Hulu has claimed fair amount of popularity since its release in 2007 as it allows users to watch full episodes of their favorite TV shows. Similarly Pandora is famous for its free online music entertainment features.
However the sad part is that both of these sites provide content for the US users only and other users living across the world can not access the content on both of these sites.
One way of accessing Hulu or Pandora from outside the US is to use a good web proxy that is strong enough to provide you the bandwidth to watch videos and fast enough to stream the content without any loading problems.
The other way, as discussed by TechCrunch, is to use a good and reliable VPN service. VPN or Virtual Private Network offers a secure pipe from where you can access the web, and in turn disguise the location of the user on the end connection. Most of the VPN services are commercial and are costly but there is one VPN service which is still free.
HotSpot Shield provides a free VPN service for Windows and Mac OSX users for free. The service is free because it uses banner advertisement so every page you visit using this VPN service will have a banner ad on the top but as long as it charges $0 you can’t complain much.
Using this free VPN service you will be able to watch videos at Hulu and you will also be able to listen music on Pandora. Great isn’t it?
Saad Hamid is a blogger and technology enthusiast from Pakistan. Connect with him on
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey thanks for reporting this, I have been really missed Pandora up here in Canada since they decided to block us.
Was sort of pissed when they made this decision as I used to use it daily at work.
This works great, I just installed it on my Mac and it works, I love it, ahhh Pandora is back!
you could use ultrareach to view hulu videos outside the US
Hotspot sucks. It hijacks your web browser often by replacing the current page you are browsing with ads. Also, connection is very slow. Not able to view movies on HULU as streaming struck often.
Nothing is free. Hotspot is bad and i hate advertisement!
I am able to access hulu from my US vpn account bought from http://www.smallvpn.com . Ads free !! =)
This won’t work anymore because hulu is blocking anonymous proxies.
Unfortunately, as of Jun 21, 2009, Hulu now checks if you are using Hotspot Shield to connect and doesn’t let you view videos any more. I wonder if any of the other VPNs work.
I was browsing around for alternate ways to watch hulu. It looks like the only decent way to do it, is to purchase a private VPN account. I highly doubt hulu can ban them all. I purchased mine from http://www.hidemynet.com , they provide UK and US servers currently, so I can also login to the UK server to access online video offered in the UK
. Like, Iplayer, Channel 4 on demand, bbc, etc. And it's only 5$/month, beats having to deal with the hassles of using hotspot shield (which is now banned anyway).
I actually made it working using AOL desktop. I have setup instructions on my site. http://camphd.com/watch-hulu-streaming-videos-a...
I actually made it working using AOL desktop. I have setup instructions on my site. http://camphd.com/watch-hulu-streaming-videos-a...
HotSpot Shield doesn't work anymore. Hulu is onto them. I ended up using the method outlined on http://www.accesshulu.com and it worked.
HotSpot Shield doesn't work anymore. Hulu is onto them. I ended up using the method outlined on http://www.accesshulu.com and it worked.