I can't access Google dot com ... Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox always defaults to the country I'm in (dot co dot uk). Any way around this? Use a proxy server? Or are search results the same anyway? Thanks.

click on "go to google.com" on the bottom right of the big google logo

http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn

I use this as a home page and do searches from there. select web video etc and its from the US server. Search from the page not the google in the menu bar it defaults to local server.

http://www.google.com/ncr

(ncr stands for no cookie for region, or something like that)

Yes, that's what I use.

I think the "ncr" may also mean "no county redirect".

http://www.google.com/ncr

(ncr stands for no cookie for region, or something like that)

Once you have done it either set is as your homepage or put in your Favourites/bookmarks.

Google English