Can I go to American websites while in London, England?

Question

I'm an American from New York, going abroad to London in two weeks for the fall semester and I'm curious to know if I'll be able to access American websites just like I can from home. I'm living in a flat with wireless access and my school also has computer clusters with internet access. But will I be able to go to cnn.com for election coverage, to nbc.com to watch heroes, and such? If anyone knows please shed some light! Thanks.

Answer 1

There are some sites that you won't be able to reach because they block non-US IP addresses, either for copyright reasons (some tv streaming sites, so heroes might be a problem) or because of government restrictions (some election sites or other .gov sites).

Other sites like cnn.com will be accessible but might default you to the european version of the site. You should be able to click through to the US versions if you want.

Answer 2

Yes you will - no blocking no government restrictions - the UK is not China.

You don't have to type .am or anything - the internet works just the same here as there.

Source: live in UK, have used internet in US & much of Europe

Answer 3

You should be able to - I have just done it for nbc.com and cnn.com but I couldn't watch the videos - it'll be for copyright reasons. I had the same problem at Easter trying to view BBC programmes from Orlando.

Hope that helps. Have a good time

Answer 4

You'll be able to access CNN (I just did), but I'm sad to say you most likely will not be able to watch Heroes. I'm in LDN now & have tried like crazy to watch Lost & Ugly Betty, but I just get a wall that says "cannot be viewed outside of the United States." You can read everything on the website, but you can't watch the videos. My step dad told me the reason is because the advertisers in the UK wouldn't want to pay as much if everyone had already watched the shows online weeks before it was aired. Heroes comes on BBC 2 here on Thursday nights at 9, but they are a few episodes behind. If you are a computer whiz you can reconfigure your IP address so that you have one in the States, but I haven't had much luck.

You can totally access Fb, MySpace, and nearly every other site here, though. It's really just the networks where you'll have a problem. My dad records the shows I'm addicted to & mails them to me when I'm here. Maybe your rents or a friend could do the same for you? You won't be able to watch dvds from America on most dvd players here (they are configured differently), but you can watch them on your laptop.

Have an awesome time!!!!! LDN is amazing.

EDIT

I just tried watching Heroes & couldn't. I got the same msg on NBC's site as I did on ABC's about the videos not being available to ppl outside of the US. I tried on my iPhone & laptop & it didn't work on either. I also tried the / am the 1st poster rec'd. It didn't work.

Answer 5

You can access anywhere, but you may need to put "/am" after it, or your computer may just do it by itself.  When we were in Russia the computer (or web) just put it in for me and I could access anywhere I wanted.