On this site there’s lots of little articles about internet privacy and bypassing all these stupid region blocks you find all over the web. I do actually get quite a few emails about people wanting to access different sites, usually because they’re expats or spend lots of time travelling. Often there some sort of local TV channel or station, perhaps a certain radio programme and some even wanting to place bets with a online bookmaker. All these are the sort of sites that get blocked based on your location. They’ll be fine when you’re in the same country but as soon as you cross a border then it can get difficult. The reason is usually claimed to be licensing rights, but it’s just as likely that they want to charge for their commercial streaming services instead.
Anyway when you leave France be prepared for the message that the video is not available – depuis votre zone géographique !
So the email I got was regarding a rather good online channel called M6 Replay or 6Play as it was renamed, which is one of the premiere TV stations in France. The email explained that the person was trying to access the site from the US where they were living for a year. This is what happened and they were wondering if a French proxy such as this would help?
It’s the usual story, all major online TV channels restrict access to their domestic market – so anyone outside of France would get this message or similar such as – Cette vidéo ne peut !
Is a French Proxy ok or must it be an M6 VPN to Watch 6Play?
Unfortunately not, proxies used to work up until about three years ago. You could even find a free French proxy online and stream M6 replay through it without problems. Now the era of the proxy as a useful circumvention tool is pretty much over. Most websites are able to detect the presence of even a well configured proxy and block it automatically. The BBC was probably the last major broadcaster to allow the use of proxies but now you need a VPN for the BBC too.
A VPN service is a virtual private network and is effectively a connection to a high, powered secure proxy server. The main advantage for these programs is that the best VPNs are extremely hard to identify. A connection from a VPN server is almost undetectable (although the Chinese have figured out how to stop some) and if the VPN server is in the right country it will work perfectly. So to watch 6Play from outside France you don’t need a French proxy – just one of these -a M6 VPN!
The program Identity Cloaker has lots of different servers all over the world which have lists of IP addresses by country. Therefore if you know the country you need, you just scroll down and click on the correct country to use a VPN. So for 6Play you’d pick France or for a Netherlands TV station you’d pick a Dutch VPN. Which of course would allocate you a Netherlands IP address for your internet connection while the VPN is enabled. It’s worth remembering that it actually effects everything you do online, including the version of Google you’ll end up using too.
Switch to a French IP Address at Will
Many advanced users use Identity Cloaker because of it’s wide range of secure servers, you can switch from a Sweden proxy to a Netherlands VPN with a click of a button.
As you can see, connecting through the French VPN gives you a French IP address and full access to the M6 Replay site. It’s a simple solution for anyone to watch M6 TV online from outside France. You can even subscribe to their premium membership through the VPN too and that will work as well. As you can see in the video the M6 Replay site only detects the IP address of the French VPN server and assumes that is your location.
It’s very simple and works extremely well as a M6 VPN but it can do so much more. In fact you can use the program to access all the major French TV sites which exist online, I know of many French Canadians who’ve been using this program for years. You can also of course access content in lots of different countries, for example choose a Canadian server to watch Canada only channels, a UK one for UK content and so on.
The truth is that taking control of your IP address, also takes back control of your internet connection too. Not only will it stop the vast majority of region blocks and content filters, it will also give you back your privacy too. Using one of the VPN providers is the most convenient wats to bypass all these geo restrictions just ensure that they have the right server locations before you sign up.
This is an often underestimated facility of using VPNs, the ability to keep some privacy online. It’s stops every website you visit keeping a record of you, and it also stops a complete log of your online activity being created at your ISP. This may seem unimportant, but these logs are much prized by all sorts of parties from marketing companies to Government agencies. There’s probably no bigger single source of user profiling and history than these in existence, if you encrypt your internet connection then they contain virtually nothing.
If you want to Give it a Try and watch M6 Replay from Anywhere using a French Proxy.
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