Hulu and Netflix in Germany
I instantly wished for english shows as soon as my ass landed on the couch. The hotel had a convenient 3 channels in english that played pretty recent movies, but each channel looped the same 3 movies for the next week. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tom Cruise in “The Oblivion” but everyday is a little excessive.
You have multiple options: Get a Google Chrome extension such as “Hola Better Internet” for free, or spend $5 a month and pay for a masked IP address through “HideMyAss.com”. What is better?
Hola Better Internet: Very useful and only minor flaws if using it for webpages and through a stable internet connection. Problem is with Netflix and Hulu there is a never ending stop-and-go as the streaming tries to catch up. Believe me, that is worse than being able to quote “Battleship” after only 4 days.
HideMyAss.com: You have to pay, which in my opinion is always a HUGE downside, but after dealing with the downright slow Chrome Extension I had to fess up the money and try it out. They offer a 30 day money-back guarantee, and I don’t think I will need it. I am able to stream with ease Hulu and Netflix and work on my computer editing photos at the same time with no pauses. At some points I need to change the IP address in order to find one that had a faster connection, but it wasn’t bothersome enough to make me annoyed.
Something to understand is what is exactly happening when you use a VPN service: Your IP address is being re-routed all over the world, and instead of going straight to the requested website, it is going through a few hoops first, and putting on a costume after each hoop. Sometimes the website gets a little suspicious, so you change your IP or your costume to hide once again. By going through a hosted server, or somewhere that you are paying for, you are guaranteed more secure servers that are more reliable. Using a Chrome extension is not as reliable because it is going through public IP addresses and they are most of the time overloaded or unable to handle the streaming load for Hulu and Netflix.
My advice for Expats looking for a way to watch Netflix and Hulu overseas? HideMyAss.com(No they are not sponsoring me to say this… but if a representative would like to contact me for their bill, I am available anytime!)
Update: Netflix has come to Germany! it has a bunch of great shows and movies, but still not the full selection that the US Netflix offers. Also I have discovered that Hola Better actually works well for netflix on a different internet provider and hidemyass now has a harder time with netflix but the same still goes for Hulu (HMA works perfect but hola doesnt.) so it is up to trial and error to determine what works bets for you.
