I hope I haven't missed a post where this has been covered, but I have finally discovered the means by which I can now reliably watch BBC iPlayer and other UK Channels programs via the internet from Bodrum. That is not to say I can watch the BBC directly, but using the BBC iPlayer website you can go back and watch/download programs that are something like three hours old for all the Beebs channels.

For a smallish fee ($10 via Pay Pal) the following www. consult-here . com sent the information on how to achieve the above and also offers a service. I was skeptical at first but risked the few quid, and true to their word, the information followed within minutes. They offer three methods of set-up - I chose option 2 for one months trial and it is working very well indeed, I can now watch the BBC iPlayer programs directly without downloading, although I have also tried that and it works just fine.

I have no connection with these people, and there maybe others out there who offer the service, but these are the one's I'm presently using and it's working well.

Blimey Bob, Thanks for the info.Is it easy to set up.I am not exactly brilliant at setting up things on my computer.But thanks again anyway .I will give it a go.

BBC channels are now available live via this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/watchlive/ provided you set up the VPN as I've described above. My internet connection here is tad slow at present and the reception is coming and going a tad, but it is working

Sadly the http://www.consult-here.com/vpn.html is a scam, and it should be avoided.



Shame. I'll keep looking for a legit site.

wstewart

Please explain yourself further - because if it is a scam I haven't seen it. As a user of this forum for some years now my post was made in good faith, I would not have made my original post if I hadn't tried it myself first.

The method and VPN service provider (Consult) I have decribed works for me. I have been watching the BBC regularly and downloading from iPlayer this very day, and so far they (Consult) have given me no reason to suspect them. I too was cautious- as we should be with anything on the web, but so far so good- they have delivered as promised and the VPN line is reliable, they have also communicated with me as a service provider and have followed up with additional VPN servers to improve the service. Yes there is a reasonable fee (via Pay Pal) for the service as is the case for anything.

But, if there is something to be concerned about then please tell us what it is.

I don't know about the service you mention, but iplayer and all the others are free of charge provided you live in the uk.
If you don't live in the uk then you must make the website think that you do by using a proxy. There are lots of free proxies to choose from and it's easy enough to set up.

I just need to upgrade to a faster package with Turk Telecom now to make it more reliable.

Hi Bodrum Bob .I didnt think for a minute that you posted with anything but the best of intentions.However wstewart put me off trying to use this.I would love to access iplayer .Are you still happy with it and had no problems?

SueP / JohnEniste

I believe wstewart's silence on the matter is indicative of a 'spoiler post' for reasons best known to himself.

The route I took was to try to use some of the free proxy servers which, as JohnE very rightly says can be had for free if you look for them, but I found them too unreliable. I found Consult-here dot com on a web search, there are others as I mentioned in my first post, but I chose them for a trial. I downloaded their instructions for a £5 or so, then took up their offer of a months trial for £7 or so via Pay Pal. It worked! Their instructions are clear and they followed up with an email and extra server addresses to use. Since then the VPN links have worked with about 95% reliability, and when they haven't, its been due to slow bandwidth this end I guess- and then only for periods of 10 muntes or so. I have found in Bodrum that my ADSL line permits direct viewing without downloading, during the mornings or late afternoons, during the evening I do find its better to download a program rather than try and watch if bandwidth is slow. You can now watch BBC channels live, but I've haven't used that very much- but it does work.

So SueP, that's my experience. I watched the Edinburgh Tatoo last night direct off iPlayer with but one slight pause for downloading. It is of course a bit of a fiddle to get around the UK restrictions- but once the Beeb offers access to international viewers over the web, which it is planning to, I go this route. As a firm supporter of the BBC once they come online internationally I'll sign up with them direct.

As an aside, if you just want BBC World News, CNN, AlJazerra, Euronnews, ITN and many others online for free, download 'Livestation', I'm watching here live as I type this. It's been great and works well on my line about 80% of the time. Just do a search on Livestation to find the link.

Great Informative!

Watching UK TV overseas

There have been a lot of threads on this, so here’s a summary of the main concepts. There are basically just three ways to watch UK TV online from abroad, Placeshifting, VPNs and Web Proxies. Any legitimate site will tell you which of these methods their system uses.

Placeshifting

Before the BBC and other UK brodcasters put their TV output online, the only way to watch TV at a remote location was by a technology that became known as placeshifting. This involves the use of a hardware device that connects to an aerial or video source and produces a digital output that that can be sent over an internet connection.

The market leaders in this field are Slingbox and prices for Slingboxes start at 100 pounds or so. There are a few cheaper alternatives available, including the Novac USB device that allows you to stream TV over the Skype network and also the Mac only solution called The Tube that streams TV using iChat and a USB TV adapter.

The downsides to making your own TV stream are - (1) It uses a lot of bandwidth, normal broadband upload speeds are about 300k and such a device will use all of it and make the connection slow for any other device on the same connection. (2) Whichever device you use, it will need to be left on 24/7 so it's available when you want it. (3) It only works with live TV (no catchup) so if you forget to record a programme, it will be gone forever.

The upsides to this sort of solution are- (1) A lot more channels are available. (2) It's probably the only fully legal solution as the receiving equipment is in the UK and normally only one person can view it remotely.

If you're not able to make your own stream using placeshifting, there are few companies that operate banks of Slingboxes for rental but their costs are quite high, this one is £183 setup and £55 per month.

Some of the systems that you'll find advertised on the internet as 'Download our software and get access to 100's of TV channels online' are sites that offer Slingbox type solutions and in the small print you'll find mention of a monthly subscription. What you'll be downloading is a Slingbox player application. They can't offer the service for free because the cost of the bandwidth used is too expensive.

