How to bypass the Hulu.com location check using a socks5 proxy

  • March 17, 2008 – 3:21 pm
  • Posted in Hulu

Things you will need:

Bypass first check:

First add your proxy to the Foxyproxy proxies and “http://releasegeo.hulu.com/geoCheck” to the whitelist.

foxyproxyaddpattern.png

Now make sure to use the “Use proxies on their pre-defined patterns and priorities”-mode. (Right click on the bottom right where is says “FoxyProxy:”) This will bypass the first check.

This check is actually client-side. It is not essential for playing the video. The player just opens http://releasegeo.hulu.com/geoCheck and checks if the response is either “valid” or “not-valid”.

Second check

The streaming servers are not checking your location any more. The proxy-server can be slow as hell but you will get a perfect image since you are directly connected to the streaming server. :D

If you got everything right, you will now be able to watch your favourite shows and movies anywhere you want! :)

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58 Comments

  1. What about other sites like NBC and CBS?

  2. 2 Question:

    What if I when I type in /fcs/ident to filter, nothing comes up?

    How can I find a decent sock5 proxy in the US? One that isn’t turtle slow?

    P.S. I’m doing this on a mac….

  3. @Air
    I will investigate these sites when i find some sparte time

    @Eric
    I would kindly ask a friend with a server in the US to set one up for you. 3proxy is a good tool for setting up proxies for win and unix based systems.

    I’m sorry but since i don’t have access to a mac i can’t try it mysql :/

  4. Should Proxifier show the connections being placed if the bypass is working?

  5. nothing shows up when i type /fcs/ident

  6. You should dumbify this, please.

  7. same complaint, i got everything working until you have to search for”/fcs/ident”

  8. i got this to work for like 3 secounds, all i need is a good proxy and im good to go :)

  9. this works perfectly, all you need is a good proxy and your good to go!

  10. care to recommend a good proxy or a place to look for one?

  11. i’m having the same problem, nothing comes up when i put in /fcs/ident. does that mean i’ve done something wrong or is there another way i can get the ip address?

  12. *sigh* Same problem as the others. Nothing seems to show when I attempt to filter.

  13. to get the ip when using the /fcs/ident filter you need to turn off foxyproxy.

  14. i`m from romania and it works fine with hide ip NG 1.18,and ie7 only,not with firefox,opera…..

  15. Thank you very much!

  16. i am tested socks 5 many lists but i dont have get green socks 5 help me

  17. Found a much easier way:

    http://www.ultrareach.com/company/download.htm

  18. Hey.

    Did Hulu just change its geoCheck technique?

  19. yeah, so it seems, we need a new method now (or maybe use the old one)

  20. UltraReach & Proxys don’t work anymore only Hotspot Shield. What happened ?

  21. hmm, as the others say no more available with poxies.
    cbs.com still working but hulu.com not
    btw what was the old method mentioned here ??

  22. I guess I am the one who screwed the proxies. I watched 10 episodes of arrested developement in a row,and when I came back the day after it didnt want to work. it says “unable to stream this video, check your internet connection”

  23. If it works with hotspot shield, then you can set up vpn on your server (if you have one) and access hulu through that. I was using squid to access it till now. I am gonna try and set up a VPN on my server and see if it works…

    • teach me how ia have problem to launh hot spot shield soft ware which is i got it now.. please help me….if i tried many time block it and mdg file… kwkkwkw i give up now… can u hepl me my dar friend?…

      pitoyo

  24. hmmm, as i see in whireshark something has changed by the method the stream is checked the codeen proxies i used before give a strange cant handle http protocol error in tcp analysis.
    btw vpn is working if u have a server in usa…
    but not all have one i think so …

    greetz

  25. can u use vpn with a shared server?

  26. This is the error I’m getting:
    Sorry, we are unable to stream this video. Please check your internet connection and try again

  27. I use a US VPN and live in Canada and since yesterday cant use Hulu. Saying you must be in US. Even though my IP is being reported as a US IP. I’d love to know what else they check. I have a US/Canada timezone and my computer intl settings are all US.

