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> Access region-locked content: Any VPN works here. This could explain some of the advertising. Actually, most of the time your VPN is just going to be blocked

by saurik 5y ago

> Access region-locked content: Any VPN works here. This could explain some of the advertising. Actually, most of the time your VPN is just going to be blocked entirely by the service: they have a limited pool of IP addresses being shared by users, so the patterns of access of users randomly popping up on their addresses makes even automated bans pretty easy. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28143238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28143238 To really get this right requires crazy tricks like taking all of the traffic destined for a service and routing it to per-user stable addresses that you cycle much more slowly. NordVPN seems to do this with Disney+, for example. There was a great analysis of this done (but to get it you will need to use an archive site as the author mysteriously deleted it). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692 The result is that users trying to do this tend to have to keep using different VPN services until they find a server on one that actually works today, and probably in the process keep accumulating subscriptions to "too many" VPN services for "too long". A lot of random review sites are then just claiming to tell you which service is best able to access such content at any time (but honestly, it is a losing battle: there is no obvious way to win this in the long term).

Tenoke 5y ago
>Actually, most of the time your VPN is just going to be blocked entirely by the service Doesn't seem to be the case 'most of the time' for non-free VPNs or at least mine. You can definitely access YouTube videos available abroad or BBC iPlayer or whatever. I'm on VPN a 3rd of the time and it's only very occasionally I have issues. Sure, maybe it's worse with some services but not 'most of the time'.
- eptcyka 5y ago
  Yep, but Amazon for instance blocks first party content when accessing it via a VPN. Some delivery services block my VPN outright.
- saurik 5y ago
  I am doing an implied integral here over over all random VPN services and servers, as the person I am replying to said that "any" VPN would work. If you have found one that seems to consistently work for the BBC--and based on their efforts against Disney+, I bet NordVPN would work?--you are now a single data point: if you search for BBC blocked VPN on Google, however, you will see that it is an extremely common issue that the BBC blacklists VPNs from accessing their service. (FWIW, I could accept an argument that I am not "weighting" my certainly-informal statement well on actual usage figures: if NordVPN and ExpressVPN are even the only two VPNs that work well against the BBC, maybe they are alone a considerable percentage of the market. I am pushing back on the idea that "any" VPN would work, and so I am looking more at the idea of choosing a random brand, equally weighted.)
  - Tenoke 5y ago
    Actually, you are right. I just tried again and now only 1 of my ips works for BBC so they are clearly getting more aggressive (or my provider hasn't been changing them as often recently).
    - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
      FoxyProxy guarantees BBC iplayer access and gives you other servers when it stops working.
greggman3 5y ago
I wonder if this will continue with Apple (and my guess is other similarly sized tech companies) offering VPN. In other words, shutting out Apple's VPN might mean losing 5-10% of your market? Probably not but it will certainly be a new situation for so many non-tech people to have easy access to a VPN and Apple likely pushing it as "good for your privacy"
- judge2020 5y ago
  Apple's VPN explicitly maps users to an IP with a [relatively] close IP address[0] (as in, for IP geolocation purposes), and does minimal actual proxying: > In iOS 15 and macOS 12, Private Relay will apply to all web browsing in Safari, all DNS name resolution queries, and a small subset of traffic from apps. > Specifically, this will include all insecure HTTP traffic, such as TCP port 80. So I can see most services not needing to block iCloud Private Relay. 0: https://mask-api.icloud.com/egress-ip-ranges.csv https://mask-api.icloud.com/egress-ip-ranges.csv
- azalemeth 5y ago
  At some point, we're going to have more and more users behind NAT and IP address looks even worse as a device for banning someone. Them making impossible journeys and changing country every five minutes, however, provides more useful information.
OJFord 5y ago
> Actually, most of the time your VPN is just going to be blocked entirely by the service Actually, my experience is Netflix blocks some of the time; Wikipedia blocks (edits) all of the time (which really pisses me off - I'm logged in!); and nothing else that I use blocks me.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- howenterprisey 5y ago
  Try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:IPBE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:IPBE, which lets you apply for the right to circumvent blocks of IP addresses.

by saurik 5y ago

Tenoke 5y ago

>Actually, most of the time your VPN is just going to be blocked entirely by the service Doesn't seem to be the case 'most of the time' for non-free VPNs or at least mine. You can definitely access YouTube videos available abroad or BBC iPlayer or whatever. I'm on VPN a 3rd of the time and it's only very occasionally I have issues. Sure, maybe it's worse with some services but not 'most of the time'.

eptcyka 5y ago
Yep, but Amazon for instance blocks first party content when accessing it via a VPN. Some delivery services block my VPN outright.
saurik 5y ago
I am doing an implied integral here over over all random VPN services and servers, as the person I am replying to said that "any" VPN would work. If you have found one that seems to consistently work for the BBC--and based on their efforts against Disney+, I bet NordVPN would work?--you are now a single data point: if you search for BBC blocked VPN on Google, however, you will see that it is an extremely common issue that the BBC blacklists VPNs from accessing their service. (FWIW, I could accept an argument that I am not "weighting" my certainly-informal statement well on actual usage figures: if NordVPN and ExpressVPN are even the only two VPNs that work well against the BBC, maybe they are alone a considerable percentage of the market. I am pushing back on the idea that "any" VPN would work, and so I am looking more at the idea of choosing a random brand, equally weighted.)
- Tenoke 5y ago
  Actually, you are right. I just tried again and now only 1 of my ips works for BBC so they are clearly getting more aggressive (or my provider hasn't been changing them as often recently).
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    FoxyProxy guarantees BBC iplayer access and gives you other servers when it stops working.

greggman3 5y ago

I wonder if this will continue with Apple (and my guess is other similarly sized tech companies) offering VPN. In other words, shutting out Apple's VPN might mean losing 5-10% of your market? Probably not but it will certainly be a new situation for so many non-tech people to have easy access to a VPN and Apple likely pushing it as "good for your privacy"

judge2020 5y ago
Apple's VPN explicitly maps users to an IP with a [relatively] close IP address[0] (as in, for IP geolocation purposes), and does minimal actual proxying: > In iOS 15 and macOS 12, Private Relay will apply to all web browsing in Safari, all DNS name resolution queries, and a small subset of traffic from apps. > Specifically, this will include all insecure HTTP traffic, such as TCP port 80. So I can see most services not needing to block iCloud Private Relay. 0: https://mask-api.icloud.com/egress-ip-ranges.csv https://mask-api.icloud.com/egress-ip-ranges.csv
azalemeth 5y ago
At some point, we're going to have more and more users behind NAT and IP address looks even worse as a device for banning someone. Them making impossible journeys and changing country every five minutes, however, provides more useful information.

OJFord 5y ago

> Actually, most of the time your VPN is just going to be blocked entirely by the service Actually, my experience is Netflix blocks some of the time; Wikipedia blocks (edits) all of the time (which really pisses me off - I'm logged in!); and nothing else that I use blocks me.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
howenterprisey 5y ago
Try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:IPBE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:IPBE, which lets you apply for the right to circumvent blocks of IP addresses.