Read me: Unblocking Service Discussions

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meow
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#1506815 6-Mar-2016 11:20

vroom: I'm using the kiwi in aussie service and would really appreciate it if anyone could send me the current answer. I presume I'm not supposed to post the name of the service.

I've sent you a PM.

Also to everyone else I suspected a lynch mob may happen however for us to continue to have a working service the current methods have to stay hidden from public and Google's view. Geekzone is quickly indexed by Google and the last thread got quite high on the search rankings. I am still happy to help via PM but only to Trusted or long-term members sorry.

There is a private forum where you can discuss - if you'd like access to it then send me a private message but I'll only be approving long-term or trusted members sorry.

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kharris

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#1506821 6-Mar-2016 11:37

I am personally glad the thread(s) are gone. I believe the information contained within them was overly complex and flawed anyway. I prefer to keep it simple and set things up as thru say on the box. I suspect the threads removal had a little bit to do with ego and the perception of control but that's only my opinion. One I am sure I will get shot down for. It was posted recently that smart DNS services would no longer work. Rubbish. They clearly do in some cases.

Kirk

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#1506824 6-Mar-2016 11:40

kharris: I am personally glad the thread(s) are gone. I believe the information contained within them was overly complex and flawed anyway. I prefer to keep it simple and set things up as thru say on the box. I suspect the threads removal had a little bit to do with ego and the perception of control but that's only my opinion. One I am sure I will get shot down for. It was posted recently that smart DNS services would no longer work. Rubbish. They clearly do in some cases.

Some of my own threads I spent hours creating and researching and I've chosen to remove them too. Like I say it is for everyone's benefit. Providers were evolving faster than I could keep the thread updated anyway and after talking to quite a few providers we've just agreed to keep discussions behind closed doors.

kharris

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#1506834 6-Mar-2016 11:49

michaelmurfy:
kharris: I am personally glad the thread(s) are gone. I believe the information contained within them was overly complex and flawed anyway. I prefer to keep it simple and set things up as thru say on the box. I suspect the threads removal had a little bit to do with ego and the perception of control but that's only my opinion. One I am sure I will get shot down for. It was posted recently that smart DNS services would no longer work. Rubbish. They clearly do in some cases.

Some of my own threads I spent hours creating and researching and I've chosen to remove them too. Like I say it is for everyone's benefit. Providers were evolving faster than I could keep the thread updated anyway and after talking to quite a few providers we've just agreed to keep discussions behind closed doors.

That's fine. I agree I needed to be shut down. I know you tested a lot of configurations but you alway maintained that Google and other dns redirection was required. This is not true in a lot of cases. I for one have never done it and I have has fewer problems than many.

Kirk

NonprayingMantis

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#1506835 6-Mar-2016 11:51

I suspect we're massively, massively, overestimating how much attention the likes of Netflix pay to Geekzone.

Netflix have been very clear that they give zero farks about NZ - they don't even have a separate social media account for NZ, lumping us in with Australian twitter and facebook. They don't have an office here, they don't bother putting their content through the NZ censor, or charging GST, or paying any local tax. Likely the only reason they launched in NZ at all was because they got the rights bundled in as a freebie when they bough Australia rights. They've done basically no marketing over here (probably partially because the NZ media have done it all for them). They don't have a rep posting on geekzone or any other forum AFAIK. They just don't care about NZ

So, because of that, I doubt they are even aware of geekzone's existence, let alone the threads on here.

I think it's also worth pointing out that their network team is probably highly talented and knowledgable, and they don't need to wait for randoms on geekzone posting "unblockus works for me" or "here's how to set up your own DNS if you are a networking geek" to figure out if their solutions are working or not.

If they really needed to test the real world result, they would just have somebody on their payroll pay for an unblocking service and test it themselves. It's not like it's expensive or difficult to do so, at all. So they don't need to wait and see what other people say - they can find out for themselves.

As for Michaels thread on 'DIY unblocker' Do they really care if its possible to set up your own service? I doubt it. the number of people who have the ability to do that (and don't simply choose to pirate) is going to be vanishingly small relative to Netflix - not worth their effort at all.

Furthermore, also consider that the number of people using unblockers in NZ is a very very small percentage of the total people worldwide using them - likely ten times as many users in Australia, and probably even more in Canada, the UK, Singapore etc.

If they really wanted to monitor public info about it (which they probably don't need to) then those other countries will have far more information on their various discussion forums than geekzone will. Furthermore, even simply watching various public posts on twitter will probably give them all the info they need without needing to go to discussion forums.

mcraenz

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#1506838 6-Mar-2016 11:59

You could well be 100% right on all your points however it's the principle of the matter. The fact that unblocking became so mainstream that it got mentioned on sites like stuff.co.nz is the very reason that the content owners started to push for the changes. Had it been kept under the radar we may not find ourselves in this situation. That said, it was inevitable.

