Well it is hard to believe that my proxy has been going now for just over 12 months, considering it was just to see if I could set it up. Later I decided to make it available to other expats, to help with the maintenance costs.

What I didn’t expect was the number of new contacts I would make via the proxy. It has also surprised me with the varied backgrounds from students to corporate professionals and to pensioners. On top of this I have had requests from all parts of the world, even to find a Crystal Palace supporter out in Taiwan!

I suppose this is what makes it all worthwhile, in some way I feel I am offering a service that gives us expats a little bit of home when we are so far away. I even had one school teacher in Brazil who wanted it for the football during the English lesson, so they could pick up a bit of our language.  I also have had a number of users doing missionary work; at times I was amazed they could even get an Internet connection.

At some stage in the future there may be no need of a proxy, but when that happens I hope there will still be a reason to keep in contact.

Well it has been a little while since I have written here, partly because I have been busy with a recent change in job and I managed to forget my password to be able to update the blog, not something I should admit to though

Still it has had been a busy month, but I did expect a higher demand for the proxy with the up coming World Cup in South Africa. As a result I was looking at setting up a VPN in case we were not able to watch the live matches via the Proxy.

In the end the stress of trying to get a VPN ready was not necessarily, as fortunately all games played superbly via the proxy, apart from the opening ceremony, which happened to be nothing to do with the proxy, but demand on the ITV Player or the BBC Player, which one I cannot remember now!

Watching the football on both sites you certainly noticed the quality on the BBC was a lot better than ITV, but fortunately most watchable.

Still the process proved worth while as to test a VPN,  I needed to purchase another server, which meant that during the world cup the proxy’s shouldn’t suffer, which proved to be the case.

So last week the world cup finished, with Spain winning and being an Expat and married to a Spaniard, I certainly felt part of all the emotional feelings you get when your team wins, lucky really as England managed to disappoint.

So I am now back to normality and watching Emmerdale and a superb documentary from the BBC on Rolls Royce Engines, which certainly made me feel safer when flying!

Normally I go to watch the champions league games at the local Irish Ex-pats bar, well when I say local it is a 25 minute walk, but Wednesday just gone I did not have the time. Fortunately ITV was broadcasting live the champions league game. So it was a good opportunity to test out the proxy for a football match.

Well I am pleased to say I was able to watch the game without interruption, only to see Arsenal squander the game by conceding two incredible soft goals, lucky I am not an Arsenal fan!

Still Wednesday I will be off to the pub on Wednesday to watch my troubled Crystal Palace try to stay in the FA Cup a tall order for the replay but none the less I am sure it will be a valiant effort.

Up until now it has been messy to watch 4oD via a proxy server if you are outside of the UK, but I am pleased to say that you can watch the channel 4oD via Youtube, in excellent quality, having just tested it out.

So if you have been missing Time Team, Hollyoaks or wanted to catch up on Shameless or maybe Celebrity Big Brother, that is your preferred choice of entertainment, then if so you can use this proxy and pop over to watch the 4oD Channel (4 on demand.)

I have to admit this is a huge relief and for me and fellow expats, so for now it is sorted until the next change in technology.

The site may only be running for a couple of weeks now, but I have to say I am surprised how it has been picked up from the 4 corners of the world.

I suppose the the best is from Haiti from one of the aid workers over there, it certainly makes me feel I am helping in someway. Which in truth has been how Iplayer4u was first envisaged, it is such a shame the BBC and ITV have to limit access to their Iplayers, but I can understand. On that point if you follow this link you will be able to give donations to help those in Haiti

The reason the UK broadcasters have to stop access from outside the UK is because they are technically not aloud to broadcast outside of the UK, which is fair enouph and infact Sky are not supposed to either, but it has not stopped the thousands of Expats over here having their own dish!

What I cannot understand is why a Spanish broadcaster has not bought the rights to broadcast all the Freeview channels or at least the main UK broadcasters, I for one would buy the package from Auna if it was available. I think they would be surprised how many would be interested, not only from Expats but also the young Spaniards who are trying to learn English.

Still I am sure things will change one way or the other that is for sure, particulary as a new EU directive says that there should be no restriction “Television without frontiers”, but of course the broadcasters have to be careful so as not to upset Hollywood.

So till then I am happy that am able to help in someway people like me who want to watch some UK tele.

Finally I have the BBC Iplayer playing on my 37 inch TV, not that I am trying to show of with my 37 inches! The only reason I mention it is because linking the laptop to the TV and with a wifi connection, I am amazed how good the quality of the picture is considering how much the resolution has been expanded.

It would also be great to see how it would look with the High Definition stream, but unfortunately my laptop cannot handle the processing work on its graphic card, but I cannot complain too much, as finally I can sit down with the family and watch some quality programming from the BBC.

What I will say is I do notice that the ITV Iplayer is not up to the same quality as the BBC’s.

If you have arrived at this page I assume you are trying to watch the BBC Iplayer outside of the UK, which is how I came to build this site after putting together my own UK proxy server, to enable me and other ex-pats to watch the BBC Iplayer from abroad.

Living in Spain is great but you cannot help but notice the poor quality of TV programmes in Spain and other countries, or it seems to be most countries outside of the Britain. I do not want to criticize them too much, but if they can do it cheaply then they will.

In the end you suddenly realise how lucky we British are, when it comes to the quality of TV from the BBC and ITV, in fact when I realised one could watch them via their Iplayers I had to get sort it somehow!

The Proxy has been running for close to year now and I have to admit one of the things I get most satisfaction from, is the comments from my fellow expats who have been using my UK Proxy, who are so happy like me to finally enjoy some quality programming.

Granted the the BBC do produce some poor quality TV, but fortunately by using the Iplayer one can avoid most of it, by picking the programmes I want to watch.

Because of this I do not tend to watch too much TV I can choose what I like, sadly amongst the superb documentaries, I have got hooked on Emmerdale once again, unfortunately my mother is to blame here, still it gives me an excuse to keep in touch with her in the UK.

So if you want to watch the BBC Iplayer then you will find most of the answers here, if you do not live in the UK or feel free to contact me for more information.

Well after a setting up a proxy server to watch the BBC Iplayer some months back now, and with a number of expats finding my proxy handy I thought it was about time I launched a website specifically for this.

So here it is iplayerproxy4u, not the most imaginative of names but for SEO purposes it is fine!

The reason for have a site dedicated to promoting my server is purely to get enough expats sharing to cover my costs, otherwise I would have to take down, so after a few friends and expats donating to my proxy server then I realised I needed to keep it available.

So if you need a UK Proxy to watch the BBC Iplayer then do not hesitate to contact me, I have decided to not charge for the first month, so you can test it out, after which if you want to make a donation I will be more than happy to accept.

Wishing you the Best

Stephen