Having been prompted by the wife to investigate how to access the American version of Netflix and by Child 2’s usage of the same, I did a little digging.
There are many options out there. Unblockus is popular and convenient and it costs $5 a month. The advantage of Unblockus for me is the ability to install its DNS addresses right on the router, thus allowing every device on our network – including the PS3 – to access geo-blocked American media. When you access one of the chosen services, your browser would ask you which geographic location you would like to use. I’m not sure we would get that choice with Netflix on the PS3.
Child 2 was using Hola, which comes in ad-supported free and pay versions. Hola is actually peer-to-peer software and I suspect it of driving up our bandwidth using Child 2’s laptop. Regardless, it is browser-based software and as such may not always work with browser updates or even your browser of choice, like my preference to use Safari.
I settled on a free alternative, Media Hint. There’s another hobby-project called Tunlr that works with DNS redirection, the same approach that Unblockus uses.
Media Hint works in the browser, but also at the system level in OS X, which is how I have set mine up. Here’s how:
- Open System Preferences. Open the Network settings pane.
- Click on the connection you are using, which will almost certainly be either Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
- Click on the Location drop-down menu and choose Edit Locations…
- Select your default location (Automatic, unless you’ve renamed it). Click on the gear icon and choose “Duplicate Location”.
- Rename the location you just created to something more obvious, like “US TV”. Choose it to activate it and click the Done button.
- Click the Advanced button. Click on Proxies in the header.
- Activate the checkbox for Automatic Proxy Configuration. In the URL field for Automatic Proxy Configuration and paste this URL: https://mediahint.com/default.pac
- Click the OK button. Exit System Preferences, saving changes if it asks you to.
Now, to switch between being local and appearing to be in the US, click on the Apple menu and then click on the Location menu. Switch between them whenever you want this way.
I haven’t checked, but there should be a way to use Media Hint this way in Windows, too. Or you could opt for Tunlr.
Bonus whine:
Who at WordPress decided that Goth was a good look for version 3.8? Blecch.