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michaelmurfy

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#1506839 6-Mar-2016 12:01

NonprayingMantis:

I suspect we're massively, massively, overestimating how much attention the likes of Netflix pay to Geekzone.

Netflix have been very clear that they give zero farks about NZ - they don't even have a separate social media account for NZ, lumping us in with Australian twitter. They don't have an office here, at all, they don't bother putting their content through the NZ censor, or charging GST, or paying any local tax. Likely the only reason they launched in NZ at all was because they got the rights bundled in as a freebie when they bough Australia rights. They've done basically no marketing over here (probably partially because the Nz media have done it all for them). They don't have a rep posting on geekzone or any other forum. They just don't care.

So, because of that, I doubt they are even aware of geekzone, let alone the threads on here.

I think it's also worth pointing out that their network team is probably highly talented and knowledgable, and they don't need to wait for randoms on geekzone posting "unblockus works for me" or "here's how to set up your own DNS if you are a networking geek" to figure out if their solutions are working or not.

If they really needed to test the real world result, they would just have somebody pay for an unblocking service and test it themselves. It's not like it's expensive to do so, at all. So they don't need to wait and see what other people say - they can find out for themselves.

Do they really care if its possible to set up your own service? I doubt it. the number of people who have the ability to do that (and don't simply choose to pirate) is going to be vanishingly small - not worth their effort at all.

furthermore, also consider that the number of people using unblockers in NZ is a very very small percentage of the total people worldwide using them - probably ten times as many in Australia, and probably even more in Canada, the UK, Singapore etc.

If they really wanted to monitor public info about it (which they probably don't need to) then those other countries will have far more information on their various discussion forums than geekzone will. Furthermore, even simply watching various posts on twitter will probably give them all the info they need.

Whilst I agree with you there were also some users that signed up from overseas asking "what I do" in order to get some services to work in their country. Whilst most of the answers can be answered by Google before last night several Geekzone discussions came up on the top of the Google searches. It is not about how we get around unblocking (we get it is possible) it is more about keeping the providers who provide the services to get video streaming services safe themselves. If you have not noticed almost every provider has removed Netflix from their name and some are now only offering to unblock it for long term users whilst others list it as something else.

Netflix has threatened legal action to a bunch of providers and threads like the ones seen on Geekzone link Netflix to those providers that were (once - and maybe still) offering a service to get around their restrictions. They're currently in risk of having their PayPal funding pulled and also legal action from Netflix and other video providers.

Also, from what I have seen with the amount of people on some ISP's using unblocking services you'll find that you're actually underestimating the amount of people in NZ currently using these sorts of services. I'll give you a hint, it is quite a bit if you consider that some of the more novice users also use the likes of Hola to get around such restrictions. I'd personally rather avoid phonecalls from my parents complaining their streaming services have stopped working :)

NonprayingMantis

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#1506840 6-Mar-2016 12:03

mcraenz:

You could well be 100% right on all your points however it's the principle of the matter. The fact that unblocking became so mainstream that it got mentioned on sites like stuff.co.nz is the very reason that the content owners started to push for the changes. Had it been kept under the radar we may not find ourselves in this situation. That said, it was inevitable.

well that kinda makes my point. unblocking had been a major topic on geekzone for a long time with not a peep from anyone at netflix, or the studios etc.

It was only when a major ISP launched global mode and suddenly added 50k+ new users in a day that it started to get any traction in the media (and stuff has a MUCH higher readership than geekzone), and therefore awareness and traction with the rights holders.

NonprayingMantis

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#1506842 6-Mar-2016 12:07

michaelmurfy:

NonprayingMantis:

I suspect we're massively, massively, overestimating how much attention the likes of Netflix pay to Geekzone.

Netflix have been very clear that they give zero farks about NZ - they don't even have a separate social media account for NZ, lumping us in with Australian twitter. They don't have an office here, at all, they don't bother putting their content through the NZ censor, or charging GST, or paying any local tax. Likely the only reason they launched in NZ at all was because they got the rights bundled in as a freebie when they bough Australia rights. They've done basically no marketing over here (probably partially because the Nz media have done it all for them). They don't have a rep posting on geekzone or any other forum. They just don't care.

So, because of that, I doubt they are even aware of geekzone, let alone the threads on here.

I think it's also worth pointing out that their network team is probably highly talented and knowledgable, and they don't need to wait for randoms on geekzone posting "unblockus works for me" or "here's how to set up your own DNS if you are a networking geek" to figure out if their solutions are working or not.

If they really needed to test the real world result, they would just have somebody pay for an unblocking service and test it themselves. It's not like it's expensive to do so, at all. So they don't need to wait and see what other people say - they can find out for themselves.

