I am out of the UK a lot and miss being able to access stuff that is blocked from non uk IP addresses. I can sign up for a UK based Proxy or a VPN, I understand how each system works but with the proxy there seems to be a price based on bandwidth while the VPNs seem to be unlimited. There are other benefits of the VPN such as anonymous browsing but are there any downsides and how is it that they can offer unlimited bandwidth. Thanks
Web proxy simply hides your location behind the proxy server. A VPN will offer some kind of encryption on top of a proxy service. People often use the VPN option if they are inside a corporate firewall (which needs to be configured to permit the VPN traffic, poor security) so they can hide their surfing, or other activities.
Not sure why one offers free bandwidth . . . possibly because they throttle each user connection and it’s designed more for IM or comms rather than web browsing ? You’ll need to try them both.
What VPN service are you looking at Tony? Quite interested myself.
id go with VPN
there are loads of VPN that give UK ips just google… but havent tried em… i dont want a UK ip 
some are free but not sure of the reliability
e.g.
Yup vpn all the way.
I used these people http://www.vpnuk.net/ It was good enough to watch TV out of the UK.
One thing I did notice and dont know exactly why, but where I was using it some sites are sensored and even with the VPN the sites were still blocked. The trace route looked like it wasn’t going straight from my overseas ISP to vpnuk but dont know why, or didnt investigate further.
If you are out of the country and dont want to miss something oon terrestrial and where you are staying has internet I would definitely recommend this. It was easy to set up on windows, linux and even my awful Asus thing wasn’t too difficult.
I did once set up a VPN with my laptop at hime in the UK but when something happened and the laptop needed resetting I couldn’t do it as I was in a different country so decided £6/month was more than good value.