If you are an Australian citizen and live outside Australia or you are traveling abroad, you know that watching Australian TV online can be quite a challenge. TV networks block people outside Australia from watching. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this problem: Australian VPN services. Learn how to watch Australian TV.

Australian TV networks offer hundreds of shows to watch online as “catch up” TV that is great for travelers wanting to stay in touch with home. Full episodes you can watch via your web browser but not downloaded.

How to bypass restrictions

To bypass the restrictions, you need to sign up for a VPN service (Virtual Private Networks) that offers Australian servers. An AU VPN service allows you to connect to a server located in Australia. Once connected you are assigned an Australian IP address, and all traffic is redirected to that server. So, if you are in the USA and connect to a VPN server in Australia, your computer will appear to be located in Australia.

Australian VPN providers to watch Australian TV abroad

There are not many VPN providers that offer AU VPN, but here four that I recommend: NordVPN, HideMyAss, ibVPN, ExpressVPN, and PureVPN. Unfortunately, there are not free VPN services with AU VPN servers that you may use for streaming Australian TV. Also, you may check other methods to get an Australian IP address.

After you sign up and you get the login details, you need to set up a VPN connection. All services also offer an OpenVPN option, but I recommend PPTP as it is faster. PPTP works for all types of operating systems including Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android and detailed how-to tutorials are available.

Australian TV channels

After you finish the setup you should be able to watch Aussie TV websites, enjoy Australian news, and watch your favorite shows listed below (Australian channels via ausbt.com.au):

30 Days (Channel 7 catch-up TV – Yahoo!7 Plus7)
6Teen (ABC iView)
The 7:30 Report (ABC iView)
ABC News (ABC iView)
ABC News 24: watch live online
ABC3 Kids’ programs
ADbc (SBS Catchup TV)
Air Crash Investigation
Amazing Adventures of a Nobody
Angelina Ballerina
Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps
Ashes To Ashes
Astro Boy
Australia Celebrates
Australia Eye of the Storm
Axmen (Channel 7 catch-up TV – Yahoo!7 Plus7)
beached az
Bed Of Roses
Being Human
Bernard
Best Ed
Better Homes and Gardens
Bit of Black Business (SBS Catchup TV)
Black Books
Blinky Bill
Blue Bloods (Channel 10 catch-up TV)
Bob The Builder
Bob The Builder: Project Build It
Bondi Vet (Channel 10 catch-up TV)
Bones
Bookaboo
Bowls: NSW Open 2010
Brothers and Sisters
Castle
Chappelle’s Show
Chopper Rescue
City Homicide
CJ The DJ
Cold Feet
Collision
Comics Unleashed
Connor Undercover
Contact
Contact Sport
Conviction Kitchen
Cougar Town
Criminal Minds
Cup Fever
Dance Academy
Date My Mom
Deconstructing John Kelly
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Romantics
Dirtgirlworld
Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Documentaries
Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan
Double the Fist
Dr 90210
Drive
Driver Dan’s Story Train
Eataholics
Elmo’s World
Engineering Disasters
Fat And Fatter
Fawlty Towers
First Australians
Five Minutes More
Football: W-League
Four Corners (ABC Four Corners website (selected episodes) and sometimes on ABC iView
Freaking Funnies
Freefonix
From the Ground Up
Galapagos
Gandhi
Gardening Australia
Gene Simmons Family Jewels
Generation Kill
Getting On
Girl Friday
Grand Designs
Global Village
Good Chef Bad Chef
Good News Week
Grey’s Anatomy
Grumpy Guide To…
Hawaii Five-O
Hawke
Headcases
Headhunters Of World War II
Home and Away
How I met your Mother
How To Be A Little S*d
Huey’s Kitchen
Hyperdrive
Jack Osbourne: No Limits
Jamie’s 30-minute meals
Joan Baez: How Sweet The Sound
Junior Masterchef
Kylie Kwong
Kylie Kwong: My China
Landline
League of Super Evil
Letters and Numbers
Life’s a Zoo
Little Britain
Lizzie McGuire
London Live
Lunch Monkeys
M.I. High
Mad Boys Hidden Camera
Majority Rules
Making Tracks
Mandela Day
Mark Love Sharon
Me and my Monsters
Mega Disasters
Message Stick
Midsomer Murders
Misery Guts
Mister Maker
Modern Family
Monster Auditions
Murphy’s Law
My Family
mY Generation
My Life As A Popat
Nitro Circus
No Leave No Life
Ocean Girl
Octonauts
One Plus One
Oprah the Interview
Outback House
Outnumbered
Outrageous Fortune
Parenthood
Party Down
Peppa Pig
Places we go
Podlove
Poh’s Kitchen
Popetown
Potatoes And Dragons
Prank Patrol
Prank Patrol International
QI
Raising Hope
Ready Steady Cook
Red Dwarf Special 2009: Back To Earth
Republic Of Doyle
Review With Myles Barlow
Rich Kids Cattle Drive
Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab
Roary The Racing Car
Rules of Engagement
Rush
Salute
Saving Babies
Scrapheap Challenge
Sesame Street
Shamwari: A Wild Life
Silverwing
SOS South Pacific
Spicks And Specks
Spliced!
Stoked
Stories from the Golf
Style by Jury
Summer Heights High
Sunrise Extra
Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation
The 7:30 Report
The 7 pm Project
The Assistants
The Biggest Loser
The Bionic Vet
The Black Balloon
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Catherine Tate Show
The Circle
The Cook And The Chef
The Daily Show Global Edition
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
The Drum
The Forsyte Saga
The Good Wife
The Goodies
The Gruen Transfer
The Howard Years
The Hunt For The Tightest Person In Britain
The Jungle Book
The Kevin Bishop Show
The Last Word
The Last Word Monologues
The Librarians
The Mr. Men Show
The New Inventors
The Sphinx Unmasked
The Trophy Room
The Tudors
The Wannabes
The Whitest Kids U Know
The Wild West
The Wire
The World Stands Up
The WotWots
The Young Ones
Timmy Time
Tinga Tinga Tales
To The Manor Bowen
Torchwood
Total Drama World Tour
Totally Wild
Two Queens and a Castle
U Be Dead
Undercover Boss the USA
Universe
Walking with Dinosaurs
Wallace and Gromit
Wallace And Gromit’s World Of Invention
Waybuloo
We Can Be Heroes
White Collar
Who do you think you are?
Wife Mom Bounty Hunter Wild At Heart
Wired
World Tales
Yo Gabba Gabba
Zigby

