This really hasn’t been a good week for Hulu, although it has been a good week for those people who want to watch Hulu but aren’t able to do so either on the device of their choice or in the country they live in.
Hulu – Only In The U.S.
I’m sure if you, like me, live outside the borders of the United States, you’re well aware that Hulu is off-limits, restricted, not available.
It’s not that Hulu has anything against us, you understand, but the networks and channels which provide Hulu with its content don’t want us to be able to view programming we haven’t yet paid for in one way or another. Which is understandable, if not very, very annoying.
I’ve moaned about the issue of international rights licensing, arguing it’s something that needs to change in order to better fit in with the Web and its worldwide userbase. But nothing will get done all the while there is big money at stake.
Which means we have to find our own way or bypassing the system. For some it’s piracy, for others it’s using proxies or VPN services. But there is another way, which is genius, and which works. Amazingly.
Hulu Workaround
A very simple yet effective way of being able to watch Hulu outside the U.S. was discovered by how-to-hide-ip.info. I’ve been testing it for the past 24 hours and can confirm it works as it should do.
All you need to do is install the Firefox Web browser, then install the Modify Headers plugin to Firefox. Next, click Tools in Firefox, and then click Modify Headers.
A new window will appear, and after clicking Add in the drop-down menu enter the line ‘X-Forwarded-For’ in the first box, ‘12.13.14.15’ in the second, and leave the third blank.
Finally, click on Configuration and make sure Always On is checked. Then you can go to Hulu.com and watch video content to your heart’s desire no matter where you live.
N.B. Don’t blame us if this method either doesn’t work for you or if it affects your computer/browsing experience in some way. It worked for us, and we haven’t yet noticed any ill effects yet.
Conclusions
This is great for those of us outside the States, but not so great for Hulu. Especially coming, as it does, just a few days after PlayOn released a Web app enabling Hulu to be viewed on an iPhone or iPod Touch.
I fully expect this loophole to be closed at some point so make the most of it while you can.
