Using a proxy to access BBC iPlayer from abroad

Could this work as a way round the BBC iPlayer block here, or is that a completely different kettle of phisch?

I've messed about with proxies, and can get the BBC website to think I am in England, but iplayer would not work for me.

Are these the proxies behind the station Don_Riina?

iPlayer can be made to work. My mechanism is to install a proxy server on a machine in the UK - proxy+ is free and easy to setup. The point your browser and away you go. Seems like once the connection is established that the traffic is peer to peer so no bad impacts on the poor person hosting your proxy for you. All can be setup and administered remotely to deal with dynamic IPs and can be made secure through your router and proxy+ security settings.

So if you can persuade someone to host a proxy this is the way to all of the on demand services from bbc, itv and channel 4 !

Jono

It might be cheaper or easier too just to ssh to a webserver or somehow setup a ssh server on a friends computer and then use this guide http://thinkhole.org/wp/2006/05/10/howto-s...-im-with-putty/

Although I guess with video the webserver would have to be decently fast.

Sssh? Is there a way for "normal" people? That is far too geek-ological!

Run a socks proxy via ssh:

ssh -D localhost:8080 username@server.in.the.uk

then set your browser to use the following socks proxy:

server: localhost
port: 8080

and Bob's your uncle.

S.

Any chance you could write that in English?

It's not rocket science. I regularly pull BBC and ITV programmes from their respective players. The problem with using your own proxy service on a (e.g. friends) UK system is that the nature of ADSL (upload MUCH slower than download) means they can't stream quickly to you. "Public" proxy servers can be heavily loaded and change frequently, but if you are patient you can often find one that holds up for a day or two, sometimes longer. Check places such as http://www.publicproxyservers.com/ for example. If you use Firefox then FoxyProxy is a cool tool for managing proxies and can be setup to use proxy servers on a per-site basis so changes the proxy settings on your network according to where you are surfing to. You can also use a (free!) tool such as Proxyway to manage your diverted surfing.

www.vpntunnel.co.uk is another way.
Costs a few quid per month but does the trick. Sometimes connection speed is a bit low but so far I've been happy with it.
Easy setup but you really should have a firewall on the machine using it as you will end up with a public ip address.

Last night I tried many of the free 'high anonymity' proxies available on the 'net but could not make any of them work. I'm not sure if the iPlayer saves cookies on the local machine that must be cleared to finally convince it that I'm truly in the UK but even for the few proxies that connected it still seemed like the player knew I was outside the UK. In the end I was pretty sure that as I probably wouldn't be the only one using this approach to watch the football the proxies would be overloaded and the whole idea was a waste of time.

And necrolyte - I'm not sure what you mean, all IP addresses are public, and a decent firewall is essential anyway, so what's the extra risk of going through that VPN tunnel?

Sorry.. Don't post when drunk...

Course you usually have a public IP anyway. Nowadays most people connect through a router though which adds another layer of security if the firewall on that thing is active. This is being bypassed when using the vpntunnel client.

Anyway, with the vpntunnel solution you get a real UK ip address. As BBC is checking the IP that's the only way that I found and so far it works quite well..
I am sitting in Munich and am connected with vpntunnel right now. My IP is out of the 195.178.106.x range which belongs to Real Hosts Limited in the UK. It is a valid UK address space and thus iPlayer will play the content.. I tried many free services, proxies and whatnot but in the end that's the only thing that works.

Proxy, ssh, star trek, spock, woofers, tweeters...

Is there any hope for a normal person to be able to do this?

I would be interested for an idiots guide on how to do this anyone ?

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4 look for a webhost that's UK based see if they have any kind of money back guarantee as I have no idea if it will work. Ask if they give you any kind of shell or ssh access (If you know or remember the dos command prompt this would be like connecting to your server and controlling it via something like that. Real nerdy you bet, but you can then also use your server to request and send traffic to you).

Then you would connect to your very own UK based webserver and follow a guide like this http://thinkhole.org/wp/2006/05/10/howto-s...-im-with-putty/ you can make life easier set things up so it would probably only take a few clicks. I don't really know how many cheap web hosting providers would give out shell access, but if one were to find a cheap one many offer lots of bandwidth for cheap and you could probably get equal and or better performance for way cheaper than any premium proxy service or what have you.

Idiots Guide...cos I am one and I watch the Beeb thru iPlayer nearly daily.

1-Search for free or open proxies in the UK. You'll get numerous lists, you'll have to be patient and just trawl thru them.
2-Open up your firefox/safari (fuck IE if you're using that then tough, cos it's shit) and go to preferences>advanced>proxies
3-enter in the IP number gained from website in 1. Enter in port number in corresponding box (is differentiated by : on websites found in 1..ie you'll get 234.567.89.0:81, the 81 is the port)
4-Try iPlayer, if it still says not available outside UK, or it doesn't work at all, try another IP and port off the list.

I thought I'd provided that Using a proxy to access BBC iPlayer from abroad, but I guess it depends on your definition of "idiot"

Be nice!!
I am also a network engineer for over 15 years and I am sure could school you on real hacking techniques and various other things but that means jack shit when it comes to other things. If you where really that articulate you could explain physics to a child.

Anyways I also have hard times getting this stuff to work and like I said I have had a few years experience in designing vast international networks and till this day can't build a webpage.

Not really, you obviously know what you're doing, but your "guide" seems to me to like directing someone on how to get to Nuernberg by car, when the driver doesn't know how to drive. Timmeh, however seems to have made it somewhat clearer, I shall give it ago when I return to the fatherland!

@Allershausen..

Which is different from the usual IT tech document that would be directing someone to Nuernburg when said person is from there, knows how to get there and back in their sleep and doesnt realy need the document or directions

Thanks necrolyte - I'd be interested to see how any of the 'free open proxies' compare. I've used them before to sign up for VOIP services from the UK but never for streaming content, and find the whole process of searching for one that works tiresome. If I get that hooked on the iPlayer then I'd just pay for the tunnel.

Edit: And does anyone know why the BBC restrict usage to those who can watch the same content on terrestrial TV anyway, denying those who have no other means? I imagine they explain it somewhere on their website but my question is somewhat rhetorical. I've heard much complaining from UK service providers (who are a bunch of self serving tossers generally) complaining about their networks getting swamped by the amount of traffic it causes, but this is the way the 'net's going and they should shut up and get used to it. I'd happily swamp Telekom's network to watch the occaisional BBC clip...

I have space on a shared server in the UK (with FTP/SSH access).

Do I need to install anything on the server itself? Would there be much additional load on the server if I did this, and is it typically against the wishes of shared server hosts?

BBC restrict viewing of copyright material to UK viewers, in the same way they try to do this over satellite by limiting the viewing footprint. Not all, but most programming is restricted by IP address. Providers complain especially about IPlayer because it's a file sharing service like Napster, Shareza, et al. As soon as you log in then any material you have already downloaded is available to other viewers to access, so your own network connection gets hammered in both directions. It's not a simple one-way pipe from the BBC server.

You don't need to install anything special, using putty or whatever SSH program you can configure it to tunnel all traffic using a socks5 proxy. It shouldn't be against anyone's wishes, it might use up some bandwidth but shouldn't put much of any load on the server.