jellibaby

No disrespect for all of your research or anything but HideIP is extremely reliable for us here in Port Mac. Yes - software is installed on the PC but its simply click it - it hides the IP then go on to BBC iPlayer and watch whatever. YES - best to download as the streaming rates are very slow but have not had a problem downloading so far. Have not encountered any patches or upgrade messages so far!!!!!!!

Hutch

I've updated the guide to watching UK TV that is linked in my signature. I was recently given the opportunity to test drive a new VPN company's connection and was blown away - full streaming, no hiccups or restreams whatsoever - on the High Quality stream. $10AUD a month and a US IP thrown in for good measure.

herrchook

....or, get OH to get a new job working from home which comes complete with company VPN so he can access corporate stuff in the UK.

Great article Hutch, thanks for taking the time to do that.

BTW, how come I "sometimes" get jiggy with the UKNova vicar's son (so to speak) but my score is in the blue and they never complain???

Hutch

Ah yes - but corporate networks usually block inbound data like streaming video content.

And as to UKNova - yea - my account is seriously in the black with them too. In fact:Uploaded 20.18GB
Downloaded 98.39GB

herrchook

I'm afraid my XFactor and River City addiction have had a serious impact on my stats.......

Uploaded17.28GB
Downloaded156.35GB

Hutch

Haha! Man - if the won't ban us - who will they ban?

ThisIsNotKansas

HideIP has some serious issues:
1. It isn't fast enough to stream video real time
2. Only works on a PC
3. Not Mac or iPhone compatible
4. One of the main complaints is patches and updates - have you looked for newer versions?
5. Have to reconfigure your firewall to allow HideIP to access the web
6. It Hangs Firefox browser

I think it currently has too many issues to be usable by most people. Perhaps when all the bugs are ironed out and they upgrade their servers to handle video streaming it might be viable - until then it's not going to deliver what I want. VPN has none of these problems.

I went for Dave the Expat's solution http://www.ukivpn.com , as that's the cheapest of the vpn solutions. And it's working really well.

herrchook

lol, absolutely.

Actually, I hadn't looked at my stats for ages and am shocked that I've actually uploaded over 17Gb - that's about $80 worth on my current plan . Note to self - must do better

lee28

http://www.news.astraweb.com/signup.html

then

http://nzbmatrix.com/index.php

$18 a month and great for pretty much everything you need.

Hutch

Totally - news groups all the way. Those of us who use Internode as our ISP have full unrestricted access to a Giganews feed - complete with 240 day retention and *all* the binary newsgroups.

Luckyone

For what it's worth....I tried the Hide IP deal last night for the 3 hour trial, it was brill. I do have a very decent internet speed, and I normally use torrents for watching UK TV.
Regards your issues identified - none applied to my experience-as yet.
1. It is fast enough to stream video realtime
2. Yes, on my PC, but then hooked up to full screen on my flat screen TV
3. Don't have either, so not a problem to me.
4. Can't comment as yet, but the version I now have bought (same as trial version) is working just fine, simple operation.
5. My firewall was fine, no changes - maybe due to previous torrent use?
6. I use IE

All in all, this is great, at this time. Maybe the whole thing will get shut down in a short time frame but in the meantime I'm watching all ITV stuff on their catchup page, BBC IPlayer and Channel 4 - without any problems, buffering or other issues.....it's like being in the UK again -yeh.

Hutch

Stuck inside watching Dickinson's Real Deal on the telly?

Luckyone

Never caught that one I'm afraid, and don't think I'll be trying it either by the sound of it
If you saw the crap TV we get here in Canada (only my opinion, but the one that matters eh?) you'd understand why being able to watch all the equally crap Brit TV is such a refreshing change.

Hutch

Oh believe me - it's every bit as shit here in Oz - hence the guide in my signature.

herrchook

Here's another site worth a look..... http://www.tvcatchup.com

Use it to watch BBC 1 2 & 3, ITV 1 2 3 & 4, channel 4, More4 and E4, Channel 5 and 5 US.

It won't let you signup from here in Aus, but works fine if you get someone in the UK to signup for you.