Watch Hulu videos outside of the US with Hotspot Shield

by Simon Kerbel Jan 7th 2008

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!]

Tags: hotspot shield, HotspotShield, hulu, international, streaming, videos, vpn

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Filip Norrgård said 3:38PM on 1-07-2008

Well, they don't mention that some driver the program needs to install can't get installed in _64-bit_ Vista with the result that the whole program doesn't work for me right now... :(

Eugene said 2:12PM on 1-28-2008

We are testing the x64 bit version and it should be out in the next few weeks.

emmzee said 3:46PM on 1-07-2008

Works for me in Canada using Windows XP Pro. I'm now able to view movies on Openhulu.com movies whereas I couldn't before, even when I tried using a regular http proxy server.

Hotspot Shield isn't something you'd want to leave running all the time since it puts banner ads on every web page that you view ... but as a temporary solution it works fine and is easily turned on/off via the systray icon.

Marc Walker said 4:17PM on 1-07-2008

now what we need is something like this for winmo so i can use opera to listen to Pandora on the go

Fabian said 4:23PM on 1-07-2008

A W E S O M E !
works with pandorajam in OS X too!
love it, thanks

James said 4:38PM on 1-07-2008

Is there an equivalent that will let us Yanks get past the deflector shields on the BBC player? I would really love to have access to a couple of BBC shows that I otherwise can't find here in the States...

x20mar said 5:23PM on 1-07-2008

I was wondering that myself. My dad works abroad all the time and Torchwood starts next week.

As I've said before that it doesn't work for NBC Direct so I doubt that it will work for the BBC iplayer. Maybe a proxy server?

OC said 8:17PM on 1-08-2008

Would also love to know how to watch the BBC from the USA.

Eugene said 2:12PM on 1-28-2008

we will be introducing a solution for you to be able to use it and be in the UK.

:)

x20mar said 4:51PM on 1-07-2008

News from the UK:
OpenHulu works with this software however NBC Direct Does not, so I guessing it works for Streaming sites that doesn't require you to download additional browser Ad-ons or Software

Hope That Helps

Thomas Huxley said 4:55PM on 1-07-2008

I've been using this for a few works now and works a charm.

Joern said 4:58PM on 1-07-2008

thanks for,
works fine here from Hamburg, Germany
installed on MacOS 10.5.1

Erez said 5:51PM on 1-07-2008

Is this legal?

krishna said 7:08PM on 1-07-2008

from UK:

it doesnt work for me:( XP when i launch hotspotshield it doesnt comeup and it doesnt connect when i am trying tu connect, can anyone help

Geoff R said 8:52PM on 1-07-2008

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

Gon said 5:05PM on 1-08-2008

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!! :)

Tom said 8:59PM on 1-07-2008

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...

Diego Garcia said 11:16PM on 1-07-2008

@krishna try to disable your firewall.

Works good, greetings from Mexico City.

ks said 11:24PM on 1-07-2008

Works perfectly in Tokyo, Japan at Mac OS X Leopard. And fast!

IsNoGood said 11:45PM on 1-07-2008

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.

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