Fans of Hulu in Australia have been waiting patiently for Hulu to start streaming to Australia since the launch of Hulu in 2008. However, that is all they have been doing - waiting patiently. There have been rumours on several technology and entertainment web sites, claiming that Channel 9 and Hulu have been in talks about working together to bring Hulu's service to Australia, but Hulu has not directly responded to these rumours. Instead, on Hulu's site, you are only able to find a vague generalization that they are sorry that they can only broadcast Hulu's services in America for the time being and that they have no serious plans to broadcast internationally in the near future. Bummer. You can't watch Hulu in Australia.

However, even though Hulu's policy to only allow computers with an American IP address works to the advantage of Hulu fans in Australia and abroad. With a piece of technology called a vpn, users are able to change their IP address, access Hulu's site, and stream Hulu's TV to their computer in Australia. How does this work?

By becoming part of the "virtual private network" your information is encrypted and tunnelled to the server in America. If your information is originating from Australia, your Australian IP address is not able to be seen when your information reaches Hulu's site. They only see the information from the server in America, meaning that you IP address is American. They stream the TV channel that you requested back to your computer in Australia! This sounds like a long process chock full of buffering and loading times, but a vpn will rarely affect your internet connection speed. Actually, if your ISP limits bandwidth or puts other limitation on your internet connection, a vpn could actually speed up your connection in some cases.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist either. If you are starting from scratch, and this is the first time you've heard of a vpn and how to watch Hulu in Australia, you could be set up and streaming video in about ten minutes from now. Vpn's are super easy to install, and pretty cheap as well. Although Hulu is free for their basic service, and it's kind of a bummer to have to pay for a free service, there isn't really another choice. Two years ago, when Hulu came on the scene, anonymous proxies were a very popular method to watch Hulu in Australia. However, because of the low security that anonymous proxies provide, Hulu is able to detect them and now blocks the use of anonymous proxies when accessing their site.

For Australian fans of Hulu and American TV shows, a vpn watch Hulu in Australia is a simple and cheap solution.