TVPN

So, with the Hulu going live today, there's going to be a whole bunch of Canuckleheads going to the site, only to get the "sorry, you're not American, so you can't watch. Pthhhbt."

Proxy servers allow you to surf anonymously, but  don't allow video, so that doesn't work. 

There is a solution, albeit not a perfect one. it's called a VPN, which stands for Virtual Private Network. There are pay VPNs out there, but a popular alternative is HotSpot Shield. It's designed as a way to keep your wi-fi secure, but, because the VPN links to a US server, creative users have learned that yes, you can use it to watch video off sites like Hulu. 

Why is it not perfect? First off, this one falls into a big grey area for me. I'm not big on pirating movies or music, so I don't use bit torrent, even though that's what most people suggest. But I work fairly random hours, and I don't have a chance to watch the shows that I want to, when I want to. I used to video tape, but frankly, the quality sucks. And Tivo is too rich for my blood. In the past, I've just waited for the DVD. But just watching the show on a computer, like I would a TV?

Most people don't have such issues. But one other drawback that users will probably bump into: they've throttled back the service in the last few months, and users only have a finite amount of bandwidth. I don't know how much yet, but if you're looking for more bandwidth, there are paid services...