When you live outside the US you can’t watch many web videos of commercial shows: “this content is not available in your country”

Bugger.

I can understand that copyright owners want to sell their shows to foreign markets, but often the shows arrive a year later and there is usually NO WEB option to watch the stuff. And often I want to see the original version – not a cut down and dubbed mess …

But don’t despair! With FoxyProxy and a proxy server you can watch all that great stuff – if you are willing to fiddle a bit with your browser and pay for a good proxy server to watch restricted videos from YouTube, Hulu or the BBC iPlayer …

Basically all you have to do is this:

*  find / buy a free proxy server suitable for the restricted website you want to access

* download & install FoxyProxy in Firefox

* enter the proxy servers address and your account info when you buy a commercial proxy service

* and switch FoxyProxy on or off when you need to access restricted content

What is a Proxy Server?

First you have to understand how a proxy server works. Normally when you surf to a website there is a direct connection between your machine and the server at the other end. The server checks if your IP address is “allowed” to see the page and it’s content (video) you requested. If your IP is “outside” the allowed range – meaning you don’t have an American IP address – you get that nasty “not available in your country” error.

A proxy server solves this problem by having a correct / allowed IP address and forwarding you the data you want – without the “protective” server knowing who is really looking at that precious video. A proxy server is a mediator and “data forwarder”.

Getting started with Foxy Proxy – which proxy country do you need?

FoxyProxy is a free addon for Firefox and has many overwhelming options. But don’t be afraid.

Download and install the addon here from the official Addon-Firefox directory. Download, install and restart your Firefox.

First you should think about which sites you want to visit by using a proxy – because you need a proxy server based in that country. It makes no sense to get a British proxy server if you want to watch content in the US. If you want to watch restricted servers in different countries you obviously need also a proxy servers for each country.

There are many “free” proxy servers out there, but many don’t work very reliable or fast. If you want to watch video via a proxy server you need something fast and reliable.

FoxyProxy also offers on it’s website to buy good proxy server accounts for the US and UK (and other countries). I use the service myself and I am very happy with it. The prices are ok: 15$ for three months for ONE proxy service is good value for the money.

So after you decided which free or commercial proxy server you are going to use.

Adding the Proxy Server to Foxy Proxy

First open FoxyProxy and “Add a New Proxy”. Please note that I am using FoxyProxyPlus – so your screen looks a bit different with the normal FoxyProxy … but only a bit!  And remember to click any image to see a larger version with all details.

Open the FoxyProxy Option panel (press Ctrl+F2).

Most people will only use one proxy server – so simply choose the “Default” and “Edit Selection”:

Click on “Proxy Details” – once again you screen will look a bit different in the normal version.

Now enter your proxy servers IP address and Port (the username and password option are only visible in the Plus version – don’t be alarmed, because you simply have to enter your account info when you access the proxy server at the beginning of each session):

FoxyProxy – URL patterns are only for Nerds

FoxyProxy can be configured to either forward all requests you make to a proxy server or only certain addresses.

This makes a lot of sense, because proxy servers can be a bit slower for web surfing. So if you need only a proxy server to watch for example videos from Hulu.com you would use the “pattern” function to tell FoxyProxy only to use the proxy server for that very address and none other.

But a BIG word of advice: often it’s not enough to add just one address in the proxy servers pattern setting to get complex sites “running”.

In that case you either have two choices: be a Nerd and crawl through the websites code and identify all additional server (patterns) that need to be added OR simply tell FoxyProxy to temporarily use the proxy server for all websites:

Tools –> FoxyProxy –> Default –> Use proxy “Default” for all URLs:

I recommend to mere mortals to use this option. You can always switch back to “normal” surfing without FoxyProxy after you watched your videos.

Tools –> FoxyProxy –> Completely disable FoxyProxy:

Configuring URL patterns

If you go for the Nerd option you should know how to look at HTML code and “read” which servers are needed to watch a certain site.

The Nerdy option has the advantage of using the proxy server only when it matters.

Once you have the URLs you can add each one to your patterns:

Now add a new URL pattern. The “Pattern Name” is just general info so you can enter anything.

The “URL pattern” is a bit trickier. Make sure to use “*” as wildcards to include so called sub-domains or complex URL patterns. For example write as pattern “*.bbc.co.uk/*” instead of just “www.bbc.co.uk”.

Happy Surfing!

Hope it made all sense and the proxy is up and running. It’s no big magic – basically you only have to find / buy a free proxy server, enter it’s address and switch FoxyProxy on or off when you need to access restricted content.

Nerds can enter special pattern and get some extra thrills from using many different servers.

Enjoy!