Can you watch BBC Iplayer by Proxy?
You might have noticed that when you are outside the UK, you cannot access the BBC Iplayer. The reason is that the BBC uses something called Geolocation to restrict viewing to specific users. Basically what the BBC IPlayer site does is look at your IP address and compare it with a database to determine where you are surfing from.
If the database says that your iP address is not registered in the UK you'll get blocked. It's worth trying though, some of these IP databases are out of date and may incorrectly place you in the UK even if you're not. For instance there's quite a chunk of French IP addresses that get listed as UK addresses and these can play BBC Iplayer without problems.
So what can you do if your IP address is listed as being outside the UK, are the BBC Iplayer delights like Formula One and Match of the day denied you? Well there is hope and it's actually quite a simple conumdrum to solve. So lets have a look at some options.
BBC Iplayer Proxy Options
The cheapest option but not necessarily the simplest is to connect back to a UK machine, what you need is to create a simple VPN or SSH tunnel back to a PC in the UK. You can then modify your proxy settings in your browser and your IP address will appear to be based in the UK. This method works well if you have some technical knowledge and access to a machine in the UK, one of the problems is that you'll need a good upload speed from the UK machine or the connection will be extremely slow.
Another option is the BBC IPlayer proxy method, find a free proxy server and surf via this. Of course you'll have to make sure it's in the UK but it should enable to view BBC IPlayer. The drawbacks are that you have to continually search for new proxies, the free ones rarely last very long, sometimes only hours before they are overloaded. Make sure you don't do your normal browsing through these proxies though and make sure your virus checkers are up to date.
The other method is to use a commercial option, this is just paying a fee to use a UK based proxy server. It works pretty much the same as the free method with the advantages that it is much safer, much quicker and you can connect any time you wish.
If the database says that your iP address is not registered in the UK you'll get blocked. It's worth trying though, some of these IP databases are out of date and may incorrectly place you in the UK even if you're not. For instance there's quite a chunk of French IP addresses that get listed as UK addresses and these can play BBC Iplayer without problems.
So what can you do if your IP address is listed as being outside the UK, are the BBC Iplayer delights like Formula One and Match of the day denied you? Well there is hope and it's actually quite a simple conumdrum to solve. So lets have a look at some options.
BBC Iplayer Proxy Options
The cheapest option but not necessarily the simplest is to connect back to a UK machine, what you need is to create a simple VPN or SSH tunnel back to a PC in the UK. You can then modify your proxy settings in your browser and your IP address will appear to be based in the UK. This method works well if you have some technical knowledge and access to a machine in the UK, one of the problems is that you'll need a good upload speed from the UK machine or the connection will be extremely slow.
Another option is the BBC IPlayer proxy method, find a free proxy server and surf via this. Of course you'll have to make sure it's in the UK but it should enable to view BBC IPlayer. The drawbacks are that you have to continually search for new proxies, the free ones rarely last very long, sometimes only hours before they are overloaded. Make sure you don't do your normal browsing through these proxies though and make sure your virus checkers are up to date.
The other method is to use a commercial option, this is just paying a fee to use a UK based proxy server. It works pretty much the same as the free method with the advantages that it is much safer, much quicker and you can connect any time you wish.
Source...