Well, a proxy or a vpn (virtual personal network I think) is a way to make a website think that you are somewhere where you aren't. I'm in Ontario...a proxy makes hulu or netflix think I'm in the US, or another proxy or vpn makes bbc think that you are snug in your little thatched cottage in the English countryside. You have to use one of these because of geo-restriction. Hulu tells me to get lost when it figures out I'm in Ontary-ary-oh.
That's in layman's terms of course, but hey, I'm a layman at best.
There is another way, DNS server. For me this is proving to be most reliable. If you're in Canada there are two good ones, you can PM me and I'll tell you, I just don't want to sound like a spammer on here.
In a nut shell, you have to pay, the free ones suck. If you get a DNS server setup like I have, it costs about 5 bucks a month but is good for both US and UK (and Sweden/Latin America as well, but my Swedish and Spanish are a little rusty). There are others, all of which are under 10 a month. A good service is worth way more than a netflix account imo, particularly if you have Canadian Netflix, which is bereft of any real content. Beware the free proxies btw...most of them won't allow you to stream video, they're just good for checking facebook in China, that sort of thing.
Hope this helps, I'm just figuring out this stuff myself, so I'm no expert, but I'm happy to help.