UPDATE
In early January 2015 Netflix started to make some changed which blocked Hola on Android devices.  I have since switch from using Hola to using my own Private VPN.  I have posted an article on how to set this up: The Personal VPN Solution everyone must have…

After being a Netflix subscriber for a month and a bit now, I am very disappointed at how limited our selection is here in Canada, half the good movies are unavailable.

I have heard of other people using proxies and VPNs to fool the servers into thinking you have a States-Side IP address, but these in my experience can be limited. The ones I have found are either really slow, have low bandwidth, or cost quite a bit to have speed and bandwidth.

During my most recent search I happened across a site called Hola (Spanish for Hello?) which adds a plugin to Chrome or Firefox or you can directly install their app on Windows, Mac OS, and Android (sorry Blackberry Users, your left out, again). I have the plugin for my Chrome and installed it on my Android phone, and it seems to work great, except early in the morning. This could relate to how it works…

The Internet is slowed down by server response times, Internet congestion, round trip times, and poorly written communication stacks in operating systems. Hola removes these bottlenecks by securely caching content on peers as they view it, and later serving it up to other nearby peers as they need it.

So basically at 4:00am, when barely anyone is online, its a bit laggy, however during peak hours I was able to watch a number of shows (Like Mythbusters) which are no longer available in Canada any more with absolutely no issue and they pre-buffered really quickly.

A few weeks ago I posted an article on how to get Netflix to work on Linux (Ubuntu based flavours), this can work for it as well, but its a bit tricky. Since the Netflix Desktop uses Firefox, Hola can be installed, however the Firefox doesn’t seem to have an address bar. The easiest way to type in an address to go to would be to select the Netflix Desktop window and hit “ctrl + L” this will give you a GoTo prompt where you can type in http://goo.gl/ioums and install the plugin. I managed to get it working on my laptop quite easily.

Hola not only unlocks Netflix but also gives you access to Hulu, iTV, CBS, Fox, and Pandora Radio. The desktop app (may differ as I only installed the Android version) also has an Internet Accelerator and Unlocks more applications like Facebook, Oxygen.com, Spotify, Twitter, and Vimeo, so that you can watch see these sites even from behind a firewall (supposedly).

So if you are looking for a fast, free method of watching USA based networks and Netflix, Hola is a definit must.

Please note, this prolly wont work on Consols like the Wii, PS3, or Xbox… Sorry Chris (My Brother) Your gonna have watch the good stuff from your PC lol.

UPDATE:

It would seem that Hola now has limitations put in place, making so that free users can only use the service for 4 hours per day, as per their new Premium Info page, it also seems they upped the price, I joined about a week ago or so when it was only $2.99/month, it now states $5/month or $45/year ($15 savings).