With the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics kicking off today, many people will start looking for ways to catch their favorite events streaming live on the internet. Some nations will have a delay in the broadcasting, and not all events will be available in all countries. The best way to get live access to everything Olympic this year is through the BBC iPlayer. But how can you access iPlayer abroad? Is there a way to unblock the IP restrictions of iPlayer while overseas so you can stream the 2012 London Olympics?

Yes

BBC restricts access to the UK an a few European nations. I saw to day that Holland was able to get access to BBC One and Two. Even so, access to iPlayer in these European countries is limited to an iPad app.

To unblock these restrictions, you need a UK IP address. iPlayer is able to see your locations by reading your IP address. After all, they need to know where to send the streaming video, right? But without a UK IP address, you can't get full access to iPlayer. For most countries, you can't get any. You need to change your IP address.

Though proxies are often used as IP changing tools, iPlayer currently blocks many proxies. The only way to get past these IP blocking firewalls, a VPN is necessary.

VPNs use a variety of technologies. Data encryption and VPN tunneling means that you're able to privately send your information (and privately receive) through VPN servers in The UK. The iPlayer is unable to see your real IP. They only see that you have a private UK connection. They think you're in The UK.

You don't need any hardware to set up a VPN on your phone or computer. You can use a VPN connection on Android, iPad & iPhone, Mac, Linux, and Windows.

For the fastest streaming from iPlayer abroad you can use PPTP VPN - it's a simple VPN that focuses on changing your IP, not adding tons of encryption to eat up your bandwidth. Some Middle Eastern and Asian countries like Egypt and China may have blocked this type of VPN, so you may need to use L2TP for smartphones or OpenVPN for computers. Ask your VPN service what they recommend for your location.

Most UK VPN services offer a one month option, which means you don't have to commit to a year of VPN service. It'll probably cost you about ten to fifteen dollars, and come with a money back guarantee just in case you run into tech issues and can't get it to work properly.