Do you watch Australian TV abroad? 

Let us know what you watch and how you unblock online streaming from outside Australia.

SmartDNS does not encrypt your connection

Unlike standard VPN services that change your IP as well as encrypt your connection, SmartDNS does not encrypt your connection. This is a big difference and we thought you want to have a better understanding of how it works.

Don’t get us wrong: while a VPN solution actually enables you to overcome geolocation–limited services like Hulu, BBC iPlayer and so on and so forth, some people may not want the additional features and software that such solution wants you to install.

In fact, in order to use a VPN service, most of the times, you would have to install a VPN client. This VPN client would then manage all the encryption and address mapping. Depending on the platform you use, a different client may need to be installed. So, there is different client whether you use Windows, Mac or Linux. The same applies to smartphones and other mobile devices.

No need to install additional software

On the other hand, with the SmartDNS solution that OverPlay is proposing, there’s no need to install additional software on your computer/mobile device. In fact, the trick is to redirect your entire internet DNS request to OverPlay’s DNS servers. Depending on the country where you want to land, you would then have a different IP Address to be used as a DNS server.

The trick here is then to use OverPlay’s DNS servers instead of the ones that your ISP is automatically giving you. As a reference, a DNS, which stands for Domain Naming System, is an internet service that translates a Fully Qualified Domain Name (aka FDQN) similar to www.google.com to an actual IP address in the form of 209.85.143.104 (if we’re dealing with IPv4). This IP address is unique throughout the internet and is associated with a computer/server.

OverPlay SmartDNS is faster

By using OverPlay’s SmartDNS services instead of your ISP’s DNS servers, you redirect all your internet request to OverPlay’s servers; those servers will then manage to do the trick for allowing you to pretend that your IP is located in some other countries, thereby allowing to overcome some geolocation limitations.

This service from OverPlay, while still in testing mode, can be interesting for those who don’t want to install additional software on their computer. Moreover, I expect that it can be interesting to use this solution rather than the full VPN service on low-performance computer/mobile phone since it only redirects internet requests into another DNS instead of consuming more computing power by running a VPN encryption for each and every requests.

This SmartDNS feature isn’t a separate service though, it comes bundled with any OverPlay subscription that you take.

What’s your view on this? Do you think this is sufficient enough for you as a service if your goal is to overcome geolocation-limitations?

