Last Updated on February 12, 2020

The trouble with most media websites is they look at your IP before determining what you can see online. More precisely they look at WHERE your IP is authorized to. Some internet sites like search engines use this to tailor your search results, to ensure that you do not end up getting a plumber who lives on the reverse side of the planet when you sort “local plumber” into Google.

So that is great but regrettably that is just about the only advantage. Much more often it is used to prevent access, so if you need to see US TV stations on line from Europe or perhaps British TV whilst in the US then you’ll be out of luck.

Here’s an example of the kind of display that you’ll get if you do try….

You’ll have the same sort of difficulty if you attempt to access NBC, ABC, Hulu or even Pandora from anyplace outside the USA – because you don’t have a US IP. It gets really annoying, particularly when you travel a lot and discover your self blocked from your favorite web sites simply because you happen to be in another location briefly.

Fortunately it’s possible to sidestep these blocks and actually a complete little miniature industry has developed into allowing completely unfettered use of these web sites.

OK just for illustration, although the same applies to almost every single media site in the world – let’s try and watch the wonderful BBC Iplayer from outside the UK. We’ll just use a security program called Identity Cloaker to access the BBC to demonstrate. The trick is to fool the website into thinking you’re in the UK. This is done by connecting via a different IP address, one based in the UK and hidden by a proxy server.

Here’s what I actually do

That is the small front end of Identity Cloaker which offers you the list of all the proxy servers (about 10 pages of them across a dozen countries). We want a UK one as that will give you a British IP address which is essential for UK TV in the USA. In this screen you search down and look for a UK host which has the fastest speed to your relative location. You can also access sites in the United States, Italy, Germany, Canada, Holland and some more places simply by choosing the correct banners.

After selecting this server you will have no problems – simply go to the BBC website and watch whatever you like. You can even disconnect after the programme you wish to watch has started playing (although if you need to change you’ll need to connect to a UK server again).

It’s very easy to use thanks to the point and click interface of Identity Cloaker. It will allow you to see UK TV in almost any country at all, your location simply doesn’t matter. There are loads of providers out there now , but I truly can recommend Identity Cloaker, they have now been around many years, really fast servers and do not charge per proxy like most of the companies.

There’s a really cheap demo for 10 days for a couple of dollars here — Identity Cloaker 10 day trial — try it first to check out how it works for you.