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Hulu blocking access to VPN providers
http://torrentfreak.com/hulu-blocks-vpn-users-over-piracy-concerns-140425/
An interesting read, not sure if it has been posted here yet.
I'm curious as to if they'll just start listing ranges from VPS/Dedicated service providers over the next few weeks.
I wonder if other outlets similar to Hulu will follow suit.
Comments
yes
https://vpsboard.com/topic/3474-securedragon-vps-1-year-review/#entry60667
Well that escalated quickly!
One way of avoiding this, would be to get some super fast residential connectivity and proxy using that.
Eating into that ever-so-large, juicy, dynamic IP pool ISP's have under their belt.
Rack with a couple of units at home wouldn't hurt for this purpose ahahah
That actually seems to be precisely what securedragon is doing to remedy the situation
Well, Hulu have been started to block several US provider from viewing the content since last year. I've been using some US provider for vpn and watching Hulu, but now only some of them still used by me.
DigitalOcean, Crissic were blocked last time I'm using it. It's not the provider fault, but Hulu is also running a business, and I believe it's their own rights.
They were adding more and more provider to the blocked lists.
Well if I lived somewhere else it would be a good thing I run my own proxy
and could get around it anyway.
Well this sure is interesting!
VPS demand is surely to go down after the changes are in full effect.
Why. They only mention blocking VPN blocks... to me this reads as "we've looked at hidemyass, goldenfrog and a few other big providers and blocked their ranges". Some providers may have a sizeable block of a range being used as VPNs and get caught in the mix. Others won't.
There isn't really a sensible programmatic way to blanket ban VPN IP ranges, and blocking datacenters outright would possibly be a step too far. Someone gave me credentials for Hulu, I'm pretty sure I could login with something like vpn.sh without problem.
If they want to go all hardcore about it, they could get some servers located in various points around the world... ping you a few times from each and potentially triangulate a pretty good estimation of where the final destination of the traffic is going... unless it's something mad like tor or a multi-hop SSH tunnel. In those cases the people are too crazy to try ban, they'll always find a way.
I guess only time will tell how extensive the banning gets.
It could very well kill a little bit of the demand for US based VPS's.
Well hulu is partially owned by Comcast so this is not a surprise.
Didn't even know! Crazy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulu
I've been wondering when this would start. Folks asking for vps/vpn's for Hulu watching probably forced the issue.
Yeah, I was wondering from the start I saw this kind of demand why those guys dont block VPNs and host ranges. It is simple and it saves a lot of trouble.
Could you explain how you'd do it if it only requires a sentence or two?
I, or WE, do not block anything, maxmind blocks proxies at ordering, but you can do it in many ways, either whitelist (I would go with that) meaning you add all US ISPs which offer residential service (by AS) and a blacklist, block all hosting services in US. First might turn out a few blocked small providers but that can be solved once you have a complaint from any of the customers (add the AS to the whitelist) the second will still allow tons of smaller providers to access the content. For example it will be hard for hulu to know Iperweb LLC which has a /22 is a host and the low volume coming from there will not raise any flag.
Yep so it'd obviously have to be an ongoing thing and mostly manual, guess it comes down to the usual cost/reward of doing it.
I wonder what's their rationale for blocking users. They want less subscribers and less income?
They are not licensed to distribute the content elsewhere.
Well, technicly they are not distributing it elsewhere, they are distributing it within the US.
The license is probably along the lines of viewers located in X area. If a hotshot proves they are not exercising due diligence to prevent access from outside of that area. Then the license is null and void with penalty's attached.
Why many folks stuck with Hulu?
I think they updated their system around yesterday - mine suddenly stopped working.
go netflix!
Well, to kill some spare time every now and then even the free access is quite nice.
Just checked mine and its still working perfectly.
I have a few customers from Canada that use my servers just for this and they tell me all is good they are having no issues at all.
Probably YouTube best thing for that purpose
No VPN needed, if only watch special content.
Oh yes, YouTube does the job quite good too. :P
After Hulu started blocking my VPNs almost a year ago, I started using the unblock-us dns service.
@RIJX Very old news