Watch BBC iPlayer Wii Abroad
I have had a couple of people asking me if it’s possible to watch BBC iPlayer on the Wii using Identity Cloaker, so I had a little check and its good news. The Wii has recently had an updated BBC iPlayer channel created which you can download and use for free, of course if you’re watching from outside the UK, you’ll get blocked normally by the geotargeting restrictions. That’s the beauty of using Identity Cloaker, it’s designed specifically to protect your data and privacy, but it also means that you can truly surf anonymously, so that you control what you can view online not the website.
The network of available servers is now quite significant, there are multiple proxies in all of these countries – France, Sweden, Germany, UK, Ireland, USA, Canada and the Netherlands and quite a few more planned I believe. If you need access to a resource restricted to any of these countries, you should be able to access it by selecting the right server.
Anyway, I checked it out and for Identity Cloaker users who are the owners of a Nintendo Wii, it’s relatively straight forward to use it to watch iPlayer on your TV instead of your computer.
Watching BBC iPlayer on the Wii
Well, I’ll presume you’ve got your Wii connected to the internet, which is fairly straight forward to do in most cases. To use BBC iPlayer, you just need to go to the shopping channel and download the iPlayer channel which is a free download.
*** Apparently you might need to change your localisation settings on your Wii to UK first, as the BBC iPlayer channel is not offered to non-UK connected Wiis. I haven’t tested this as I already had the channel from the UK – but I’m told you should be able to download from the shopping channel if you set your Wii to the UK. ***
Now if you’re in the UK this is all you need to do, but if you’re not then you will get blocked in the same way as directly from your computer. The good news is that the latest updates to the Wii connection settings allow the input of both a proxy and advanced settings with usernames and passwords.
You’ll find the proxy server settings by selecting your connection from the Wii System Settings and then selecting the internet connection tab.
Pick the connection you’re using and scroll through the options until you find the Proxy Server screen, here’s the changes you need to make.
From the Proxy Settings Page
- Change Proxy Server to Use
- Under Advanced Settings input one of Identity Cloaker’s United Kingdom proxy servers
- For the Port number – 4040
- Select Username and Password to Yes
- Select Advanced Settings and put your Identity Cloaker Username and password in
Is it worth it? Well, it takes very little time to set up and the BBC iPlayer quality is pretty good, and I hope to try the Channel 4 one after. Although possibly not as good as on your PC, I tested on a 32″ TV CRT so not sure what it would look like on a 50″ plasma.
If you don’t fancy getting involved in connecting up a laptop or PC to your television, it’s actually a great option. It’s certainly watchable quality, many Identity Cloaker users are also using a similar method on the PS3 apparently as well, although I haven’t tried that (just use the same port number and a UK proxy). Potential problems with Wii Iplayer viewing could be with speed, particularly streaming across a poor Wi-Fi connection, I had no problems, but my signal was very strong as my access point was next to the Wii!
Hi Jane,
In reality you don't actually change the IP address of your Wii.
All you are doing is telling the Wii to send all the internet information through a proxy server which has a UK IP address.
This setting stays in place until you untick the proxy server box or change the settings.
In reality it doesn't matter what your real IP address is, it will appear to be the proxy server one.
It's a bit like using a PO box – all your mail gets sent and received by someone else who then forwards it on to you. If that makes sense 🙂
Hope that helps!
WG
Hi
Thanks for the info – when the console is not in use does it revert back to it's old IP or do you have to change every time as I am under the impression that the foreign IPs change constantly ( haven't joined ID cloaker yet and not too computer savvy.
Thanks Jayne (Greece)
Andrew,
Also might be worth checking out netcat – this could forward traffic from your PS3 too.
Hi Andrew,
Unfortunately as you've discovered the PS3 has no way of authenticating against the proxy. The only way you can do it currently is to authenticate directly via your PC or router and then get the PS3 to piggyback that connection. So you could perhaps use ICS and create a network bridge in Windows.
Another solution if your router supports it would be to get it to connect and authenticate against the proxy (using the same port as above) and then point the PS3 proxy address at the router.
I asked Identity Cloaker guys and they are actually looking to see if there's something they can implement to make this easier. One suggestion was that you could authenticate your IP address against one of the Identity Cloaker servers. Then you would not need the username and password on the PS3.
This hasn't been implemented yet but might be worth keeping an eye out on the Identity Cloaker blog for news.
http://www.identitycloaker.com/blog/
Wg
Have tried this with my ps3 but I don't have a option for putting user name or password into proxy server. Any ideas?
Thanks
Hi Micha,
Well the settings above are for using the Identity Cloaker servers so they probably won't work exactly. Not exactly sure where you've got up to.
I'm presuming that you've got your Wii browsing the internet and the BBC Iplayer channel installed ok.
If so you just need to fill in the proxy settings properly (don't worry about the IP address of the modem, wireless etc)
If you configure the proxy correctly on the Wii that is the IP address that BBC Iplayer will use.
There are two things you need to check – first make sure that Expat net offers a proxy service (VPN mode won't work with the Wii), secondly check which port they allow access from and change the Wii port setting from 4040 (it's very likely to be something different).
Hope that helps,
WG
Hi there,
I have been trying to get the bbc iplayer working for days now. I use expat net to block my ip – I can watch bbc iplayer (or others) through my computer but using the wireless I cannot watch the bbc iplayer via my wii console. I have been trying your stettings but it didnt work.
Have you got any ideas? Can it be the wireless modem? Has the modem got ip?? (the modem is from austria, which is where i am currently at)……..thanks Michaela.