>> Overplay

Most of the how-to-hide-ip online anonymity guide are already familiar with the VPN solutions that are available out there. Like most of us, there will come a time where your VPN provider will send you a subscription renewal reminder. Learn what you need to check before renewing your VPN subscription.

My experience with ibVPN VPN subscription

This just happened with my ibVPN subscription. They kindly remembered me that my annual subscription is about to expire and that an invoice to renew my annual subscription has been issued. Frankly speaking, it’s a great sales method: from a sales perspective, it’s easier to sell to a customer who already bought your service rather than trying to convince a new one – and I see nothing wrong with it.

But anyway, I’ve got some weird way of thinking, and maybe because I’m covering VPN solutions on this blog, I tend to reconsider every decision that I make when it comes to choosing a VPN solution. As a disclosure note, I am a fully happy ibVPN customer, and I fully endorse them. Just as a reminder, I went for the US+Canada option with ibVPN, especially because I actually needed to pretend that I am in either of those countries when browsing the internet.

Other VPN providers

But as I went through my research when trying to find something else interesting to write for How-to-hide-ip readers, other VPN providers also have interesting offers, especially HideMyAss. With ibVPN, they are great VPN solutions and what I want to highlight in this article is the fact that, depending on your needs, one provider may provide a much more interesting “package” than the other.

Things you need to check …

So back to the title of this article, the thing is to have a great understanding of what you want to achieve. As for my case, a year ago, when I needed to decide on the VPN solution, I knew I needed US and Canadian IP addresses for overcoming some geo-location limitations; I also knew that I didn’t need torrent support with my VPN package and finally, I wanted to be able to pay via Paypal (without exposing my credit card information). One year later, I am tempted to go for a VPN package that also includes UK IPs so that I can watch BBC iPlayer (they recently broadcasted great documentaries about my country

As of today, for example, with the introduction of OverPlay’s SmartDNS feature, this may be interesting to bypass geolocation with a simple trick at the DNS side of things. HideMyAss offers a free web proxy that may be interesting for some use (while I think it’s limited for serious people who want something that is more adapted to their actual needs). And with % 43OFF, HideMyAss is doing a lot of seducing to get my money to their accounts.

Now, if I look at StrongVPN, I kind of like the fact that they have packages that are tailored to my current situation. They have a feature on their website allowing you to chose the best VPN package for you based on your current locations. And for once they have a different pricing depending if you want to use PPTP only (which is cheaper), or if you want to use PPTP and OpenVPN (I’m not aware some other providers does this).

Conclusion

At the end of the day, I may end up choosing ibVPN again (or not). But chances are that I would opt for a different package than the one I chose one year earlier. The public offer for VPN services is changing a lot in a one year space. Why would I not consider those new (and usually more interesting) packages when it comes to renewing my VPN subscription?

What is your VPN provider and how many times have you renewed your VPN subscription? Let us know in the comments below.

Google Play is rolling out and given the awesome features it has gathered into one place. Well, it’s actually Google Market store, but they’re kind of re-branding it into Google Play. It’s becoming more and more interesting to get some apps from that marketplace.

The issue is that for some applications, if you are based in China, they just don’t show up in the search results, or you just can’t download and install them. Therefore, you need to find a way to unlock Google Play.

Unlock Google Play with a VPN service

So there are multiple options that you can try out: but let’s see how a VPN solution can be used. For this example, let’s use HideMyAss (in fact, you could use another VPN solution like ibVPN or PureVPN, but it’s just that I need to refer to one solution).

HideMyAss can be interesting in such a way that they provide you a 30-day money-back guarantee. This gives you some kind of insurance that they are trustworthy enough.  From the HideMyAss package, you can get a UK or US or Netherlands-based IP address: this is what you want to get for installing and running applications like Skype or Spotify from your China-based Android device. Now, it’s your call to choose if you want to directly go for a one-year contract, or if you want to choose the three months contract.

Access Google Play from China

So from here, you can do one of the following:

• either directly configure the VPN from your Android device: this is the most obvious way of doing things. HideMyAss has a good setup howto document for configuring it on an Android device. Moreover, we’ve covered it on some how-to-hide-ip articles.
• or configure the VPN on one of your computer (that is running the VPN), have the applications installed from Google Play then have Google Play automatically install the same application on the Android device that you own (that you should have added to your Google Play account)

Please note that you only have to use this VPN workout for some specific applications that aren’t available in China. Anyway, since it’s easy installing a VPN on your Android device, and since it is cheap, why not use it for some other purposes like playing online games with your Google Plus friends, or listen to music that some of your Google Plus friends would have shared with you. Those are new horizons that you can open once you use a VPN solution with your China-based android device.