Do they really care if its possible to set up your own service? I doubt it. the number of people who have the ability to do that (and don't simply choose to pirate) is going to be vanishingly small - not worth their effort at all.

furthermore, also consider that the number of people using unblockers in NZ is a very very small percentage of the total people worldwide using them - probably ten times as many in Australia, and probably even more in Canada, the UK, Singapore etc.

If they really wanted to monitor public info about it (which they probably don't need to) then those other countries will have far more information on their various discussion forums than geekzone will. Furthermore, even simply watching various posts on twitter will probably give them all the info they need.

Whilst I agree with you there were also some users that signed up from overseas asking "what I do" in order to get some services to work in their country. Whilst most of the answers can be answered by Google before last night several Geekzone discussions came up on the top of the Google searches. It is not about how we get around unblocking (we get it is possible) it is more about keeping the providers who provide the services to get video streaming services safe themselves. If you have not noticed almost every provider has removed Netflix from their name and some are now only offering to unblock it for long term users whilst others list it as something else.

Netflix has threatened legal action to a bunch of providers and threads like the ones seen on Geekzone link Netflix to those providers that were (once - and maybe still) offering a service to get around their restrictions. They're currently in risk of having their PayPal funding pulled and also legal action from Netflix and other video providers.

Also, from what I have seen with the amount of people on some ISP's using unblocking services you'll find that you're actually underestimating the amount of people in NZ currently using these sorts of services. I'll give you a hint, it is quite a bit if you consider that some of the more novice users also use the likes of Hola to get around such restrictions. I'd personally rather avoid phonecalls from my parents complaining their streaming services have stopped working :)

when I do any sort of google search for the various keywords, I don't get any geekzone threads at all.

Are you sure you aren't seeing them because:

a) google knows you are in NZ and

b) google knows you have visited geekzone many times so it's algorithms make it show up for you above other options.

I know there are a lot of people using unblockers in NZ. I'm simply saying the number of users in Australia, Canada, the UK etc will be orders of magnitude higher, and so if Netflix are monitoring anything, it will be those areas rather than little old NZ.

Netflix don't need to monitor geekzone to see which providers are working and which aren't. It's trivial for them to find this info out without watching geekzone threads

networkn

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#1506845 6-Mar-2016 12:13

BuzzLightyear:
freitasm:

You can debate all you want, but the technical methods are still best kept under the radar.

100% agree with keeping this under the radar. I too was getting worried that the effectiveness of current working providers and solutions was being compromised by the thread.A more private forum may be more appropriate.

Agreed. The people whinging about it are clearly failing to understand the reason. The person suggesting censorship clearly needs more sleep!

michaelmurfy

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#1506847 6-Mar-2016 12:20

NonprayingMantis:

when I do any sort of google search for the various keywords, I don't get any geekzone threads at all.

Are you sure you aren't seeing them because:

a) google knows you are in NZ and

b) google knows you have visited geekzone many times so it's algorithms make it show up for you above other options.

I know there are a lot of people using unblockers in NZ. I'm simply saying the number of users in Australia, Canada, the UK etc will be orders of magnitude higher, and so if Netflix are monitoring anything, it will be those areas rather than little old NZ.

Netflix don't need to monitor geekzone to see which providers are working and which aren't. It's trivial for them to find this info out without watching geekzone threads

This is now because they've been removed however the Google search for "Unblock netflix" for example had Geekzone as the 2nd post on a connection in the US with no ties at all to Geekzone linking to many providers and showing what is working, and what is not. Yes, I also use Google Chrome but I have been monitoring this for quite some time. Same goes for sites like Reddit etc discussing such things since as from the latest wave discussions have mostly moved into private space (IRC, private forums etc). It wasn't just Geekzone getting pruned, it was Reddit, and a bunch of other online communities within the last 2 days.

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freitasm

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#1506857 6-Mar-2016 12:34

I think some people underestimate New Zealand as a testbed for tech solutions. This has been the case for ages. And they also underestimate the traffic we get from overseas.

Actually only a very small number of people know our traffic so it is no surprise there's this idea it's a niche, geek site. The number of accounts that access the site for years before posting their first topic or reply is pretty large. And the number of overseas accounts is also not small.

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jmh

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#1506859 6-Mar-2016 12:37

When I google stuff geekzone threads frequently crop up early in the list. This was the case before I joined and started participating.

old3eyes

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#1506862 6-Mar-2016 12:43

freitasm:

You can debate all you want, but the technical methods are still best kept under the radar.

How do you propose then that new folks coming here looking for a solution will ever find one??

Regards,

Old3eyes

freitasm

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#1506863 6-Mar-2016 12:45

They won't. That's by design. When they participate and prove they're worthy of knowledge, they will find what they seek, young padawan.

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