Computers & Electronics

Comparing U.S. DNS unblocking services

  • Last Updated:
  • Jun 7th, 2016 11:20 am
Deal Fanatic
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Mar 20, 2009
8862 posts
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Vancouver
Yes, that was tvunblock.com.
Jr. Member
Jul 22, 2007
177 posts
193 upvotes
Ottawa, ON
Sorry for the nob's question:

what is the updates-2016 on dns (or whatnots) to 1) register/purchase NetflixUS sub, and 2) to set up in router (wrt) to watch netflixUS progs ?

Feel free to PM Message.

Thanks
Deal Fanatic
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Mar 20, 2009
8862 posts
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Vancouver
It's difficult to give any long term advice at the moment. Netflix keeps rolling out new measures. So far over the last 4 months we've seen:

1. In January Netflix stepped up identification and blocking of proxy servers used by VPN and DNS providers. They targeted not only the U.S., but also servers in other countries, and they keep updating the blocking faster than before. It has proven difficult for the server providers to keep ahead of Netflix by changing IP addresses. Most have ended up being blocked some of the time, and many have given up trying to stay ahead.

They have also been blocking whole ranges of IP addresses owned by server companies, which hits even Virtual Private Servers with individual unique IPs.

2. In February Netflix began checking the destination IP address while streaming. This measure pulled the rug out from under DNS unblocking services, which relied on low bandwidth costs achieved by circumventing only an up-front geo-check. Any DNS unblocking services that want to keep supporting Netflix now have to proxy the entire video stream, using thousands of times as much bandwidth. Many gave up. Others are supporting only a much more limited set of countries where they can buy server bandwidth at reasonable prices. But regardless it changes the economics for them.

3. In March Netflix began targeting individual user accounts suspected of using a proxy server, blocking them at random or requiring them to log in every time. This has proven frustrating to a lot of users because it's very inconsistent. One user can be blocked for doing the exact same thing that didn't affect another user.

4. In April Netflix began modifying their client apps to go directly to the IP address of the content delivery server, bypassing DNS lookup entirely. The counter-measure is to block access to those IP ranges in the router, forcing the app to do a DNS lookup, but there's an ever-expanding set of IP address ranges needing blocking, requiring constant updates, and exceeding the capacity of many routers.

5. Most recently in May Netflix began blocking huge swaths of IPv6 addresses, since many proxy servers were attempting to use IPv6 to get around the IPv4 blocking.

So overall service is pretty erratic. I can still manage to get it working with at least one of the services I use on any given day, but increasingly it's not worth the hassle when the same content may be available more easily from other sources.

If you want up-to-date information, the most current forum is http://www.reddit.com/r/netflixbyproxy, but even there sensible people are trying not to identify specific services that are successfully bypassing geoblocking because Netflix staff certainly read that forum.

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