Unblock-US not working with ITV/BBC

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RussellSmith

20 posts

Geek

#964466 10-Jan-2014 12:49

The issue does seem to point to Telecom, but I wonder why it's only the UK sites that are affected?

stenknz

103 posts

Master Geek

#964486 10-Jan-2014 13:17

RussellSmith: The issue does seem to point to Telecom, but I wonder why it's only the UK sites that are affected?

Hmmm Both ITV and iPlayer don't work for me. Hope they can resolve this as apart from that the service is pretty good and quite cheap.

mortonman

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#966816 14-Jan-2014 14:08

Just found this topic. I am also on telecom and Un block us.
I can get the iplayer app to work on the ipad but only downladed programmes. On my MAC the iplayer doesn't work.
As with everyone else the ITV player app wont work at all. I even tried to reinstall but it would recognise any UK postcoades and then crashed my ipad.
I also have the channel 4 app but it would only play adverts and no prgrammes last night.

I am hoping unblock can fix it otherwise I may need to switch. Are the other alternatives to Unblock us as easy to use and switch between countries? Do they work on all devices in a home network?

I like being able to switch netflix regions to access different content eg UK & US etc and it doesn't affect local traffic so the rest of the family doesn't have to change anything to use it.

mortonman

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#966817 14-Jan-2014 14:08

Just found this topic. I am also on telecom and Un block us.
I can get the iplayer app to work on the ipad but only downloaded programmes. On my MAC the iplayer doesn't work.
As with everyone else the ITV player app wont work at all. I even tried to reinstall but it would recognise any UK postcoades and then crashed my ipad.
I also have the channel 4 app but it would only play adverts and no prgrammes last night.

I am hoping unblock can fix it otherwise I may need to switch. Are the other alternatives to Unblock us as easy to use and switch between countries? Do they work on all devices in a home network?

I like being able to switch netflix regions to access different content eg UK & US etc and it doesn't affect local traffic so the rest of the family doesn't have to change anything to use it.

stenknz

103 posts

Master Geek

#966834 14-Jan-2014 14:23

mortonman: Just found this topic. I am also on telecom and Un block us.
I can get the iplayer app to work on the ipad but only downladed programmes. On my MAC the iplayer doesn't work.
As with everyone else the ITV player app wont work at all. I even tried to reinstall but it would recognise any UK postcoades and then crashed my ipad.
I also have the channel 4 app but it would only play adverts and no prgrammes last night.

I am hoping unblock can fix it otherwise I may need to switch. Are the other alternatives to Unblock us as easy to use and switch between countries? Do they work on all devices in a home network?

I like being able to switch netflix regions to access different content eg UK & US etc and it doesn't affect local traffic so the rest of the family doesn't have to change anything to use it.

Try a UnoDNS trial. iPlayer and ITV both work for me, not as fast in my opinion as unblockme-us , but that could just be my setup\hardware etc...

Could give this place a go www.getflix.com.au. I'm going to give them a trial after UnoDNS

They all are pretty easy to switch regions.

gjen

75 posts

Master Geek

#966899 14-Jan-2014 15:44

gjen: Got same email. I've found this website tunrl.net and use their dns servers for bbc and ITV. works like a treat and is free but netflix doesn't. Therefore I use a DNS switcher program call DNS jumper and added unblocks DNS and tunrl.net DNS servers in. I can now switch easily and watch all my content until unblock fix the issue.

http://tunlr.net/

http://dns-jumper.en.softonic.com/

here's an earlier post. you can keep unblock for netflick and use the free tunrl.net dns entries. I then use the dns switcher software to change entries and flush.... easy mate and works a treat.

P.s scotish ITV website/player works fine.... if you really need to watch the latest Corrie or Emmerdale Farm

www.stv.tv/‎

huckster

843 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#968705 17-Jan-2014 09:56

Tried unblock yesterday - still no go. Sent them an email yesterday asking for an update. No reply as yet and my subscription is up for renewal next week.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

huckster

843 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#969560 19-Jan-2014 09:49

huckster: Tried unblock yesterday - still no go. Sent them an email yesterday asking for an update. No reply as yet and my subscription is up for renewal next week.