Conclusion

As you would see, being based in China doesn’t mean that you can’t access all the internet resources that are available to some other users. You just need to have the right tools and know-how to use them. One of the major tools that you should consider when unlocking Google Play is the use of a VPN solution. As I told earlier, I chose HideMyAss for this case, but you could also use another VPN solution (ibVPN has great solutions too).

P.S: I’ve been told that there’s another way around this issue if you are in China: all you have to do is put a US-based SIM (or UK-based, or whichever non-blocked country) into your Android Phone, then just connect through Wi-Fi (not 3G or anything else). I haven’t personally tested it, so if some of the readers could test it from China and tell us the result, that would be nice

With VPN servers located in Asia and Australia, you can surf the web in perfect privacy and access websites restricted to local users from countries like Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Pakistan, Philippines, Seychelles, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, etc. This is of great use for Aussi or Asian expats or for those traveling abroad. Learn about Asian/Australian IP VPN.

What is an Asian/Australian IP address?

Every device connected to the Internet uses an IP address to be identified in the large network that forms the Internet. Moreover, every ISP (Internet Service Provider) has assigned a range of IP addresses that it distributes to its subscribers. The assignment of an IP block is done geographically, thus, the location of every device connected to the Internet that uses a certain IP address is known with fair precision.

An Asian/Australian IP address is an IP that is assigned to an ISP or hosting provider that provides Internet services in countries from Asia or Australia.

For example, in Australia the most common IP addresses have the following format:

• 1.128.0.0 to 1.159.255.255
• 49.176.0.0 to 49.191.255.255
• 49.192.0.0 to 49.199.255.255
• 60.224.0.0 to 60.231.255.255
• 101.160.0.0 to 101.191.255.255

If you are interested in finding more info regarding the Australian IP blocks you should check this post.

Why would you need an Asian/Australian IP address from your VPN provider?

There are several reasons one could consider when searching for an Asian/Australian IP address. Let’s take them one by one.

Protecting online privacy while browsing

Using a VPN when accessing the Internet from public places is a must. VPN services are protecting you from hackers.

Why connect to a server in Asia or Australia? By encrypting the data you lose to the connection speed. And the distance to the server you are connecting to is also important. Thus, if you are located in Asia or Australia you should choose a server that is closed to your location and minimize the speed loss.

Accessing restricted streaming sites

That is probably an important reason for many users. There are a lot of streaming channels that are restricted to users located in Asia and Australia.

Asian/Australian IP VPN providers

Here is a list of several VPN services that offer access to servers located in Asia and Australia:

Do you know other good VPN services that offer Asian/Australian IP addresses? Let us know in the comments below.

What is a DE IP address?

Every device connected to the Internet uses an IP address to be identified in the large network that forms the Internet. Every ISP (Internet Service Provider) or hosting provider has assigned a range of IP addresses that it distributes to its subscribers. Next, the assignment of an IP block is done geographically, thus, the location of every device connected to the Internet that uses a certain IP address is known with a fair precision.

A DE IP or German IP address is an IP that is assigned to an ISP or hosting provider that provides Internet services in Germany. The most common German IPs have the following format:

• 2.160.0.0 to 2.175.255.255 (Telekom Deutschland GmbH)
• 31.224.0.0 to 31.255.255.255 (Telekom Deutschland GmbH)
• 37.80.0.0 to 37.95.255.255 (Telekom Deutschland GmbH)
• 46.80.0.0 to 46.95.255.255 (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• 53.0.0.0 to 53.255.255.255

If you are interested in finding more info regarding the DE IP blocks you should check this post.

Why would you need a DE IP from your VPN provider?

There are several reasons one could consider when searching for a DE IP. Let’s take them one by one.

Protecting online privacy while browsing

While traveling or when accessing the Internet from public places or even at home it is recommended to protect yourself from hackers by encrypting the traffic data that comes and goes to/from your devices. VPN services are doing exactly that and you should always have one at hand.

Why connect to a server in France? Why not to one in the United States or Canada, for example? First of all, you should know that what you win by encrypting the data you lose to the connection speed. And the distance to the server you are connecting to is also important. Thus, if you are located in France you should choose a server that is closed to your location and minimize the speed loss.

Accessing streaming sites that are only available for German users

That is probably the main reason users need a DE IP for unblocking sites. There are a lot of streaming channels that are restricted to users located in France. By connecting to a VPN service with German IP the restricted sites are tricked and the access is allowed.

