(Nord)VPN, Plusnet and BBC iPlayer

[#1]

Hi

Does anyone here have a VPN? do you have any problem streaming from the BBC iPlayer when your VPN is connected?

I have just signed up to NordVPN and it works pretty well perfectly, except that the iPlayer won't stream ("the content isn't working at the moment"). Works as soon as I disconnect the VPN and fails again as soon as I reconnect it. It's nothing to do with the VPN making it think I'm in the wrong region (you get a different message on the iPlayer when that's the case).

The VPN support seem to think it's an issue at my end but it happens on multiple devices, so v. unlikely.

I was just wondering whether it's anything to do with Plusnet?

Anyone?

Samo

[#2]

It's possible that the BBC have blacklisted the IP's that are issued by the VPN supplier. People often use VPN's when abroad to get around the restrictions by the BBC and others to only allow use from UK IP addresses. Whilst the VPN suppliers do use UK IP's the broadcasters get wise to which set of IP's are used by the VPN's and tend to block them. Having said that NordVPN are one of the more aware suppliers and do change their IP set quite often to avoid blocking.

https://www.reviewsfire.com/tech/bbc-iplayer-detecting-vpn-how-to-fix/

[#3]

I use NordVPN and stream the radio without any issue.

Just tried iPlayer Video and it didn't work until I switched the protocol from TCP to UDP.
Check that in preferences and see if it helps.

[#4]

Hey Samo. I've got in touch with a colleague from our networks team regarding this and they've said that it wouldn't be to do with us as you'd be using a different IP address from what we've provided you with since you're using a VPN.

It may be worth contacting BBC and advising them of the IP address you get while on NordVPN and see if they can see anything out of place or anything they can do.

Hope this helps.

[#5]

I use NordVPN and stream the radio without any issue.

Radio will work with any IP. I use BBC Radio player on my phone in Portugal without a VPN, all it does is ask you to login once with a BBC ID.

[#6]

Not for the football or cricket

[#7]

True

[#8]

Possible the BBC have been blocking VPN IP ranges to try & thwart geofencing workarounds but also I've noticed when connected to NordVPN a lot of times I can no longer use the Plusnet SMTP server even with SMTP Authentication enabled. Someone else found that too if I remember rightly but I don't remember a workaround.

[#9]

Thanks for all that guys. Since my original post I noticed it worked when signed on to my wife's account but not mine.

So it seems it's just a lot of 'suck it and see' and trying out all of the 600-odd uk servers until I find one that seems to work consistently.

Cheers

Samo