamahiriya being top of their list for countries to make marketing and licensing deals with, but who knows – maybe they’ll work out some way to throw the doors wide open and I can catch a few episodes of Life or Burn Notice.

I guess this is more of a general expat tip than an FS-specific one, but I hope you’ll find it useful. I plan to do a couple of expat/FS tech posts in the coming week or two.

There are plenty of websites that require a US IP address to use: going to get your free, annual credit report; watching the latest Lost episode on ABC.com; checking in on Heroes on NBC’s Hulu; or streaming that rented movie from Netflix. Heck, even using iTunes’s USD store often requires a US IP address.

Obviously, a lot of this stuff is not work-appropriate. Uncle Sam has a ligitimate complaint when you’re using his bandwidth to watch the Sound of Music, even if it is off work hours. So you have to do this from home. But how do you get around it?

Hotspot Shield has installers for both Mac and Windows. Basically, it creates a VPN to a U.S.-based proxy. This not only provides increased security, it makes it look like you’re in the US. Some sites may have it registered as a proxy and will block it, but you’ll have more sites available than you would have. Note: you need to have a pretty hefty connection speed. Expect it to be about 50% slower than your normal connection…plan accordingly.

There’s also the Vidalia Project, which essentially does the same thing but has servers all over the place, so if you needed a UK-specific IP, you could get that, too.

Finally, if you’re really hard pressed, you could set up your own VPN. This requires a loving friend in the US to host your computer, but has the benefit of letting you hook up a slingbox, too. I’ll cover this more in a different post.

NOTE: I am currently in the US and have not tried these solutions (I had different work-arounds at post). Also note that the Department blocks access to these sites on OpenNet as part of their no-proxies policy. You’ll have to look from your private computer.