VPN - Virtual Private Network

The second way to watch UK TV online is by using a VPN (Virtual Private Network). Since the advent of the BBC iPlayer, watching British broadcasters live streams has become a viable solution for watching UK TV online. Major channels store content for up to 30 days, so there’s no hassle about schedules – watch what you want, when you want.

However, anyone who has tried it from abroad will be aware that all the broadcasters have put in place systems to prevent users from overseas watching them.

Blocking of overseas users is done by comparing their IP address with a list of known UK IP addresses. Some of the broadcasters have their own lists and others use third party companies to do the checking for them. In either case, you will get a message such as 'Not available in your area' when you try to watch them or ‘ITV is encountering technical problems’.

There are two methods to overcome these IP based restrictions, VPNs and web proxies.

A VPN or Virtual Private Network is most commonly used by the employees of large companies as a method of gaining access to the company's network or intranet whilst working at a remote location.

VPNs work by creating a 'tunnel' within a user’s internet connection, through which all the users traffic is sent. The VPN server will assign the user a British IP address and they will appear to the outside world as being part of the company's network. You can see a picture of how VONs work at www. uktvaccess . com/setup. htm.

IP checking services will have no way of knowing which users are physically on the UK network and which are at remote locations.

BBC iPlayer with a VPN

Using a VPN to watch iPlayer and other UK TV online is a workable solution.

However, with a VPN connection, all your internet traffic is sent via the tunnel which can slow down your connection for other things apart from watching TV. For example, if you were in the US, collecting email from your local ISP or doing a system update would require the data to travel from the US to the VPN server in the UK and then back across the Atlantic to you. Even so, in most cases this slowing would be hardly noticable, and we manage to watch UK TV and still browse other sites. But for best Internet performance, switch off your VPN when not accessing sites that require a UK IP address.

However, for some users a VPN will be the only solution as some countries such as Dubai and UAE block any sort of proxy.

Zattoo

One way of overcoming the massive amounts of bandwidth required (BBC iPlayer accounts for about 5% of all UK internet traffic) is to use peer to peer sharing technology such as that used by Zattoo.

This system has very few users who actually receive the original stream from Zattoo and the ones that do share it with other users further down the chain and each user in turn becomes part of the distribution network.

A VPN is the only way you can watch UK TV on Zattoo outside the UK as the Zattoo player ignores any proxy settings you may have and determines it's own connection to the internet. We have tried a VPN tunnel between UK and the Turkey and can report it uses 2Mb of continuous bandwidth in both directions when watching the Zattoo player, and we still only had a few channels and no catchup.

Whilst the quality of this system is very good, you will need a VPN with unmetered bandwidth as this system uses a lot, mostly because you have to share your stream with anyone else who wants it.

Web Proxy servers

The third and final way to watch UK TV online from abroad is by the use of a proxy server.

Proxy servers work in a similar manner to VPNs in as much as they redirect traffic over a different route but they are more selective about which traffic gets redirected.

With a proxy, you normally specify an IP address of the proxy server and a port number, usually port 8080. You can also specify what traffic is to be sent via the proxy, normal web browsing is done on port 80 and secure pages are served on port 443.

Typical proxy settings will tell your web browser that all traffic on ports 80 and 443 are to be redirected to port 8080 on the web proxy. The remote proxy server then fetches the content for you on ports 80 and 443 and sends it back to you on port 8080.

This system means that all your web browsing is done via the proxy and consequently browsing sites other than UK TV ones will be slower and you may be blocked from viewing local content.

A workaround for this issue is to use software that switches the proxy connection off and on depending on what site you are visiting. The most popular software for this is FoxyProxy, a plug-in for the Firefox browser.

You will need to set up rules in FoxyProxy to tell it which sites to use the proxy for but it's quite reliable in operation although it won't allow you to watch the BBC live streams or the BBC iPlayer desktop as these services use the system proxy settings.

Best Solution

For ease of use, affordability, mobility a VPN with a UK IP address works best. Setting up a VPN connection is easy and they will work with all common operating systems and even mobile devices such as iPhones and the iPod touch. Costs begin from as little a 4 – 5 pounds a month (though some will try to charge much more), and you can use the VPN from any location in the world. This means that if you are travelling – or even just visiting friends – you can log in to the VPN and watch British TV.

Some providers are:

uktvccess . com 10 - 12 TL monthly
Internet Cloaker 20 TL monthly
VPNUK 16 TL monthly

Of course, price isn't the only issue. Set up guides should be clear and easy to follow; they should offer a refund policy if not satisfied and make it easy to cancel; and they should not overload the service. Some VPN providers will over-subscribe and this can lead to slower speeds and programmes taking time to buffer or freezing. (This can also be due to local connection issues, too.) The only way to know is either through a recommendation of someone who actually uses the service, or to try out a service that offers a no-penalty cancellation period.

Hope that’s useful.

Neil

watch-tv-abroad [paste phrase into Google] I was stuck in France with the ash cloud. I wanted to watch my favourite TV programme - Top Gear. I have the right to watch it because I pay over £100 a year for my tv licence. After a week of research, I figured out how to get around the country restrictions. Follow my step by step guide by visiting the website watch-tv-abroad (dot) com

I have an internet box that picks up live UK television, BBC1,2,3,4 ITV 1,2,3,4 Channel 4, FIVE BBC news etc. Its just like a Sat receiver but you plug it into your ADSL internet router, no dish!! Let me know if you want to know how to get one.

Hello robwyatt Great info. Most Popular displays which programmes your friends are recommending. And the iPlayer has changed people's perceptions of viewing online.

Thanks Rob - I signed up for uktvaccess, it's the business mate

for me the best solution foe viewing UK TV is VPN Service. For example k e b r u m . c o m
I often watch Formula One races on BBC One, using iPlayer