Hulu Plus is a great service and the great variety of shows makes it one of the best alternatives to cable. The only problem is that it is only available in the US. So if you are a traveller or US expat living abroad you are left out in the cold.
Actually you still need a US credit card to sign up – the good thing is that I have found a guy who sells US Visa and Mastercard gift cards that will work for signing up with Hulu Plus. The card has enough credit for 3 months and after that point you can simply buy a Hulu Plus subscription code and redeem it BEFORE your account expires. He sends you the card info in an email so you don’t have to sit around and wait for the card in the mail – it is a perfect service. Get the credit card as you can’t use the subscription codes until you have an account. You can buy the US credit card here.
The problem is that Hulu will check your IP-address when you connect to the service and if the servers detect that you are located outside the US you will be blocked from streaming.
What you need to do is fake your location and make the Hulu servers think that you are located in the US even though you are not. You do this by connecting to a VPN provider. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and it will allow you to have a server located in the US act as a middleman between you and Hulu. That way you can appear to be located in the US no matter where in the world you find yourself.
Video streaming requires plenty of bandwidth in order to provide a good viewing experience. That is why you need a VPN provider with a good backend ready to handle the load. The best one I have come across is Hide My Ass VPN. They have made a really cool app for both Mac and PC that will allow you to simply select a city in the US and click connect. That is all there is to it and from then on it will appear as if you are in the states.
As mentioned you need to have an American credit card in order to sign up for Hulu Plus 1-week Free Trial. Just remember to connect with Hide My Ass first if you are not back home in the states while you sign up.
That is all there is to it if you want to watch Hulu Plus while abroad. This is a great way for expats to keep an eye on what is going on back home – also a great tool for the frequent business traveller.