Anyone have any stories good or bad about using a VPN service to watch US television streams?

I tried configuring a proxy but that stopped working a while back (could not find one that would work). More recently I tried Hotspot Shield and it worked.

For the record, I don't use it very often, and have not (yet) used it to watch full-length shws. Just some promo clips and other stuff that Ausiello sometimes pushes (for the life of me I cannot figure out why NBC would want to regionally-block a 2-minute clip of the starsof Chuck fooling around on set).

I tried Hotspot shield today and no go for NBC, Hulu, ABC... :(

rss torrents. easier and better quality. superior in all aspects really.

I haven't tried any VPN services myself, but plan to in the near future. Witopia (http://www.witopia.net) caught my eye and looks promising, and I've seen Ace VPN (http://www.acevpn.com) recommended, although I haven't really looked into them. Witopia offers two levels of service; one for US$40/yr and one for US$60/yr. They claim the more expensive option is unblockable.

The one I use is called Free VPN. Wonderful program, so far all of the streaming sites I've tried have worked perfectly: Fox, ABC, NBC, Hulu.com, CBS, The CW, all of them. And the best part is that my Internet speeds don't seem to be affected whatsoever. Give it a try and let me know if it works as well for you.

http://thefreevpn.com/

Hotspot Shield has been blocked by Hulu.com, and I'm sure a lot of the other US networks are starting to block it as well. Hulu usually brings up a message that says "we see you are using an anonymous proxy, you have been blocked". But the only problem with Free VPN I've seen so far is that you can't edit Wikipedia (ha, who cares?)

P.S. - Xax, definitely download Free VPN before considering those pay services. You don't need a pay service for a good proxy program.

I have been using WiTopia's personalVPN – SSL/PPTP combo for a while now and have found it to be very good. No issues with any of the sites you mentioned and with a UK option I am able to enjoy a boatload of programming from the BBC (DRM'd as it may be).

I tried out Free VPN a few times in the last 24 hours, and experienced horrible speeds.

Ditto. VPN didn't work well for me. Significant reduced speed.

Hmm, what types of speeds were you guys getting? I'm already used to 1.5 mbps and that's what I was getting, so maybe that's just slow for you guys?

I'm used to maxing out at 300k/s, but I could barely load websites with Free VPN connected. I also noticed that it changed my homepage in Firefox every time I ran it, and I got an uneasy vibe from their site when I saw the title of their front page started with "Hotspot shield sucks!"

From what I've heard, I'm better off spending a bit of money to go with Witopia.

My speeds have been decent with Witopia. The download speed is probably half what it is when not VPN'd (I have Bell Max 12) apx. 5mb/s and intersetingly the upload speeds are double what they are when not VPN'd apx. 1.5mb/s according to various speed test sites.

I should also point out that the added security when connection from a public WiFi hotspot is an added bonus as well.

Hmm, yeah I may try out Witopia if I ever get a faster connection. Right now all we have is Bell Aliant 1.5 mbps (it's all that's available, we're rural), so if that gets cut in half then I'd only have a 500 kbps connection. FreeVPN seems to be keeping my 1.5 mbps connection. Have you tried FreeVPN, Biggworm?

this one is pretty good but only 100 free accounts per month...they offer uk/usa servers btw...its fast enough for hulu/bbc

http://www.hideipvpn.com/free-vpn/

I used Hotspot Shield for most of the last year with very good success, but for the last month or I've been getting an "unable to connect" window every time I've tried to use it. Reinstalling didn't help, nor did trying different browsers. I'll have to try some of the other options mentioned to see if it's a Hotspot Shield issue or something more sinister:eek:

I haven't tried FreeVPN CrazyInSane. I should give it a try sometime to see how it compares to Witopia.

Bad news for Witopia. From Slashdot:

"It's human nature that people always want what they can't have — which is why there's so much interest around the world in accessing the US-only Hulu site. Hulu offers a range of television shows for streaming, including Family Guy, The Daily Show and House along with a few full length movies. ... If you're outside the US, the easiest method for accessing Hulu that many people are discussing online, is using a US-based VPN, which tricks Hulu into thinking their computer is within the US. Initially Hulu started cracking down on free VPN services such as Hotspot Shield, but now it's turned its attention to Witopia — which costs $40 or $US60 per year but offers a faster, more secure and more reliable service than its free competitors. Initially Witopia's LA gateway remained unaffected, but now Hulu has blocked this as well."

Hotspot shield is blocked by hulu :(

and FreeVPN trigger my anti-virus !!! :o

Now I'm lost without my hulu!!...I need my hulu!!

Anybody got a good VPN for hulu!?

Can anyone comment on whether http://www.hideipvpn.com/ (free or premium) has had outages for Hulu and BBC iPlayer?

I'm thinking of rolling my old media centre in the new year.

Thought I'd let people know that I tried an account at the site I mentioned above. Working for both Hulu and BBC iPlayer