  28. for cbs this is the foxyproxy entry
    patternname = *release.theplatform.com/content*
    url-pattern *release.theplatform.com/content*

    but i still dont get what hulu.com is doing again can someone maybe tell me the old method before the normal proxy thing works ??

    greetz

  29. It looks like Hulu has figured out how to block non-US people from their RTMP-streaming servers. That means that the geoCheck flaw won’t work anymore. You’ll still be able to receive the streaming servers from content.select, but you won’t be able to stream anything unless you’re in the US.

  30. @paddy: True. It appears like so. I traced it down to the RTMP server too, and since RTMP is stateful, proxy will not be helpful whereas VPN should work fine.

  31. VPN does work. After changing VPN location with my provider to a different server/state the videos starting working again.. for some reason even though both servers are in the state and I was getting a US ip the one in washington was getting blocked as not in the U.S.

  32. can someone please give me a good VPN I can use then??
    Hot Spot Shield doesn’t work for me and I used to use UltraSurf and that worked perfectly for a while but now I am getting the same error that rand is getting.

  33. i’m getting the same error as rand and gouche too. is there a way around it or has hulu figured out how to block everyone out?

  34. works again….

  35. Yep. Very strange!

  36. They were probably testing it. Just to see if it works and how efficient it was. I wouldn’t have my hopes up that this bypass is going to work forever.

  37. Arghh. The check is back already. :\

  38. Is there a way around the new check?

  39. VPN should still work, other than that I can’t think of any. The streaming servers are the ones who are blocking you.

  40. hi, i’ve tried it with the anonymizer.

    But I still got the Problem:

    “Sorry, we are unable to stream this video. Please check your Internet connection.”

    But everything is fine with my internet connection

  41. That’s because using an anonymizer won’t work. Hulu uses a flash file which your machine runs locally. That means that a HTTP proxy won’t work because the flash file has it’s own network system. So it will bypass it. Unless you have a full network proxy(Like TOR or a VPN solution.) it will fail.

  42. Cool! I figured out the same thing on my own a while back and wrote a program to locally return fake data for the geocheck (“not-valid” changed to “valid”) along with a HOSTS file modification. It worked great until they added the geo check to the streaming servers :( how annoying.

  43. I’ve been testing a lot to try to get around the new check but as it’s been stated here already it doesn’t look too possible without a VPN program.

    I’ll keep on trying to trick it though and give you any updates! :P

  44. it go blocked at my job but it not really known

  45. Much better idea:
    run a filter on your OWN machine, that way you don’t need a proxy at all (and so your speed will be way better). If you’re on Windows use Proxomitron. Linux, try Ettercap. Just have it redirect traffic to the geoCheck URL to an HTML file on your computer that just contains the word ‘valid’ and you’re all set.

    Lots of love,
    Mala

  46. @Anonymous
    How do I redirect traffic to geoCheck to a local html file in proxomitron?

  47. in outgoing filters, just replace http://releasegeo.hulu.com/geoCheck with the filepath of your file, I would imagine. That failing, just upload the file to a remote server and use its address.

  48. (although foxyproxy is a better solution)

  49. Why do you have nofollow in the trackback links? That is not nice…

  50. Foxyproxy won’t work….it doesn’t proxy the Flash RTMP traffic. If you’re using windows, you need to use a program like Proxifier.

    I use linux….found how a solution here:
    http://www.alternativedenial.org/?p=94

  51. Just use a VPN account like Banana vpn which gives you a usa Ip..

  52. For Canadians – local broadcasters like CTV, CBC and Global starting to make some of their show available for Canadian users.

    Not nearly as reach content as hulu, but anyway – next time proxy thing stop working – try one of these.

  53. Hello. And Bye. :)

  54. Thanks for this. It didn’t give me the “Unavailable in your location” message, but it did give me a “This video is unavailable” message :(

    Do you know how to make this method work with NBC.com videos?

  55. FoxyProxy patterns list for hulu, BBC iplayer, etc:

    http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/drupal/forum/8

  56. New (free) solution involves Hotspot Shield and Ultrasurf: http://patricksoon.blogspot.com/2009/07/hulu-proxy-ban-workaround-2-combine.html


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