The Internet is a global village. It allows you to connect with users from all over the world in seconds. There are however services available that are only accessible by users from specific countries. Probably the most renowned services are the tv streaming site Hulu and the online radio Pandora, which are both only available for US users.
But services in other countries are sometimes restricted as well. For the UK it is for instance most contents offered by the BBC iPlayer which is only accessible if the user connecting to the service has a British IP address. This does block expats and Brits on holiday from accessing the contents online. While it is possible to get access to TV and radio contents by connecting to a virtual private network (vpn) that assigns UK IP addresses, it is usually considered to be complicated to setup and not free as well.
Expat Shield is a free service by the makers of HotSpot Shield that simplifies the process greatly. In its core, the software creates a vpn connection that assigns a UK IP to the computer system, thus allowing the user to access UK-only TV and Radio contents from all over the world.
It works with all UK based services, including BBC iPlayer TV (offering access to BBC One to Four) and Radio, ITV Player, Channel 4 and others. And since it is a VPN connection it means that access is available through all programs, including web browsers but also standalone applications.
Expat Shield Download and Installation
Expat Shield is offered as a free download at the official website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Actually, the program is not downloaded directly from the website. A download manager is downloaded first, that then downloads the application to the local computer system. The application includes a custom toolbar that does not need to be installed, so make sure you disable it if you do not want it to be installed.
The program places an icon in the system tray that offers controls to start and stop the service. Starting it actually means that the following window is shown in Internet Explorer that initiates the connection. It is probably possible to copy the url into another browser as well to initiate the VPN connection.
From that moment on the system tray icon shows that the computer is connected to the VPN.
BBC iPlayer
Just visit the BBC iPlayer website and start watching the tv shows that you’d like to watch.
ITV Player
Visit the ITV homepage to watch all available tv shows online from any location in the world. Available are ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 for online viewing.
Expat Shield offers all the additional benefits of running a VPN connection, including protection from network snooping, encryption and a new IP address for increased privacy.
The quality of the VPN solution has been excellent during testing. All tv shows that we watched in the time streamed without interruptions or buffering issues. All in all, an excellent free solution to access British TV and Radio contents as well as other UK-only services and sites. (via, thanks Maik for the tip)
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it works splendidly …thank you for the tip! Looking forward to the upcoming Doctor Who season!
Indeed a nice service, but not more than that up till now. I have tried it and when you want to look at lets see BBC with an HD tv program, even with a ferry high broadband internet connection available, that the speed is not enough (below 3.5MB) of what you need to stream a HD tv program. And hopefully they will come true with the “promise” to make American vpn connection free available.
Is there a way of getting this to use a US IP address yet?
This British expat kisses you (oo-err !)
Thank you. Really thank you.
yep, great article Martin will be handy for the ex-pats & Irishmen downunder
Any way to use this without installing their software? What IP is it connecting to, with what protocol? Windows, of course, has built-in vpn capabilities. I’d love to use this service, but i’m not up for installing any more vpn software.
Sounds great, but every time I try to install expat shield it stalls at 7%. I have tried disabling virus protection and firewall, with same result. can you advise?
Thank you. Really thank you
Everytime I try to install it makes my computer reboot. Please can somebody advise me?
And now, the downloader is corrupt
I installed it, and it works; but it keeps giving me US IP addresses. How do you get a UK IP?
I had the same problem, I don’t know if there was a problem with the UK servers, I uninstalled and out of curiosity I just installed expat again, but this time I downloaded from CNET
http://download.cnet.com/Expat-Shield/3000-2092_4-75211377.html
and it seems to be working fine, it assigns me a UK IP again.
Works…. Connection surprisingly fast, was able to watch the HD channel, without buffering.
Tips,…. Don’t install the toolbar offered when installing, Use Firefox with ad block.
Spot on Scooby, just the advise I was going to give. I’ve had it for a couple of months now here in Sweden and it works fine (with the amendments you suggest). The only inconvenience I’ve experienced is the homepage of ‘Anchor free’ appearing periodically, which bearing in mind what you get in return is a small price to pay.
I have noticed James, that it runs four services in task manager. Three of those continue to run even when it’s disconnected. Maybe innocent, but worth keeping an eye on I think.
As you say, it’s a small price to pay. :)
can i run hotspot shield to get a US vpn d also expat shield to get a UK VPN as well?
Thanks for the article. I was wondering if it is possible to delete the toolbar? Also, the expat shield prevents access to Google and instead re-directs me to their search engine. Any tips on either of these questions would be really appreciated!
What a god-send, thank you :)
You can use I/E with Simple Adblock
this is great service / software making the interent contents FREE as it supposed to be. this is limited to UK only. is there a set up for US or Australia ?
expat shield is fantastic, i had some initial loading issues, but once i had disabled my internet security i was able to instal it. My bandwidth isnt very fast 200kB/s max but i have no problems with buffering or streaming, or watching Live UK channels. Thankyou Expat Shield.
When I click on the icon in my system tray and try to connect I get “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” message. Why can I not connect?
Same problem here. Used to work OK.
To me expat shiled is a virus. Once downloaded it has caused problems and I cannot uninstall. I have tried multiple times to uninstall without successs. Will need virus preofessional to get rid of this nightmare. It did not give me acces to, for example, bbc
Have used EPShield for a while with no problems at all, just a bit of extra advertising which is a small price to pay. If you prefer a paid program then try Hide IP NG from www.hide-ip-soft.com, a two-year subscription costs about 42 euros. For those wishing to access US TV sites the I think Hotspot Shield is what you’re looking for.
Hi, what about expat shield for Mac?
Thank you
This is very useful- is there something similar that is compatible with the Mac?
Thnx
Just as an aside. I use Expat shield which has proved useful in the past when I want to catch up. However here in France we have a UK Freesat box which gives us all the channels bar a couple that we had on Freeview in the UK. Should work for those who live in Europe. We can record and save a complete series unattended and in HD. All for the cost of one years subscription to Sky which as we know is ‘illegal’ in Sky speak. We have to have the french phone but not a dreaded ‘Livebox’. If we do have problems then we put the Livebox in place and then raise a fault call as we then prove the fault is not with us. We have been working in IT for many years so get calls from all our local neighbours who are english who haven’t .
I am trying to ascertain why some people cannot connect through the livebox on Expat shield when we have been able to and we only live round the corner.