Proxy? VPN? How can I fool download services into thinking I'm from the USA?

September 15, 2009 2:01 AM

Proxies, VPNs and restrictions, oh my! How can an American dude in South Korea get his Hulu, Steam and Direct2Drive on. More inside.

I'm an American dude who is living in South Korea, as you can tell from my recent AskMeFi history. Here's a new kink: I got this sweet, sweet gaming laptop. I like to play games. And unlike other dudes, I like to pay for them. I have the $ to spend, I like to support the safe, lgal alternative to piracy.

Problem: I can't spend it. Many Steam games aren't available outside the US. Same with Direct2Drive. The vast majority of titles aren't purchasable with a Korean credit card. More, if I try to use my American card I get a warning like "The billing address you're using doesn't match the country you're buying from".

So, ugh. I thought we all liked capitalism and here I am trying to spend money and I literally CANNOT GIVE IT AWAY. Recently I've had friends 'Gift' me the game which lifts this restriction, but I feel bad putting them on the spot.

So: Proxy? Proxies are slow, yeah? Are there pay-for proxies that are quicker? WHat about VPNs? What are my options for tricking websites into thinking I'm coming from the US. I'm not against shelling out a monthly fee to have access to a service like this. Suggestions?

posted by GilloD to technology (6 comments total)

Previously answered.
posted by flabdablet at 2:03 AM on September 15

I'd recommend Witopia. I use them here in China, and they have lots of US-based gateways. I'm known to get my Hulu on from time to time. The service I have is the $59/p.a encrypted SSL service. It works just fine and gets me past the Great Firewall.

I'm on 2mbit, and the VPN eats about 10% of my bandwidth. Using their DNS server, accessing sites outside if China is normally just as, if not quicker. As you're in South Korea, I'll assume you're on what geeks would refer to as "some serious pipe".
posted by flippant at 5:20 AM on September 15

Previous ask.me on paid VPN services here. Older but most of the suggested companies are still in business (and thus now more well-established :)
posted by reptile at 6:18 AM on September 15

An update of my previous VPN survey:


HotspotVPN
HotSpotVPN-1 $8.88 a month / $88.80 for 1 year
also 1,3, and 7 day increments for only $3.88, $5.88, and $6.88

HotSpotVPN-2 (which includes a complimentary PPTP HotSpotVPN-1 account for your handheld device) is $10.88 per month for Blowfish encryption (128 bits), $11.88 for AES-192 (192 bits), and $13.88 for AES-256 (256 bits)
payment: Paypal

PublicVPN
$6.95 a month / $69.95 for 1 year
payment: Paypal

Jiwire Spotlock
Discontinued?

Witopia PersonalVPN
PPTP - $39.95 per year (1 gateway, blocked in some countries)
SSL - $59.99 per year (multiple gateways, open in all countries)
payment: unknown

StrongVPN
Many plans from $7 per month / $75 per year
payment: Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, etc.
posted by sharkfu at 5:21 PM on September 15

Update: Hulu.com is blocking "anonymizers", so it's down for me at the moment.
posted by flippant at 5:55 AM on September 27

For what it's worth I nabbed Witopia and everything is peachy keen. Great support and customer service so far.
posted by GilloD at 6:11 AM on September 27