Theres no disputing that streaming media services are here to stay. Whether you think about Netflix, Hulu, or a non-United States-based service like BBC’s streaming player, watching movies and television series online has become part of everyday life. And it’s not just established series that air on standard broadcast networks that are popular; consider the award-winning Hulu series, The Handmaid’s Tale. The only place you can watch that show is on Hulu’s streaming network.
It’s not all sunshine and roses in the era of digital content, however. Because of various copyright laws and other legal considerations, people in some countries are sometimes unable to access content that is released in others. That is, if someone lives in Belgium, they may be unable to view a video that was released in the United States. This is known as geographic locking or geographic region control. Fortunately, there’s a way for savvy internet users to get around this by using something called a proxy server.
Proxy servers like TorGuard allow any internet user to browse the internet as if they were actually located somewhere else in the world. For instance, if Joe P. Internet is in San Francisco, and wants to watch the latest episode of Doctor Who on BBC, he can use a proxy server to fool BBC into thinking he’s actually located in Piccadilly Square in the heart of downtown London.
Proxy servers can also anonymize a person’s web browsing, obscuring their home IP address. This means that if they are concerned about their Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as Verizon, Comcast, or Time-Warner peeking at what they’re browsing, they can use a proxy server to hide that information. But how does it work?
When a computer connects to the internet, it does so via your ISP, using your ISPs servers to funnel information back to you. For example, if you want to watch a music video on YouTube, you type in “www.youtube.com” into your browser. This sends a query to YouTube’s servers, who process the request and send it back to you. You can then search for specific videos on cats playing the piano or whatever tickles your fancy.
During this process, your specific IP address, which is similar to your home’s physical address in that it identifies where your computer is, is logged by YouTube. All of your requests and whatever you watch is logged by their servers so they can provide you with tailored ads and content related to your interests. Additionally, ISPs may keep track of your traffic and browsing habits to sell to advertising agencies, which is a concern for those who worry about their privacy.
What happens when a proxy server is used is different. Instead of your computer communicating directly with YouTube’s servers, it connects securely with the proxy. All of the traffic between your computer and the proxy is encrypted, so anyone trying to see what you’re doing will just see a bunch of encrypted gibberish. So, you, via the proxy, send a request to YouTube by typing in the web address. The proxy server then relays that request. So to YouTube’s servers, it’s not you that is asking. Instead, they think it’s the proxy doing it. So the proxy asks for and gets the information, then relays it to you through the encrypted channel.
Another way of looking at how a proxy server works is to think of it as related to standard mail. Ordinarily, when you send a letter to someone, you use your address and write it, sign it and send it off. The person or business receiving the request then knows who you are and where you live and can respond appropriately. A proxy server would be as if you sent the letter to a person who lived in Alberta, Canada and you wrote it in code. The person in Alberta would receive the letter, decode it, and then rewrite it and mail it to its destination. When they received the answer, they would encode it in a new letter and mail it back to you. You would get the information, decode it and have your response.
In this example, the person or business you requested information from would have no idea that you were the one who asked for it. And because all of the letters between you and Alberta are encrypted, anyone trying to find out what you’re asking for or receiving would be clueless as well.
Taking this back to how it defeats geographic region control, BBC servers have no idea that you’re in San Francisco and watching their stuff. To them, you are located in London. Likewise, if you’re in Canada and want to watch The Handmaid’s Tale, to Hulu’s servers, you’re sitting in Des Moines, Iowa. Using a proxy server is a great way to bypass this regional locking, allowing you to surf and enjoy all of the content of the internet no matter where you are.
Photograph by Matthew Keys