How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

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T.I.G.R.
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How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by T.I.G.R. »

"Sorry, but YouTube TV is not available in your area just yet"

I get this even though I have a VPN. I got the same thing when all of a sudden my SlingBox would no longer let me use it, and defying their website claims made me select geographical area I'm in.........but I'm not in one of their areas so I no longer get service?

I just don't understand this at all......someone help me please.
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by buksida »

Usually your IP address denotes 'your area'.

Change the IP address/locale in your VPN to the country you want.
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by T.I.G.R. »

I thought I did. My internet connection is now the USA......or have I missed something in how to use the VPN?
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by Homer »

Companies that want to limit their service to specific regions can and do find out the IP addresses in their region used by VPN companies, and then block them.
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by T.I.G.R. »

Thanks Homer.....not the news I had hoped to hear. Can you tell us how OP addresses are assigned? Are they given out in number blocks like telephone numbers?
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by 404cameljockey »

T.I.G.R. wrote: Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:04 am Thanks Homer.....not the news I had hoped to hear. Can you tell us how OP addresses are assigned? Are they given out in number blocks like telephone numbers?
Butting in, hope it's OK.

Ranges of IP address blocks are assigned to parts of the world by country. So anyone can see where the connection is coming from. I just mentioned yesterday in another thread that the BBC in the UK are even trying to target specific IP addresses in the UK which are used by VPN providers, to stop anyone from watching BBC iPlayer from outside the UK. They are having some success, but I found a free VPN yesterday they weren't blocking that has a UK server as well as others. But the VPN account is data capped so it's not ideal.

My usual VPN provider has assigned me a custom connection which gets around the problem. I've used them for ten years, paid service and they are very responsive to problems.
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by Ralfredo »

If you still have some connections back in UK (friends/family/property) that have a decent Internet connection it's quite easy to set up an own/private VPN-service. Get hold on some old PC, install Linux and OpenVPN (for example) and you're good to go. The only extra cost is the electricity for the server.
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by Pleng »

Probably better to get a router with a built-in VPN server than dedicate a whole new machine to the task (though if you're going to dedicate a machine, it would probably be far cheaper in the long run to use Pii or any of the other single-board machines rather than a power-guzzling old PC). But it's really only "quite easy" if you have the know-how in the first place or are willing to spend a lot of time researching and fiddling around (quite difficult when the target machine is going to be half way across the world)
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by T.I.G.R. »

If IP address blocks are assigned by area how can you get around that with building your own machine? Where would you, or the manufacturer of some device get the IP number from then?
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by Ralfredo »

T.I.G.R. wrote: Wed Aug 16, 2017 4:35 pmIf IP address blocks are assigned by area how can you get around that with building your own machine? Where would you, or the manufacturer of some device get the IP number from then?
Are you referring to my post? In that case the "own machine" would be located in the UK and get its IP from the UK ISP.

You would connect to that machine from Thailand trough VPN and access whatever "regional restricted" service like you where located at the place the UK machine is located.
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by T.I.G.R. »

Thanks Ralfredo.....I'm referring to what you said, yes, but I've been knocked off SlingBox, YouTubeTV and others, and I'm on a VPN, I thought they were supposed to protect my location but it doesn't seem that is true. In fact, if you go by IP address wouldn't they be assigned to the country where the machine was manufactured? I have no idea where my HP was made, maybe in America maybe not, but I'm in Thailand now. I had SlingBox working with the box itself in California and me here......then suddenly when I went to sign it I was shut out. Their homescreen asks for the country I'm in, which It didn't do at first .....at least I can't remember seeing it until after my SlingBox wouldn't work any more. I hate to go on and on but frankly I'm just stumped and trying to figure out what to do. I was in the Telephone business for 30 years and am quite familiar with number assignment and how that is done, which is similar to what you guys described for IP addresses. Any information any of you have will be appreciated......
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by 404cameljockey »

Ralfredo wrote: Wed Aug 16, 2017 1:18 pm If you still have some connections back in UK (friends/family/property) that have a decent Internet connection it's quite easy to set up an own/private VPN-service. Get hold on some old PC, install Linux and OpenVPN (for example) and you're good to go. The only extra cost is the electricity for the server.
First learning Linux, and getting your peripherals to work............
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by Ralfredo »

T.I.G.R. wrote: Wed Aug 16, 2017 5:17 pm Thanks Ralfredo.....I'm referring to what you said, yes, but I've been knocked off SlingBox, YouTubeTV and others, and I'm on a VPN, I thought they were supposed to protect my location but it doesn't seem that is true. In fact, if you go by IP address wouldn't they be assigned to the country where the machine was manufactured?
No IP address is (normally) assigned by your ISP and have nothing to do with where the "thing" is manufactured. I'm guessing you're thinking of MAC address which is another kind of address. In the case of MAC addresses the first part of the address is associated with the manufacturer, not necessarily the actual country where the "thing" is manufactured.

I guess the problem with using a public available VPN provider is that you're not the only one using the service. The TV providers are probably monitoring where there users come from and if many come from the same place and that place is found out to be a VPN provider, they probably block that address. Of course this is very simplified but I guess you get the idea.

If you set up your own VPN service, for example on an old PC in a friends house in UK (if UK is where you want to pretend to be), you will be the only one using it and the TV-provider won't (easily) be able to determine if it is you in Thailand or your friend in the UK who's watching TV. Therefore the risk of being banned should be minimal.
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by T.I.G.R. »

Thanks again Ralfredo. Luckily I'm headed to the U.S. (not UK) in a couple of months. I'll get together with my old employer and see what we can do.....Our computer tech helped me set up the SlingBox but we're both stumped on how to move forward. It will be a lot easier to work with some of the other engineering and plant guys when I'm there with them. Fingers crossed.
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Re: How is "your area" denial of service done, technically?

Post by Ralfredo »

T.I.G.R. wrote: Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:14 pmThanks again Ralfredo. Luckily I'm headed to the U.S. (not UK)
Sorry for that. More or less everyone here seems to be from the UK (slight exaggeration) so I lazily (is that a word?) took UK as an example. Anyway, good luck!
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