Here are several Germany restricted channels that can be unblocked by VPNs, like Das Erste, DSF, KI.KA, 3sat, ARTE, NDR.

List of VPN providers with servers located in Germany

Finally, you may find below a list of several such DE IP VPN services:

Do you know other DE IP VPN / German IP VPN services? Feel free to share them in the comments.

OpenVPN

OpenVPN uses the OpenSSL library to provide encryption of both the data and control channels. It lets OpenSSL do all the encryption and authentication work. Thus, it allows OpenVPN to use all the ciphers available in the OpenSSL package. It’s a little more challenging to set up that PPTP but with the right tutorials an average computer user should not encounter any problems.

What is an OpenVPN VPN provider?

OpenVPN VPN providers use the OpenVPN protocol to connect users to VPN servers. Every provider uses its configurations to set up the connections, depending on the desired level of encryption.

How do the VPN providers integrate OpenVPN?

There are two ways OpenVPN can be integrated. The first one by using the OpenVPN user interface and predefined configuration files provided by the VPN service. Thus, when you subscribe to such a VPN service, you need to download some .opvn files that will be used by the OpenVPN UI to connect to the desired servers. The advantage of this approach is that you may use several VPN services from the same interface and connect to a large variety of servers.

The second approach is to integrate the OpenVPN connection library in custom build apps. Thus, you don’t need to install OpenVPN yourself. It will be done silently by the app installer. The advantage offered by such apps is that you may switch between different VPN protocols (for example from OpenVPN to PPTP, L2TP or SSTP).

My recommendation is to go for the second type of providers if you are a regular VPN user and you plan to use one service at a time. However, for users with special needs (lots of locations and IPs), the OpenVPN UI can be a more straightforward alternative.

List of OpenVPN VPN providers

Finally, here is the list of several OpenVPN based VPN services (alphabetically ordered):

Overplay is one of the top VPN providers on the market is known especially for their SmartDNS solution. Read our Overplay VPN review.

The public presentation of Overplay’s offer

Let’s start the Overplay VPN review by presenting the offer:

Price: $9.95/month. You can pay via Paypal or Google Checkout.

Countries: Overplay claims to have points of presence in over 60 countries.

Bandwidth: unlimited

The installation part

Overplay provides a very well documented (text or HD video) installation guide for most of the popular platforms that exist nowadays. You can see the screenshot of the documentation here:

For Windows, has an installer. For advanced users, instructions and resources for manual installation are given too- this is a great feature, especially for those who don’t want to install a lot of OpenVPN client on their computer.

I installed the OverPlay VPN client version 2.0.0.63 on my Windows 7 laptop. Be careful as the installation process requires that you have a running internet connection. The good thing is that this installer manages to install TAP drivers as well as other components that are needed to make things work. So installation is just a breeze.

The use of SmartDNS from Overplay

Implementation of SmartDNS: it comes bundled Free with the subscription you have with Overplay. While SmartDNS isn’t a solution for encrypting your internet connection, it can be helpful for overriding some limitations that may be installed on your side of the network.

The good thing is that SmartDNS maintains a whitelist of websites that can be accessed, so if you install OverPlay’s SmartDNS servers on your office’s router, then get all your LAN devices use the router’s DNS- your entire network will benefit from this service.

I didn’t have the chance to test it but Overplay claims that SmartDNS even works with problematic routers like iPads, AppleTVs, Roku or BoxeeBox. If you ever have the chance to test it, feel free to provide some feedback here.

• Overplay states that they “permit legal torrent traffic, but all copyright abuse notifications we receive are investigated and followed up on”
• When it comes to speed of the VPN, Overplay provides a nice tool to test the VPN speed– this comes really handy.
• What is logged?  This is a question that is often asked by how-to-hide-ip. Overplay actually affirms that it doesn’t log the websites you are visiting – which is a great feature.
• In terms of protocols, Overplay supports OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP. Some servers also support SSTP.
• Although I haven’t tested it personally, it may be interesting for gamers to know that OverPlay provides a tool (based on DD-WRT capable router) that allows PS3, XBOX360 and other devices that don’t have native VPN support.

Conclusion

To sum-up the Overplay VPN review: as opposed to some other VPN solutions, the good thing with Overplay is that you get access to the whole list of VPN servers (62 countries) with the same subscription of $9.95/month. Moreover, they’ve gone the extra mile to make it work with devices that don’t have built-in VPN client. Finally, the great documentation is definitely a plus for OverPlay.

>> Overplay