Wednesday, February 15, 2012

TV & Glee

I mentioned it on Facebook a while back, but when we arrived back in Thailand after our trip home to the U.S., I brought another XBox 360 with me.  While I wanted to play some games on it, the more compelling reason was to use it as a media center in my bedroom.

In addition to watching videos that I have on my computer, I also wanted to take advantage of the Neftflix and Hulu Plus apps.  The issue is that they are not licensed to show those videos outside the U.S.  In order to watch them, I had to set up a VPN for the XBox.  Despite the videos that showed how easy it is to setup, I had a few difficulties along the way.  It probably didn't help that I was doing it a day or two after I got back; when I hadn't slept well and was jet lagged.

The good thing is that I did get it to work, and that the family also loves it. Tim and the girls absolutely love Glee.  Some of it's a little above their heads (Nalin and Aleena, not Tim) and sometimes a bit racey, but they love the signing.

It's also easy for Tim to watch her favorite shows like Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, as they are available on Hulu Plus the day after they air in the U.S.  Of course, there is also plenty for me to watch as well, including the entire five seasons of the British comedy Shameless.

I showed Tim how to reconnect the PC to the VPN in case there was a problem when I was not home.  Of course when I was in Bali, a problem occurred that was not easily solved.  I tried to do some basic support over text messaging, but it just wasn't working.  I fixed it when I got home.  I'm not sure why, but for some reason something when wrong with the Internet Connection Sharing that I use to allow the XBox to use the VPN.

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