@vax2000 & @meltam and anyone else who may be interested If you would like to see what VPNs are out there and how they rate (and if members of 5 eyes, 14 eyes or co-operative) take a look here:
It is an independent site that ranks a lot of the worlds VPNs on a lot of criteria (over 40) including logging, privacy, payment options, encryption strength, ethics, pricing and so on in their comprehensive list and a more streamlined output in their simple list. Reminds me of Choice testing The lists can be downloaded for personal perusal on your PC etc.
I use http://vpn.ac â a VPN company that charges me $US 9/month to route my traffic through its servers all around the world, mostly to watch proper Netflix.
I did a little research before going ahead, but not heaps. It works very reliably, but itâs sometimes very slow. Usually though the bottleneck is my terrible ADSL2+ connection, so the VPN doesnât make things noticeably worse. It has a lot of countries it will connect from (including the UK for BBC iPlayer), and it seems optimised for users in China to get around their Great Firewall which I reckon is ace.
Problems: Speed. And it only works on the computer I have it installed on. I have to use their connection app to start the connection. I canât share the VPN connection out, say to an Apple TV connected over ethernet or any of the many iPads we have around the house. And price â I bet there are cheaper solutions.
Iâve heard there are easier and more effective ways to get around geoblocking â third party DNS, better VPNs, something else? What have you tried, and whatâs the best?
Getflix works fine for Hulu and Netflix. Simply set the DNS on your router to the Getflix DNS servers, and forget about it. If there is a problem, simply visit the Getflix site and have it register your changed IP address - assuming you donât have a static IP address.
Express VPN works fine. Easy set up. No need to manually change IP addresses. Good helpline with on line chat. Be careful with Hulu. You need a US credit card to sign up.[quote=âviveka, post:1, topic:2128, full:trueâ]
I use http://vpn.ac â a VPN company that charges me $US 9/month to route my traffic through its servers all around the world, mostly to watch proper Netflix.
I did a little research before going ahead, but not heaps. It works very reliably, but itâs sometimes very slow. Usually though the bottleneck is my terrible ADSL2+ connection, so the VPN doesnât make things noticeably worse. It has a lot of countries it will connect from (including the UK for BBC iPlayer), and it seems optimised for users in China to get around their Great Firewall which I reckon is ace.
Problems: Speed. And it only works on the computer I have it installed on. I have to use their connection app to start the connection. I canât share the VPN connection out, say to an Apple TV connected over ethernet or any of the many iPads we have around the house. And price â I bet there are cheaper solutions.
Iâve heard there are easier and more effective ways to get around geoblocking â third party DNS, better VPNs, something else? What have you tried, and whatâs the best?
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I subscribe to Tor and for a while it allowed me to view BBC programs which required a UK location. Then a few weeks ago it stopped working apparently the BBC blocked the feed when it recognises some VPN usage. Does anyone know how to overcome this issue?
I was using an add-on to Firefox for a while that got around the BBC restrictions, and a few others - however I had to take it off because it was incompatible with my banking. My best guess, because I do not use Netflix, is that you do not want to get caught up in an expensive and lengthy contract so you can change VPN providers immediately when the various media streaming sites catch on to what you are doing. Otherwise a subscription to use a usenet service might be the way to go. Last nightâs GoT will be posted everywhere now.
The BBC might be blocking when it detects proxies and unblockers, which is apparently different to actually blocking a VPN. You can purchase a VPN directly using a company like OpenVPN and see if that works. I havenât tried it (and am no expert!) but that might be option to research.
I use Getflix to access US Netflix. Despite a few glitches recently it works well. You can also access Hulu Plus and BBC iPlayer.
There are a few set up steps, which is essentially changing DNS settings on your device.There are good instructions on the Getlfix website for each device (I was able to do it following their instructions for my laptop and Apple TV).
Costs about USD 3.50 per month and well worth the money when you consider you have access to all the extra content of the US version of Netflix.
Hi @graham_qce , Most good VPN providers use OpenVPN. I use AirVPN which runs on OpenVPN, is run & controlled by geeks from servers in many countries, but not Australia as yet. I use the California servers which are the fastest across the Pacific and direct to Ozz. The HK and Singapore servers are a bit faster but not as reliable in my opinion.
AirVPN is easy to setup from their home page with inexpensive billing.
Caution, always exit AirVPN before shutting your pc down. If you donât your network link may fail, unless youâve modded your router DNS settings.
AirVPN mods your OS network adaptor settings and adds TAP, another Network Adaptor to give your OS access to their adaptor settings for OpenVPN.
Tor uses exit points that can be anywhere in the world. BBC may not actually be blocking you (or your Tor exit node), rather it could be that you exit node is outside the BBCâs allowed regions. I am not sure how you would get Tor to provide you with a node that is located in the UK regions? The best answer if you canât find a Tor exit node in the UK is to try a VPN service or a anti-geoblock DNS service such as Getflix as @mainspring advised above.
All VPNs by their nature are going to be a slower option as they are running through firstly your internet connection and then through their ISP and or server providers and then they have to share the bandwidth they have with their other clients. This means that speeds are almost always less than 10 Mbps and often around 1 - 3 Mbps. But certainly you should be able to get a deal that costs you around US$5 a month or less depending on how you buy your usage eg monthly, 3 monthly, or yearly.
âThe Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.â - John Gilmore, 1993. The meaning has changed in the literal sense since he was quoted some 24 years ago, but the underlying theory still stands. Interesting guy ⊠long live Usenet alt.*
The lists can be downloaded for personal perusal on your PC etc.
