We've featured one or two ways to watch Hulu from outside the US, but one user over at Reddit has discovered another method, no outside proxy server required. All you need is a Firefox add-on and a few blocked ports.


First, download the Modify Headers add-on for Firefox. Once installed, go to Tools > Modify Headers in Firefox and add a new filter by clicking on the drop-down menu and hitting "add". In the first box, type X-Forwarded-For and in the second box, type in the IP address of any US web site. Leave the third box blank, and then save and enable the filter.


Next, block TCP and UDP port 1935. To do so on Mac, all you need to do is type the following in a Terminal window:

sudo ipfw add 0 deny tcp from any to any 1935

sudo ipfw add 0 deny udp from any to any 1935

Linux users can install iptables to do it through Terminal as well, with the commands:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 1935 -j DROP

iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 1935 -j DROP


Windows users should be able to follow these instructions to correctly block the ports.

This method should allow access not just to Hulu, but many other US-only streaming sites. Note that this may disable Flash on other sites, so you'll only want to enable this while you're watching video on one of these sites. We Lifehacker editors are all in the US, however, so we can't verify the efficacy of this method. Thus, be sure to let us know what does and does not work for you in the comments, and we'll edit the post accordingly. Also be sure to check out the original post at Reddit and the comments over there, as they have been honing the method quite well.


HULU BREAKTHROUGH!! I am watching Hulu in Canada right now! Without a proxy server. Anyone else care to test? [Reddit]