I am regularly being asked whether there is an easy way to access the TV on demand services that are so useful in the UK. Understandably people want to be able to download their favourite programmes and then watch them when they want – rather than having to tune in at a certain time and date in order to catch the latest episode.
The answer, of course, is yes there are a number of different ways of gaining access to the services like BBC iPlayer when you are here in Spain. Most of the solutions involve using a “proxy” server which fools the service in question into thinking that your computer is in the UK. Although this is a popular solution, I don’t recommend it as it’s not as secure as it could be.
Another popular solution used here seems to be Expat Shield – www.expatshield.com – this uses the more secure VPN (Virtual Private Network) service that I prefer to recommend to my customers. A VPN provides an encrypted and secure connection between two points (in this case between your computer and the servers of the service you use in the UK) and, in my opinion, provides a much more secure method of access than using a proxy server which provides no encryption whatsoever.
My favourite solution, however, is provided by www.my-private-network.co.uk and although it’s a service that you have to pay for, its only £5 a month it doesn’t bug you with the adverts that you see when using Expat Shield.
The upshot of all this, is that if you setup a My Private Network connection on your computer, you will be able to access the “on demand” services offered in the UK. In conjunction with The Jungle Drums, we have negotiated a free trial of My Private Network’s services so that you can try them out and see whether they work with your Internet connection.
This free trial will be available throughout the month of May, after which, if you want to continue to use their service you will need to contact them direct to sign up.
If you decide to sign up to their service, it’s only £5 a month. In order to take advantage of this service, you will need a computer and a broadband Internet connection and the setup is very straight forward. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or your Mac (yes Les, even you can use it!)
The instructions for setup are available from the website at www.my-private-network.co.uk – just click on the “getting started” button and then follow the instructions for your particular operating system. At this stage, if you want to use the trial account, you don’t need to click on the “sign up now” button as the trial account has already been set up and you should use the following information when creating your connection:
Username = bmtrial
Password = May2012
Of course, once you have setup your secure connection to the UK, you will need to navigate to the service that you are interested in using (e.g. BBC iPlayer) in your web browser. I.e. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer – if you visit this website before you have setup your connection you will notice that it’s not available to anyone outside the UK but after you have your connection setup, you won’t not receive this message and you will be able to use the service just as if you were in the UK. Other sites that you might be interested in are www.itv.com/itvplayer (ITV’s catch up website) and www.channel4.com/programmes/4od (Channel 4’s website)