So it seems the geniuses at Comedy Central have decided that nobody outside of the US is to watch full episodes of The Daily Show and the Colbert Report online. The rest of the world can still watch the segmented bits but as of Monday 27th April, 2009 non US browsers are unable to watch full episodes. Living in Australia I think this is complete and utter garbage.

I presume this is some attempt to get people to buy cable tv in their respective countries so that Comedy Central get more money. I had a look at Foxtel’s website and it seems the cheapest option is still a ridiculous $66 to get the Comedy Channel plus a whole bunch of other crap I’ll never watch.

Comedy Central are dreaming if they think Australian’s are going to pay $66 a month just to watch the Daily Show or Colbert Report (or both!).

So what are your options?

Well, you can either go back to illegally obtaining the episodes via EZTV torrents or similar or simply use a web proxy to make their servers think you have a US ip address. Here’s a quick guide on how to set your web browser to use a proxy in either Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Firstly, browse over to a US based proxy server list and pick any one of the proxies listed and copy the address of the proxy (one of the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:xxx numbers in the ‘IP Address’ column).

proxylist

Here are some public US based proxy lists:


Note that these lists were all working when I added them on February 12th, 2012. Please let me know if they’re no longer working either via the OzSoapbox contact form or by leaving a comment below, thanks.



Firefox

1. Click the Tools menu (alt+T) and select ‘options’.

2. Click the ‘Advanced’ tab.

3. Click the ‘Network Tab’

4. Click the settings button next to ‘Configure how Firefox connects to the internet’ or press alt + e.

5. Your browser should be set to ‘No proxy’ unless you’ve previously set one up. Change the option to ‘Manual Proxy Configuration’ and paste the number you copied from NNTime previously into the box. Make sure you put the port (numbers after the semicolon into the ‘Port:’ box. Don’t change any of the other settings.

It should look something like this:

firefoxproxyconfig

6. Click ok and start browsing.



Internet Explorer

1. Click Tools menu and then select ‘Internet Options’.

2. Click the ‘Connections’ tab and then the button ‘LAN settings’ at the bottom.

3. In the ‘Proxy Server’ area, click the checkbox for ‘Use a proxy server for your LAN’ and paste the number address you copied previously into the box. Make sure the port number (the numbers after the colon) into the ‘Port:’ box.

It should look something like this:

iexplorerproxysettings

4. Click ok and start browsing.



Notes:

Some of the proxies on the list won’t work or might be extremely slow, if this is the case just try another one on the list.

You’ll notice your web browsing is a bit slower when using the proxy, this is normal due to all your http data being routed through a slow free server. When you’re done watching full episodes of either the Daily Show or Colbert Report I strongly recommend turning off the proxy.

Follow the same steps to turn on the proxy, for Firefox select ‘No proxy’ at the Connection Settings window and for Internet explorer uncheck ‘Use a proxy server for your lan’ at the LAN Settings window.

Note that the proxies should also give you access to the forums of the Daily Show and Colbert Report (which are also geographically restricted).

Whatever you do don’t access https:// sites (netbanking or anything that you use your CC online) as information passed through a free web proxy is easily obtainable. Sure someone has to be actively listening but why take the risk?

Anyway that’s all you need to know to continue to enjoy these two great shows online. If you have any dramas leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll see if I can help.



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