Losing account / subscription details overnight

Forums › Sky, Neon, Lightbox › Losing account / subscription details overnight - VPN app to blame?

MajorFigjam

23 posts

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#317705 7-Nov-2024 15:14

For the second day running, I woke to find that I apparently needed to update my subscription before watching anything on the new Sky Box.

Yesterday, I suspected either a Sky billing stuff up, or a software update gone wrong. A hard reboot - pulling out the power cable - solved the problem so I assumed it was the latter, especially as regular early morning recordings had not been affected. However, the problem recurred today, once more solved with a hard reboot.

Has anyone else suffered this?

If not, could it be due to running android vpn software? The vpn was downloaded direct from app store on the box, and not adb side-loaded. I guess if the box "phones home" every night, and Sky suddenly detects it has moved it's IP address to (say) the USA, then they might block it, until it's back within their allowed geographical area.

Jase2985

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#3306640 7-Nov-2024 15:15

Sky service needs to be accessed from within NZ, so if you change to the US then It's going to boot you.

rscole86

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#3306667 7-Nov-2024 16:05

If the VPN app supports split tunneling, switch it on only for the service(app) you want to use the VPN connection for.

Linux

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#3306669 7-Nov-2024 16:08

Don't get me started on SkyTV fired off an email today to the CEO

MajorFigjam

23 posts

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#3306671 7-Nov-2024 16:32

Thanks for the quick responses.

It makes sense that the box needs to be in NZ - broadcast and streaming rights issues I suppose. Odd though that it only seems to check overnight, and once it has rechecked on reboot, there are no issues with watching or recording until the following morning.

As to the VPN, yes apparently the "android-tv" version does split tunnelling. Unfortunately I need to list apps that can bypass the vpn, not apps that will use the vpn, so I need to work out which app phones home. I will start with SkySTB, and see what happens from there.

Brents

16 posts

Geek

#3306772 8-Nov-2024 05:46

Ex Sky tech here. I went to service call and the client was using a Vpn. He would always turn it off before returning to live Sat channels, and obviously on when using streaming apps. From memory, the box locked up and then logged out when he attempted to watch the NRL, as he forgot to turn it off prior to jumping back to live channels. I had to factory reset the decoder in the end. This seems the only reliable way to have a vpn on this decoder.

Another interesting fault was the blue tooth remote would stop working for up to 10 mins at a time (and no other fault), we found the customer had an add blocker turned on via his modems IP address, seemed to make the android system within the box think it was needing to block adds that it thought it was detecting and the end result was the remote locking up.... strange but true.

Protagoras

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3310006 18-Nov-2024 08:32

I installed NORDvpn on my android TV, and lost much of the Sky functionality, even though I had disconnected the vpn. It all came right as soon as I uninstalled the Nord app.

hamish225

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#3310046 18-Nov-2024 10:52

This all sounds interesting and has got me curious. What I wonder is why the box cares what your IP address is when the TV comes via satellite? surely you can only pick the signals up from the sky satellites in the general area of New Zealand anyway?

*Insert big spe*dtest result here*

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geek3001

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#3310057 18-Nov-2024 11:44

hamish225:

This all sounds interesting and has got me curious. What I wonder is why the box cares what your IP address is when the TV comes via satellite? surely you can only pick the signals up from the sky satellites in the general area of New Zealand anyway?

My old Motorola/Pace decoder, when connected to the LAN, showed constant traffic into and out of the box, of around 4k bits per second.

This was noted 24x7, even when the decoder was "off" and in standby mode.

I could assume an SSL tunnel of some sort between the Customer's device and Sky's infrastructure, with constant chit-chat going on between the two.

I could further assume that Sky's infrastructure was regularly checking the device's public IP address to ensure that it was connecting from IP address ranges known to be in NZ. Sky might be smart enough to work out that their box is not physically in NZ but is attempting to look like it is by connecting via a VPN to make it look like it is in NZ when it is not. This could happen and be detected by the box when it is actually in NZ but a VPN is running on the LAN. Fiddling DNS servers might result in similar behaviour.

The new white decoder probably has a similar chit-chat system, which will be doing similar IP location checks, most likely to comply with Sky's agreements with content suppliers to ensure said content is only available within the confines of NZ.