I want to catch up with stuff from BBC, but the iplayer only allows UK access. Seeing as I'm in NZ, how do I get around this? Can I use a proxy server or some such electrikery?

You can try a proxy or one chap on here was talking about VPNing to a UK site a while ago, I don't know how far he got with that. BBC *may* block connections from proxies but there's only one way to find out.

Note that a number of Uk based proxies have turned off access to iplayer because it's eating up their bandwidth.

Search for 'uk based anonymous proxy'

torrents is the answer, can't believe it took me this long to figure those things out.

It's fine to say torrents, but what does that mean and how do I make it work? 😳

proxy is the way to go if you want live TV or iplayer. i use these guys:

http://www.intl-alliance.com

send them an email and they will explain everything

This place is good if you can get an account – not taking new members at the moment. http://www.uknova.com/

Regarding torrents a fiend told me that a website called Pirate Bay or something like that is quite good.

Wikipedia has some info about the concept of torrents. Not that I have delved into this practice of course.

http://www.ninjavideo.net/

Fill your boots.

UKNova would also fit the bill for you if you are trying to get lots of UK TV content.

I've been using this for my UK TV downloads http://thebox.bz/login.php You have to create an account but there's no dodgy stuff on there unlike lots of the other torrent sites. Its great by the time I get in from work it usually has all the days tv worth watching available to download.