It is not uncommon to see your favorite TV show’s episodes being blocked because of geo-restrictions. A lot of major US digital content providers like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify and all the major US TV channels impose geo-restrictions to make the content US exclusive.
The first thing that comes to mind for unblocking the content on these websites is using Tor Browser bundle and using a United States IP address. However most of us would like it more if we could access these blocked sites within our normal browsing sessions without altering our IP address. Hola Unblocker is the perfect extension for Firefox and Chrome that can unblock a majority of region and network restricted sites.
Getting Hola Unblocker up and running
Hola Unblocker is available for Firefox and Chrome as an addon. Once installed you can select sites from Hola Unblocker demo to unblock. The demo features some of the most popular blocked and region restricted sites and should be pretty exhaustive for a lot of users. Just select any site in the list to unblock it.
Download: Hola Unblocker for Firefox
Download: Hola Unblocker for Chrome
After installation you can control the extension via the tiny icon in the omnibar. In the Chrome extension you can instantaneously switch between different region’s IP’s as well as stop using the unblocking functionality.
You can also instantly unblock any site in the Chrome extension.
Accessing Custom Sites
While the list of sites in the Hola Unblocker Demo is quite exhaustive, it is definitely not complete. What if you want to try out Spotify or catch up with the last episode of Breaking Bad on AMC? Thankfully, there are tons of user scripts for almost every major site out there.
Here is a link to an exhaustive list of user scripts for Hola Unblocker
To install a script just click on the link to the script. You will be taken to the confirmation page to import the unblock script for the site. Select yes and you are good to go.
Performance
Hola Unblocker blows every unblocking solution out of the water in terms of speed and ease of use. There was no decrease in speed despite using a completely different region IP. During our extensive usage, Hulu, AMC and Spotify worked flawlessly every time. Unblocking additional sites is as simple as it could be. The greatest advantage is ofcourse the ability to browse in a single session without hampering your browsing experience in any way.
One thing that is extremely evident is the disparity between Chrome and Firefox extensions. Firefox addon merely offers you a link to the Hola Unblocker client portal and does not offer the features present in the Chrome extension. Thankfully, apart from these differences in the addons there is no evident slouch in performance.
Verdict
Hola Unblocker is absolutely godsend for all TV, Music and Movie geeks outside US. If you are annoyed by geo-restricted content on US based media sites then Hola Unblocker for Chrome and Firefox is absolutely a must-have.
