M6 Replay – Watching on the Internet via a French Proxy
So how come someone would need to use French proxy to access a web site? Well I’ll tell you, all across the internet there are web sites tailoring their content to specific countries. This is a concept called geotargeting, which in effect checks what country you’re connecting from then customizes what you see depending on your location.
It sounds quite beneficial, this geotargeting and in some instances it actually is, for instance when you visit Google you’ll be automatically directed to the local version of Google which will deliver you localised results. However this technology can also be used to block access to the content on a website.
For instance, one of the most famous sites on the web, the BBC Iplayer is restricted if you try to access from a Non-UK location, the big American media sites do the same restricting access to people outside the US for Hulu, NBC and ABC for instance. In fact just about every large media site restricts access to content usually to those who reside in the same country.
For French TV – do you need a French Proxy ?
You certainly do at least for the biggest sites, take for example the French Media site M6 Replay, the vast majority of their content will be blocked unless you connect from France, and have a French IP address. This is the awkward part, finding proxies fast enough to stream video is hard enough but even harder when you have to find one in a specific country.
So Is it Possible to Find a Free French proxy?
It is in theory, in practice it is an extremely time consuming task which you have to repeat everytime you want to access a site. The difficulty is that most of the free proxy servers are just misconfigured or servers which have been hacked, they will only be accessible for a few hours until you have to find a new one. You can use programs like foxy proxy to find them, but it will be an ongoing task especially if you need a French proxy.
Any Other Routes to a Proxy in France ?
You can configure a free program called TOR to route through French clients, which works ok as long as you don’t want to stream video as the clients are much too slow to produce a watchable stream.
The only other option is to pay one of the companies which provide private French proxies. To be honest if you want to watch French TV regularly or access any of these sites, it’s the only real option. There are many companies who offer this service for UK and US sites but one or two that have French Proxy servers as well.
Have a look around there are a few providers, you need the connection either via a proxy or a VPN (Virtual private Network) and make sure they have a French server. Some of the online companies make you pay for access to each specific server, however there are a few companies who allow use of their entire range of servers including french ones for your single subscription – the benefit is you’ll be able to select which server you’ll need for each site.
Why Would Anyone need Anonymity Online ?
It’s definitely one of the first concerns people express to me regarding anonymous web surfing – “what exactly are you trying to keep quiet ?“
Although I always find it’s easily countered with -
“Well why do you want to know what I’m doing ?“
Then the coughing and spluttering will start followed by excuses about how there are many criminal activities online. So if I am able to keep my anonymity online, well so can all the terorists, hate groups and online criminals – so anonymity protects these people.
I think this is a very weak argument, it begins on the premise that you have no idea where to look. What are you likely to find when snooping on someone online – mostly nothing, occasionally something you may not approve of but something more dangerous, extremely unlikely using such a broad surveillance tactic.
One of the problems with surveillance is that there are so many personal and hidden agendas. Just look at places like China, where people want to tell you how to act, how to think.
If I’m surfing anonymously, I’m not doing anything bad, but there are plenty of people who might think normal things are terrible. I don’t follow a religion, so my watching atheist lectures online or reading articles debunking creationism could be offensive to many devout people. If I’m in the wrong country such behaviour could even threaten my liberty!
We really have to have Anonymity Online
The reason we need to protect our right to anonymity online is not always to protect against the legitimate authorities but also the snoop who will be also spying on you.
The principle is that everyone should be entitled to some privacy. I close the door when I got to the bathroom not to hide what I’d doing, but merely I don’t want to be watched ! If you ask I’ll tell you why I went to the bathroom, but I’m worried about why you need to know!
It’s just the same with the internet, sometimes you are happy to be open, but sometimes you want privacy. I might not mind my friends at the rugby club knowing I watch online porn, but might be slightly more reluctant to admit to membership of a knitting forum.
In many countries it’s even more important to keep some online privacy, Turkey is a pretty free country overall, yet it actively bans gay websites. Is visiting a gay website a criminal thing to do, incredibly in many countries it could end up costing you dear, sometimes anonymity online is a desire, sometimes it’s essential.
Surf annonymous – a dictionary and some technology
I get quite a few emails from one of my other sites asking me how I can surf annonymous. You’d be surprised both how many people search for this information – and how many people misspell anonymous! But enough of this brevity, the reason people are worried is that our information is not safe, it’s not secure.
You might need a search warrant or a crowbar to gain access to your home PC and information. But unfortunately there’s much easier ways to gain access to your personal browsing history, your emails, your banking logons and well just about everything else you do online.
In fact despite what you read your PC is a much safer place for your information. When it hits the net, you are no longer in control. This is the problem when people ask me how to surf annonymous, they don’t realise that the first step out on to the internet is their ISP. Sitting happily on the ISP logs is a complete record of absolutely everything you do online. Every web site you visit, every file and picture you download and every video you watch is associated with your account and stored at your ISP.
If you’re in the US the police or NSA can access this information at will, in Europe Governments are planning legislation to access this information centrally. Who knows how many hackers and identity thieves have access to this information, how much do you know about security at your ISP?
So my friends – if you want to ahem – surf annoynmous then check out how to encrypt your connection and protect yourself.