[frostycold]

Unblock-Us has been working fine on all my devices. I get US Netflix on my Laptop, Roku, Nexus Player and XBox. I haven't tried to change regions, but I have never received an error.

 

[CanuckBlue]

Try watching a program thats only available in the U.S and see if you get an error. If you do your paying for a smart dns under the illusion it's actually doing something.

 

[pinto]

Well, lost some US programming. Proxy/DNS error. Guess they finally caught up with me. All good on the UK, Australia programs

 

[frostycold]

Try watching a program thats only available in the U.S and see if you get an error. If you do your paying for a smart dns under the illusion it's actually doing something.

I played Arrow just fine, and it's only on US Netflix.

 

[audacity]

Try watching a program thats only available in the U.S and see if you get an error.

This is false.

Netflix stops you from using their service if the proxy server you're going through happens to be on their "IP blacklist", and it won't work at all if that's the case.

It's that simple.

 

[bev fan]

Not true at all. It was the case in the beginning. Now Netflix blocks only content that is not authorized for a specific country, so if you use proxy service in Canada, Netflix is blocking only the American or another country's content, but everything works fine when accessing content dedicated to Canadian Netflix.

Maybe it works differently when using VPN service but that's how it works when using dns services like unblock-us.

 

[audacity]

so if you use proxy service in Canada, Netflix is blocking only the American or another country's content, but everything works fine when accessing content dedicated to Canadian Netflix.

Uh-huh.

So, riddle me this. Suppose I live in the UK, I'm using Unblock-Us, and I'm accessing US Netflix. Netflix doesn't know my country of origin, just that the TCP/IP connecting is coming from a IP address of a server located in the USA that is "blacklisted" for being a proxy.

How can Netflix know "oh, we'll only show this individual Netflix UK content" (or Netflix Canada content, or whatever). If they knew your origin IP's country in the first place they wouldn't need to do this whack-a-mole thing with proxy servers in the first place.

Not only does this explanation not make sense from a technical perspective, but it's contrary to my experience (e.g. I've had it block me while watching House of Cards).

 

[bev fan]

I am not sure how technically it is done, but I know that every time I want to access content from other country, it shows proxy error.
Also every time I change the country it shows all the content that is available for that country.
Netflix knows my location because I am registered as a Canadian user. Maybe if I did the same set up as I did on Hulu it would work differently.

One way it is good because I do not have to change region and dns settings on my AppleTV. My region is set to US and I am able to have access to Hulu and Canadian Netflix at the same time.
In the beginning when Netflix started doing that it was not possible.

Not that it matters to me anymore since I have cancelled all the services (Hulu, Netflix, Unblock-us) and have access to them for only few more days.
Will have to start using PVR more often and get used to on demand feature that I have been avoiding until now.

 

[j0dest3r]

I finally ran into this on the Rokus this morning. Wife not happy. I did open up a support call with Unblock-us. I expected there to be some sort of statement on their site about this but nothing.

 

[pinto]

You won't get anything from Unblock-US, at least for now. I e-mailed about something entirely different and not a peep in almost a week. I don't use the service for just Netflix so I'm not that pissed that I lost some of their programming.

 

[bev fan]

True, but for how long. If you check Twitter, a lot of people are cancelling unblock-us service.
I think that Netflix was the biggest reason for those services to exist.
Now if they manage to stay in business, the question is for how long. I am pretty sure that now that Netflix has successfully implemented new technology it will not be long before content owners will be asking Hulu to do the same.
Unfortunately internet does have borders, contrary to some people beliefs.

 

[pinto]

@bev fan. I'm sure some bright person will come up with another solution. Question is, how long will that last..lol. Also, with people also cancelling their Netflix, or at least saying they are.. how much of a hit will the streaming service take before backing off. The increase in torrent and newsgroup use is on the rise I'm sure, thought torrents are very dangerous.

 

[bev fan]

It wil last as long as it takes. Netflix has hired third party to solve geoblocking problem and I do not think that they will ever give up.
People cancelling Netflix will have very minimal effect if any on Netflix.
Netflix has millions of customers now so it will not worry about some customers leaving due to geoblocking restrictions.
Most like they took that into consideration before they implemented new restrictions

 

[thenewdc]

I won't be cancelling my Netflix regardless. The Canadian catalog is way better than it use to be and their is tons of programming I'd like to see. I will also keep Unblock-US for now to get the free Hulu stuff and some other programming.

 

[bev fan]

I might subscribe to Netflix again in the fall, but I am done with Hulu and unblockus. There is no point in having tv subscription and multiple OTT services and I am not interested in playing proxy blocking game. Overall more money will end up in my pocket.

 

[pinto]

I use the DNS service more for UK and Australian programming. Some nice US apps as well. It's the people who only subscribe to service for Netflix that are the losers.

 

[bev fan]

Will that be enough for those services to continue their business though, especially that Hulu may be next being forced to implement the countermeasures

 

[pinto]

Perhaps not.. then for me it become a VPN and chromecast. I don't use Hulu. Don't see the point of paying for commercials

 

[bev fan]

True, there are other VPN services that concentrate more on security and providing geoblocking workarounds to other services than Netflix or Hulu.
One of them that I use is Hola VPN. It does not work with Hulu or Netflix but gives me access to European content and it costs only $5

 

[audacity]

I don't use Hulu. Don't see the point of paying for commercials

Hulu's $12/month plan removes commercials. It's $4 more to remove commercials, and, frankly, no commercials is a much more enjoyable experience.