Fooling the internet

[peddler665]

Does anyone use https://www.hidemyass.com/ ?
A lot of US based services are not available in Mexico & have been told I can bypass this restriction by using this service. Has anybody used it & what is your opinion?
Thanks

[DonJuane]

"Depende" as they say here in jolly Mexico ;-)

The hidemyass service has good ratings. I also have used StrongVPN successfully. There are many others. I have set up people before working for corporations in the US to where they appeared to be working from the US while working here in Mexico, and this even works when they had a corporate VPN running over one of these US VPN services that you are speaking of.

There is a growing issue however and that is that corporations you work for as well as companies with online video services such as Netflix are starting to "know" what IP addresses the VPN providers are using and are starting to block them accordingly. Back 2 years ago when I last set this up for someone, for example, StrongVPN provided reverse IP address lookups that showed names of ISPs instead of domain names such as "hide my ass" which more or less proves to the provider you are connecting to, that you are coming in over a VPN, opposed to those services such as StrongVPN which offer services which show a domain name of an ISP do not (necessarily) show you were using a VPN. This can be an issue when you are talking Netflix or when your corporate VPN might be sending a report to your management on where you IP appears to be from (better coming in from "ISP xyz" rather than "hide my ass").

[peddler665]

Thanks
I can live with Mexico Netflix but would like to be able to listen to Pandora Music, watch some of the network shows & Youtube along with a few others.

[roberb7]

I been using BoxPN for a couple of years now. I can access US Netflix most of the time. No luck at all with Hulu. As for Pandora, I switched Spotify several years ago. It has no geographic restrictions, and I like it better anyway.
I switched from another service to BoxPN when the 2014 Olympics came around. CBC television (understandably) had a lot of Olympic coverage, but it was Canada-only. (Also understandable, since it's Canadian taxpayers who pay for it.) BoxPN has servers in 30 different countries, instead of just the US.

[SoNouveau]

I use Hotspot Shield and have done so in Peru, Chile, here in Mexico, and in the U.S. (And for the past 7 years.)

For instance, I connect to and use Netflix (in the US) without any problem whatsoever.

I also connect to places like Australia (!)--because you can watch some NFL games there without a problem. (I don´t have my information in front of me but I think it´s something like Match7. If you can´t find it, let me know and I´ll send you the correct URL later on.)

I connect to servers in Canada, too, where you can watch any number of US television programs--typically the day after they air, without any need for a silly cable television account. LOL It's CityTV.com, I think.

I would recommend that you pony up the money to get the "Elite" membership (ad-free).

If you have questions, I'd be glad to clarify things.

[James Doran]

Hello:

I am not sure what I am asking for. I want to be able to watch some US television while in Mexico fo several months each year. Right now I do not have TelMex cable; only a telephone and internet. Both work fine and are inexpensive here.

I have heard that these days I should be able to buy an service (on the internet I presume) that can provide me something like cable TV but through the internet. Then wherever I go, if I can get on the internet (with enough bandwidth) I can watch my regular TV.

That's the basic idea.

I am wondering if I can buy whatever that TV/Internet service is here in Mexico, then access it when I am in the US? No sense buying it twice. And it is probably cheaper here.

Any leads on how to crack this nut would be helpful and appreciated. If anyone knows exactly what to do, I am happy to compensate for the technical support.

James
jim@doranlegal.com

[DonJuane]

If you have everything lined up in the US to where you depend solely on the Internet as a source of your piped-in entertainment (e.g. you pay for Netflix, and/or various paid broadcast network programs) and you do this while not paying a monthly cable or satellite provider, then what you do is try to find a low-profile VPN provider that the entertainment industry doesn't keep close tabs on or one big enough with enough pooled IP addresses to change often enough to keep the entertainment industry service managers fooled. Or you can also do what I do which is find a relative in the US with an ultra fast broadband connection and install a VPN Server on their router for you to access your services "there" from "here" in Mexico.

Otherwise you can play with any of the hundreds of unauthorized and illegal in the US services which play cat and mouse getting shut down and popping back up in a new place, here today and gone tomorrow that you may either pay no fee for and have very poor to no service, or you join an unknown ownership of some out of US service while paying monthly dues and have mixed service levels that could vanish any day and with that, vanish the functionality of the equipment or software you invested in where you are always worried and always hoping nothing goes wrong. Nevertheless it is a great hobby and even a good career path but in general expats don't pay for advice or services unless they are dirt cheap, so thus not that many people work in this area or they can't manage it long term (too much fallout when all their customer base crashes when something ill-legit gets shut down.)

Anyway if you are interested, just search the forum here for hints on how to contact certain people who provide those various iterations of services. As far as a legitimate entertainment base from the US that allows you to view things here in Mexico as if you were in the US, last time I checked there weren't any.

I had all that set up but don't mess with it much any longer. There's just too much to see an do here in Mexico and a shame to watch TV all the time. Worst of all is sporting events. I say go out and toss a ball or run around the block and give yourself a break from TV ... or better yet, waste all your time responding to people's blog inquiries like I do ;-)