O Canada! > Canadian > Canadian Broadband > Anyone using Unblock-us?

Anyone using Unblock-us?

»strongvpn.com/

Thats what I use for netflix, works perfectly. $55.00 a year for unlimited transfer, and its very fast.

reply to SpongeGuard
I use unblock.us or whatever the guy is calling it or himself (was calling himself something roth in emails, now it's tim taylor...).

I had initially went that route because I was going to get an entropay account so I could get US netflix.
As soon as I assigned my real-life CC to my entropay account, they locked me out due to fraud concerns. Thankfully I hadn't loaded my account with any funds. So F them, If I want to pay for NF or hulu+ I'll just have to get one of those reloadable Visa gift cards.

Back on topic, I pay the $5 + HST(cheaper if you pay yearly) for usvideo/unblockus and it works quite well for the standard streaming sites like Hulu, fancast and Pandora radio.
I still can't get TBS working either through their website or Boxee. Usvideo support says it works fine on their end...

As for being trustworthy, I'd say they are, in so much as you trust any other faceless random company with your DNS queries.
That being said, I use a program called DNSjumper to move back and forth from my standard DNS on the LAN and USvideos servers whenever I'm doing more sensitive work on my media PC.

Since traffic doesn't pass through their servers there's no slowdowns or transfer limits as well and you still appear to be Canadian to our own sites so you don't get weird GEO-IP restrictions.

if your computer has a VPN to a VPN server in the USA, how do you get it to use VPN to access certan sites, and use yor local comnection for the others (such as canadian sites) ?

Do you build routes via the VPN for specific destiations such as netflix ?

With regards to TBS: they may have clued in that IPs belonging o that VPN operator is coming from abroad and decided to block access.

JF, unblock-us is not a VPN service. It uses some kind of DNS workaround. I suspect on their servers they have static DNS entries to point to the caching servers so the geolocation doesn't kick in. What Netflix and others would see is a Canadian IP but with millions of customers they aren't likely to look through every IP which is why they implement geo blocking.

So, if the caching servers implement geoblocking, then this service becomes useless, right ?

Does this mean that if I run my own DNS, I would code in an entry for netflix.com pointing to thet ublock-us DNS server as being authoritative ?

reply to SpongeGuard
unblock-us uses 2 DNS servers per geographical region.
For North America it's: 184.106.242.193 and 67.23.7.56

If you plug those in and then try to go to hulu, initially you'll get a redirect to their site where it asks you to put in an email address to start a 1 week trial.

After that you're done.
They send an email in a few days to let you know when the trial is coming to an end and then another when it's over.

From their site:

How USVideo is different from StrongVPN or HotSpot Shield?
There are several advantages of using USVideo over StrongVPN, HotSpot Shield and other VPN based or proxy solutions.

USVideo works with media players such as Roku, Apple TV, PS3, XBox and others, while VPN based solution works with computer only
None of your video/audio content or unrelated traffic goes through USVideo, therefore there is no bandwidth loss, data cap or privacy concerns.
Simpler setup, VPN works only on computer, so you need to setup it on every computer in your home.
No software to install.
Your IP remains your local IP. This may be important for other sites that you want discover your correct Geo location
Content from different countries is streamed transparently - no need to switch VPN

What about my privacy and security?
You're sending all DNS requests to our server, but we're changing routes only for sites we support.
We're trying to limit amount of data sent through our system (we're paying for every byte) and redirecting only sites directly involved in location validation.
This is much more secure than VPN or proxy solutions, where you have to send [almost] everything through their servers and you will never know what they do with this data.
DNS solution is more transparent to users and everyone can verify where data is being sent by comparing results returned by our DNS with "standard" DNS responses.

Most sites with somewhat sensitive information are using SSL encryption to protect users' data. Even if we were redirecting these sites to our server, we can't "fake" SSL certificates without being noticed (you'll see security warning in the browser when site certificate does not match with name), and wouldn't be able to see encrypted data.

Again, comparing to alternative solutions, if provider require special software installed in client's systems, then this software can either install "fake" certificates or "sniff" other users' data (e.g. passwords, credit card numbers, etc). Our solution does not require any special software, changing permissions or other potential security risks

»portal.unblock-us.com/knowledgebase/2/FAQ

reply to SpongeGuard
For what it's worth the service is much easier to use than setting up a VPN for devices who don't normally accept VPNs (eg PS3) you just pop static DNS entries into your router.

Much easier than configuring your router to do VPN and it's generally cheaper than a VPN too... my VPN is about 8/mo US and their service is about 5/mo US.

I think the VPN is a bit for secure and trustworthy but it took me a couple of hours to set up my router proper for it.
--
The trouble with nude dancing is that not everything stops when the music does.

reply to SpongeGuard
I've been using it for about 2 weeks now, and it was indeed really easy to set-up, and has proven to be reliable so far. No issues, no slow downs, and doesn't interfere with anything on my network.

I am however waiting for my ISP to provide a US VPN (they promised they would, just don't know when). Once they do I will likely cancel USvideo/Unblock-us not because anything is wrong with it, but just because I want to stick with things my ISP offers.

reply to SpongeGuard
I use it and find it somewhat effective.

Works well for "known" sites like Netflix, Hulu, etc., but some lesser known sites including NHL.com, MLSonline, etc it recognizes me as Canadian, not American.

A VPN would probably work better across the board, but if you are limiting yourself to the bigger sites, this service works very well. No problems at all with Netflix US, or Hulu (although Hulu failed the WAF) so ultimately I'm cancelling both US Netflix and Unblock us.

How much of geolocation is done at the DNS level ? I was under the impression that geoblocking was done at the web server level which called some module that inquires some remote geolocation database.

The BBC iPlayer is an interesting example. When they started to geoblock, the free proxies in the UK would work and you'd not only get the web content but also the videos.

Later, they wised up. The web comtent is still available via proxy, but videos are now geoblocked at the flash server level, so the video you see tells you your're not allowed to watch it.

reply to slowikc

I just got this all set up using a virtual credit card and
A usvideo trial

Works perfectly on the apple tv 2

Wow what a rip off us canadiens are getting
In terms of content. I hope this exploit doesn't get closed

I bought a strong VPN but it's too hard to setup on
The entire LAN I got it working on each computer
But I wanted it for apple tv I am going to get a refund

reply to SpongeGuard
Netflix was down a few days ago due to a problem at Netflix. It is now 2 days after the problem is fixed, but all of a sudden I get a problem where I am able to browse movie titles, but when I pick a movie to watch it gets stuck on the red "downloading movie information" screen.

My question is, is anyone else who is using usvideo.ca (Unblockus) to get US netflix having any issues?

Did your IP change? You have to re-authenticate on your PC, just go to netflix.com and it will redirect you to the service check page.

reply to SpongeGuard
I had OpenVPN running in the background for a different application, so my IP did change. But then I turned off OpenVPN and it still wouldn't go.

Everytime I go to netflix.com it allows me to browse, but doesn't redirect me to the service check page. How do I get there manually? I also tried to get on netflix through my PS3 and it wouldn't go either??

»check.usvideo.org/

reply to SpongeGuard
Neflix.com working fine for me this morning.

This service has opened up a whole new world for me. Got netflix working on all my devices (ipad, ipods, xboxes, ps3's, panasonic plasma, plus more), hulu is working great, got amazon vod working on my panny plasma. Really hope this service lasts. My kids are loving the US netflix, so many more options (zack and cody, wizards of waverly place) plus discovery channel shows like dirty jobs, mythbusters. It really is that much better than netflix canada. Although, I do admit netflix canada is getting better.