Today, for the first time, I couldn’t use iplayer. As usual, I switched country to UK, cleared browsing data, deleted everything from temp app data file before going there. Was using Firefox. Tried same procedure with Epic browser. Same result. Chatted with Nord support. They wanted screenshots of results from dnsleaktest dot com. Tech said wait while they checked it out. After a little while, chat terminated. Created a ticket via email.

Have BBC finally made themselves bullet-proof?

  • PeterPoopshit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1192·
    1 year ago

    If rich people and corporations are going to fuck the internet so hard it’s unusable, we should make a new internet. One with blackjack and hookers.

  • donuts@kbin.social
    66·
    1 year ago

    Well fuck. I can’t wait to try to explain this to my 65 year old parents who basically only watch British tv via VPN…

  • squid@feddit.ukEnglish
    331·
    1 year ago

    And this is why I only torrent and use third-party software for my media consumption needs

    • DocCrankenstein@lemm.eeEnglish
      9·
      1 year ago

      Can’t take it away if I already have it in my harddrive.

      I mean they can, but they have to find me first.

  • Morgikan@lemm.eeEnglish
    26·
    1 year ago

    BBC could ID a VPN IP address based on usage and concurrent sessions, but honestly most companies that block VPNs just purchase IP address lists from any number of vendors. Pixalate and DoubleVerify are two that I’ve worked with in the past that both provide that data to clients. They rarely ever block entire IP blocks though, so you might just try reconnecting from a different location/server within the UK until you land on one that works (if any).

    • riley0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      16·
      1 year ago

      It used to be that they didn’t throw me out before I got to a program’s page. Today, upon login, they redirected me to BBC’s main page. Google tells me this: “In addition to the measures listed above, the BBC is also reportedly working on a new anti-VPN measure that uses machine learning to identify and block VPN traffic. This measure is still under development, but it has the potential to be more effective than the BBC’s current anti-VPN measures.”

      • Morgikan@lemm.eeEnglish
        12·
        1 year ago

        I’m pretty sure ML is how Pixalate and DoubleVerify were building their lists, too. The difference is they were footing the bill in terms of resources and time spent to develop a solution. Training ML isn’t hard, its just really time consuming.

    • riley0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know whether I’m knowledgeable enough for Tailscale, but I’ll give it a try. Thanks.

        • Nyarlathotep@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          6·
          1 year ago

          Thanks for that explanation. I have seen references to Tailscale forever and even looked at the official web site… And you explained it better than they did.

        • janguv@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Interesting write-up. But I wonder e.g. what the benefit of this would be over using Wireguard? It’s easy enough to set up on a UK router and then with a tap of the button you’re sending requests via your personal VPN to UK to the internet.

        • Fraeco@lemm.eeEnglish
          21·
          1 year ago

          How is this different from a VPN provider? Both are breaking out from a node in the country where you want to consume your media. Only one is used by 1000’s, one is used just by you.

          Not dissing tailscale or anything. But just curious from a technical pov.

          • tordenflesk@lemmy.worldEnglish
            10·
            1 year ago

            Commercial VPN-providers IP-addresses are known, and easily identified by things like the amount of traffic coming from them.

            A single user connecting from a residential IP’s indistinguishable from legitimate traffic.

          • riley0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            No, I have Nord. At the time I subscribed, I hadn’t discovered all the wondrous things on Sail the High Seas or FMHY. Nord looked like my best bet judging by search engine results.

            I just tried Tailscale. Downloaded & installed, then nothing. Task Manager told me their GUI was running, but I didn’t see it. Repaired (via uninstall) & tried again. Same. Uninstalled & reinstalled. Same. Tried running as admin, just in case. Same. I’ll try again another time.

            • MiltownClowns@lemmy.worldEnglish
              51·
              1 year ago

              nord is a double edge sword w/ all their advertising. more customers but more government notice. iplayer may have borked nords ips or nord might just be fuckin up. doesn’t seem like you need tailscale, seems like you need a different vpn to test with. mulvad is an easy recommendation, but i recommend shopping around and finding somebody you can conceivably trust. because when you route your internet through them you should probably personally vet past their ads.