If you live in the United States then you probably won’t get the Hulu.com reference, however if you live anywhere else, chances are you know exactly what I mean. 

For those not familiar, Hulu is a popular video playback site from NBC that streams many mainstream television shows right to your browser.  The biggest problem with the site is that it blocks access for users outside the continental United States.  Hulu isn’t the only site in the world that does this either.  Many sites restrict access based on the IP Address that you are currently connected with.

This is where Hotspot Shield comes to the rescue.  Hotspot Shield is a free software download that allows you to use the internet anonymously – for both Windows and Mac computers.  It works by providing you with a different IP address than you would normally get, allowing you to bypass country-type restrictions. 

Here’s a look at just how easy it is to use.

LogMeIn Hamachi is a zero configuration VPN that works with your existing firewall and allows you to access your computer no matter where you are, as long there is Internet connection.

While there is a nice interface for the Windows version, Linux users can only access to Hamachi via the command line interface. Nevertheless, with some help from the open source community, Linux (and Ubuntu users) can now install, configure and use Hamachi very easily.