Their technicians are still investigating.

gjen

75 posts

Master Geek

#972850 23-Jan-2014 13:51

latest email from Un-block... I think it is an ISP issue as I have now just noticed that I get the same issue when I use the tunrl.net DNS entries .... I've not tried it on my andiod tablet yet.. will try tonight..

Does Telecom have the right to block this traffic ? I know people will say you're not supposed to do this... that's not the question ..

Cheers

Hello ,

Our tech team have continued looking into this, and we cannot find anything at our end that would cause this issue.

As you will know, bandwidth in NZ can be quite expensive, with low monthly data allowances in a lot of cases, so it is possible that Telecom NZ have made some changes to conserve bandwidth.

We have checked extensively at our end, so it would be a good idea to contact your ISP to see if they can provide any explanation as to why this problem has occurred, and see if they can do anything to resolve this issue.

Also we would suggest that you verify our conclusion and test this issue on any device ( iPad or iPhone ) from another location, using a different ISP if possible.

gjen

75 posts

Master Geek

#972856 23-Jan-2014 13:58

saw this post at anther site about how Un-block works. the interesting part is "Note that the actual media streaming will come directly from the service provider once the IP address checks have passed, not through Unblock Us, so there should be no bandwith capacity issues for the Unblock Us owned reverse proxy servers."

So has Telecom blocked the video traffic after the IP address checks have passed ?

G

"Unblock Us uses two main components, a DNS server and a collection of reverse proxies in various countries e.g. in the US for netflix.com, in the UK for bbc.co.uk.

When your device resolves netflix.com, for example, instead of the real netflix.com IP address, the Unblock Us DNS server returns the IP addresses of some Unblock Us owned reverse proxy servers in the US.

Compare the Google DNS results:

C:\>nslookup netflix.com 8.8.8.8
Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: netflix.com
Address: 69.53.236.17
With the Unblock Us results:

C:\>nslookup netflix.com 208.122.23.22
Server: UnKnown
Address: 208.122.23.22
Name: netflix.com
Addresses: 173.208.170.14
184.154.113.142
50.22.86.51
69.89.4.237
This difference in DNS results only happens for the services that Unblock Us support, listed at http://support.unblock-us.com/customer/portal/articles/291570.

Once your connection has been directed to one of the Unblock Us reverse proxies in the correct country and forwarded to the service provider e.g. netflix, then it appears that you are in the correct country for their IP checking.

Note that the actual media streaming will come directly from the service provider once the IP address checks have passed, not through Unblock Us, so there should be no bandwith capacity issues for the Unblock Us owned reverse proxy servers.

When you connect to an Unblock Us reverse proxy, they also check your IP address to make sure you have paid for the Unblock Us service. If your IP address changes then you need to revalidate it from a computer by clicking "Check Service" at http://unblock-us.com."

huckster

843 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#973031 23-Jan-2014 17:34

Yeah, I got the same response from Unblock-Us too. I'm currently using UnoTelly and it does everything I need to to do.

Not sure if the stream goes directly or not with UnoTelly; maybe it doesn't and the Beeb have blocked Telecom's IP ranges.....?

Either way, I've cancelled my Unblock account and moved on.

RussellSmith

20 posts

Geek

#973258 23-Jan-2014 23:09

I got an email from unblock-us yesterday, they said they are continuing to look into the issue and asked me hit the uk sites again then send them my IP address and times...

One thing i found today is that if you make a request to the bbc iplayer url(or itv), the response contains a location property which is actually a unblock-us url, the browser then tries to redirect to this location. I thought i'd jump on my work vpn just to see what i get with that and it's a completely different response, the site actually loads, i can't play anything because of region blocking, but at least it loads the page.

Now, i'm not sure, but it might be that the beeb is onto unblock-us and they're showing them the middle finger by redirecting back to where we came from? However, it doesn't explain why only Telecom users are affected - if that is still the case?

RussellSmith

20 posts

Geek

#973339 24-Jan-2014 08:49

Just had an email from Unblock-us saying they have made a change and asked me to try the uk sites again, so I did, and they worked! Well, the bbc and 4oD did, itv not so much, but still it's a good result, hopefully they'll get that going as well.

killerkiwinz

40 posts

Geek

#973684 24-Jan-2014 16:54

Using unblockus / orcon works fine, did have a day outage earlier in the month watching the last sherlock

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