Anyone tried Hola to unblock geo restrictions to Netflix, Hulu etc?

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#751101 26-Jan-2013 10:29

From their FAQ:

"Hola dynamically uses both Internet connections, each one according to its connection quality and bandwidth. Hola splits up the HTTP requests - some go to one connection, some to the other, and large ones are split up to both of them at the same time!"

This seems to be like a load balancer - one example of new generation of connectivity balancer is the new Connectify Dispatch which will allow you to use bond multiple connections on your PC.

The difference here is that Dispatch does it for any TCP traffic, while Hola seems to do it for HTTP traffic only.

I am keen to try Dispatch but there's no trial, only a "30 day money back" guarantee...

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Behodar

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#751102 26-Jan-2013 10:30

It's working now :)

Edit: ...slowly.

Edit 2: The video itself seems to be fine, it just took ages to navigate through Hulu to it.

freitasm

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#751195 26-Jan-2013 15:13

After further testing I've found that Hola will bypass your VPN and always use the ethernet or WiFi connection to "accelerate" the browsing.

This means if you need to access a website through a VPN, or if you want to use a VPN for example while connected over an insecure WiFi network then you have to disable acceleration, otherwise the traffic will be unencrypted and visible to anyone in the same LAN.

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#751667 27-Jan-2013 21:26

Just tried it out myself using Chrome. Was able to watch Hulu+ fine which is convenient on the times I want to watch on my PC. Usually I watch on a device like PS3 or Roku box on a large screen. Telstraclear's transparent proxy foils unblock-us on a PC so this is a nice way to get around the problem.

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#751689 27-Jan-2013 22:29

I just have the Firefox extension and the "sites unlocked' message only says Hulu, Netflix and Pandora. I tried bbc iplayer and no luck - does that mean currently you needs the full windows client for iplayer, or the Chrome extension?

Reading their facebook page, it seems that some sites are only 'unlucked' for the full client, not the browser extensions?

freitasm

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#752012 28-Jan-2013 14:25

I have removed Hola from the startup (not really need the icon in the system tray) and disabled the "accelerator" as well as checked that its local proxy is not in the LAN Settings in the IE Connection options anymore.

While the geo block removal part seems to work really well, the "accelerator" seems to be a bit buggy.

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Behodar

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#752240 28-Jan-2013 20:18

I've watched quite a few Hulu videos over the weekend but now I'm getting a message from Hulu telling me that anonymous proxies are not supported. Has Hulu blocked Hola or is it just luck of the draw? Is it still working for anyone? I'm using the Firefox extension.

freitasm

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#752251 28-Jan-2013 20:23

Still working for me...

Are you sure there isn't another VPN or such in your PC?

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Behodar

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#752252 28-Jan-2013 20:25

Yes, I'm sure. Must just be luck of the draw; I'll try it again later.

Edit: Interesting; I'm getting the error even when trying to watch non-geoblocked Hulu videos. Those videos still play correctly in Safari (where I don't have Hola) though.

The specific error message is "Based on your IP address, we noticed you are trying to access Hulu through an anonymous proxy tool. Hulu is not currently available outside the US. If you're in the US, you'll need to disable your anonymiser to access videos on Hulu."

steve2222

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#752322 28-Jan-2013 21:45

Netflix on Chrome extension still working fine for me.

PS: just tried Hulu on the Chrome extension and I too am getting the same error message about the anonymous proxy tool.

Behodar

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#752605 29-Jan-2013 13:01

Hola is aware of the issue:

We are working to fix access to Hulu, thanks everyone for reporting! We will report back soon

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steve2222

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#753260 30-Jan-2013 13:49

Hulu up and running again.

Behodar

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#753266 30-Jan-2013 14:05

Yup, and according to the docs, iPlayer now works in Firefox. I couldn't get it to work in Chrome so it'll be interesting to try it when I get home. I tried Hulu at work just for fun and it didn't even load the homepage, but I suspect that that's an issue with our proxy server conflicting with Hola (which would make sense!)

steve2222

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#753287 30-Jan-2013 14:37

Behodar: Yup, and according to the docs, iPlayer now works in Firefox. I couldn't get it to work in Chrome so it'll be interesting to try it when I get home. I tried Hulu at work just for fun and it didn't even load the homepage, but I suspect that that's an issue with our proxy server conflicting with Hola (which would make sense!)

Funny that ... I just tried Hulu at work and that allowed me to make the post saying it was now working.

So it must be something to do with your work setup as you suggest. In fact I was surprised our network allowed me in as most video/TV sites are blocked by some filtering service eg Bloomberg TV who stream for free on the internet is blocked by my work.

Edit: PS: just tried BBC iPlayer at work on Chrome and it works fine

freitasm

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#755259 3-Feb-2013 22:24

I am still using the Windows application and going through some Hulu shows. Just instaleld an update and it seems more stable (had some problems with very few webpages).

Who else is using it?

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