Is It Possible To Watch BBC iPlayer Outside UK?
Many of you may have tried to use iPlayer abroad while on holiday, travelling or on assignment in a foreign country. You will of course have found that it does not work.
It is however actually possible to watch iPlayer abroad, in fact it is surprisingly easy, you will find all the best solutions here both paid and free.
It should be noted that BBC iPlayer is funded by the UK TV license, if you live in the UK you MUST buy a UK TV license to watch the BBC.
It is however actually possible to watch iPlayer abroad, in fact it is surprisingly easy, you will find all the best solutions here both paid and free.
It should be noted that BBC iPlayer is funded by the UK TV license, if you live in the UK you MUST buy a UK TV license to watch the BBC.
How Do They Know I Am Abroad?
It is quite easy really, every device connected to the internet has a unique number, normally given to it by an Internet Service Provider (ISP), this number is called you IP address.
Wikipedia defines an IP address as "An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical identification and logical address that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network"
Each country has a set of IP addresses, thus once they know your IP address all they need do is check this against the country database and they know where you are. Thus you computer connected in Germany has a German IP and this is why you cant watch iPlayer outside UK. The exception that proves the rule however would, as always be AOL, who have a slightly different system to most ISPs and as such it is possible to be a user in France and have a UK IP address.
To watch iPlayer outside UK you just need to make it look like you are NOT outside the UK, effectively you need to do what AOL is doing to those users in France.
How can you do this? Read on!
Wikipedia defines an IP address as "An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical identification and logical address that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network"
Each country has a set of IP addresses, thus once they know your IP address all they need do is check this against the country database and they know where you are. Thus you computer connected in Germany has a German IP and this is why you cant watch iPlayer outside UK. The exception that proves the rule however would, as always be AOL, who have a slightly different system to most ISPs and as such it is possible to be a user in France and have a UK IP address.
To watch iPlayer outside UK you just need to make it look like you are NOT outside the UK, effectively you need to do what AOL is doing to those users in France.
How can you do this? Read on!
VPNs and Proxies
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) and a Proxy will, in our case, give us the same end results. Though they are quite different in how they work the end result is that it 'appears' as though you internet connection is in the country where the VPN ends or the Proxy is located.
We do not need to cover how they work here, you can look it up in Wikipedia or Google if you really want to know, all we need to know is that they DO work.
We do not need to cover how they work here, you can look it up in Wikipedia or Google if you really want to know, all we need to know is that they DO work.
Easy Solutions to iPlayer Outside the UK
Those interested in using a free proxy should look at Free BBC iPlayer Proxy, which is completely free to use . You will need to limit it to using just UK proxies, and this is easier to write than it is to actually do, though there is a guide provided. In addition because so many people are using such a free network speeds are often pretty slow, as such you will probably find it is frequently too slow to work with iPlayer. However it is FREE! Please note that I do not recomend going this route, the process takes time to setup and you will spend more time in the future changing settings.
So while Free Proxies tend to be slow and hard to setup the paid for options are generally fast and very easy to use. There are a number of companies selling such a service but the one I personally use is Identity Cloaker. The package is easy to install, in fact you don't need to install it if you don't want as the program can run off a USB stick (of course you would never put it on a stick and run it in the office would you!).
You get the added bonus in that is comes with the option to connect you to the USA and Canada (as well as a few other European countries) for no extra cost so you can watch their TV as well!
PLUS the software includes a VPN function as well, so you are getting VPN and Proxy services at the same time, this allows you to download program to view offline if you like.
There is a free demo, but I don't recommend it to you as you can't test the ability to watch iPlayer outside UK with the demo. If you want to run a test go for the 5 euro 10 day trial (the subscription does NOT auto renew). If you like it the package costs 6.66 Euro a month after that, if you don't like it just don't renew.
So while Free Proxies tend to be slow and hard to setup the paid for options are generally fast and very easy to use. There are a number of companies selling such a service but the one I personally use is Identity Cloaker. The package is easy to install, in fact you don't need to install it if you don't want as the program can run off a USB stick (of course you would never put it on a stick and run it in the office would you!).
You get the added bonus in that is comes with the option to connect you to the USA and Canada (as well as a few other European countries) for no extra cost so you can watch their TV as well!
PLUS the software includes a VPN function as well, so you are getting VPN and Proxy services at the same time, this allows you to download program to view offline if you like.
There is a free demo, but I don't recommend it to you as you can't test the ability to watch iPlayer outside UK with the demo. If you want to run a test go for the 5 euro 10 day trial (the subscription does NOT auto renew). If you like it the package costs 6.66 Euro a month after that, if you don't like it just don't renew.
