I just started using Unblock-us last week and was impress about the simplicity of it and that it actually can really work The idea: have websites or services believing you come from the US or Europe and serve you content you are not suppose to get in Taiwan.
I am a tech guy myself but can’t quite understand how this thing works. Yes, it is DNS based, I got this but I wrote myself couple of website code some years ago and geolocalisation was based on the IP address of the visitor: I don’t remember the exact details but basically we would check each visitor IP address and see if the IP fits in the block that we want to allow. That’s probably not the most sophisticated or optimized way but it was working for basically 99% of cases. So I was wondering how websites like Netflix or other geolocate their visitor and how changing my DNS to Unblock-us or a similar service would make those websites believe I am coming from an authorized country. I checked, my IP is not anonymised, there is no VPN, nor proxy involved.
I’ve just signed up for the seven day free trial and found some of the streaming services to be very slow. This is especially true when watching programs in HD on the BBC iPlayer.
Is it better to put the settings directly into the router rather than on the computer?
Just use Hola as an extension in chrome. It works without a problem and it’s free. Unblocks every site I’ve wanted access to outside Taiwan. It’s how I can stream netflix, hulu and so many other sites.
Basically, you route all your DNS requests through their servers. The IP address returned by the server will in 99% of the times be the actual address of the server, however, on the services that need to alter your geolocation, the Unblock-US DNS server will actually return its IP address, which is actually the address of a proxy server based in the country you need to fake.
Because the video streaming services only need to geo check you from their website, not the actual video stream (which is sent through a CDN) - only the initial requests need to be proxied, whereas the actual video stream can be requested as normal.
The reason they ask you to choose a DNS server closest to you is because most CDNs use DNS based balancing, so they get your location by using the IP of the DNS resolver NOT your actual IP (which would be Anycast Routing) - therefore, you want to be connected to the closest EDGE server, not one far away
In answer to the second question, the benefit of putting it directly into the router is that obviously now everything that connects via that router will be cloaked.
The downside is if you take your computer somewhere else, it then won’t have access.
[quote=“Quarters”]Just use Hola as an extension in chrome. It works without a problem and it’s free. Unblocks every site I’ve wanted access to outside Taiwan. It’s how I can stream netflix, hulu and so many other sites.
Hola isn’t go great for watching streaming TV as it routes ALL your traffic through it.
A service like Unlock US only routes the Geo IP check (a very small data transfer and only done once) - you will get the video from the closest CDN Edge server.
[quote=“Quarters”]Just use Hola as an extension in chrome. It works without a problem and it’s free. Unblocks every site I’ve wanted access to outside Taiwan. It’s how I can stream netflix, hulu and so many other sites.
I stopped using hola when they changed it so you had to register to use the service.I also remember reading something on the Internet about hola begin basically just a huge bot network.
Hola doesn’t work for some streaming services as it goes through the browser, whereas some streaming services avoid the browser. So you need a Von for that. I tried ipinsert recently, didn’t work either though.
On android, Hola provides a nice suite of apps you can download. The have the BBC Radio Player, Video Player Netflix and others. Some work better than others. The BBC radio app does exactly what I need.
Can some other Unblock-Us users let me know what the performance of the Chromecast is like with the service?
I’m trying to cast iPlayer content and many times it takes four or five goes at connecting before it will cast successfully. I know that the Chromecast has its DNS addresses locked down and I’ve set up static routing on my router to get around that, it just annoys me that it’s such a hassle to get it all going. I don’t know if it’s my crappy router or the Unblock-Us service. If it’s a problem with the router I’ll have to go out and buy a new one.
All these services all have the same performance, as none of the video content is rerouted.
As long as you have static routes for the unblock.us servers on just the geo check services (*.bbc.co.uk) - then you don’t need to reroute the rest (usually from Akamai).
So if you have setup static routes for the video edge, remove that. The CDN will serve you from the edge server closest to your DNS server. I can watch BBC in HD with no problems here.
I think I’ve managed to get this sorted. I bought a new router which seems to be working much better with the Chromecast. iPlayer streaming is vastly improved.
The idea: have websites or services believing you come from the US or Europe and serve you content you are not suppose to get in Taiwan.
