eCat wrote: ↑Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:33 am
If you know about VPNs or don't care, then skip this....
Not sure if this is any value to anyone, but I have a pretty connected home with amazon products , a mesh network and a bunch of smart appliances. But the main reason I'm talking about a VPN is that I subscribe to two IPTV services, and while I'm certain they aren't above board, their business model is the same as any streaming service so I can at least plead ignorance to what they provide.
But I read where many ISPs are getting dinged by streaming services to nail people who are viewing streamed content that is copyrighted without proper rights to it, and in turn they are being threatened with serious fines, etc.
If you don't know what a VPN is , its a network within a network kinda thing. When you log on to the internet, if you just use a standard ISP like Comcast or Spectrum and nothing else, you go thru their DNS (Domain Server).
A Domain Servier is kind of the yellow pages for the internet. Its responsible for understanding your URL request and routing it to the appropriate server, however, lets say Comcast , who owns NBC, can influence search engines and limit access to competitors like CBS. So many people go into their settings and bypass their DNS which is usually set to "automatically assign" to something like 8.8.8.8 which is googles DNS. But that said, regardless of which one you choose, your browsing habits are public information so should you stream a bootleg PPV event (which is the biggest no -no on the internet pirate thing at the moment) then the PPV people in theory could come after you. Another one is Cloudflare, which I believe is 1.1.1.1 and supposedly they are a "safe" DNS, however they keep logs and if pressed by a law enforcement agency would probably give you up.
But even a safe DNS isn't enough because if you are streaming a bootleg PPV event, your ISP is going to know about it. Whether they do anything about it or not is up to them. That's where a VPN comes into play.
With a VPN, they act as a "ghost server" on your behalf. So while you are physically connected to the internet by your ISP, all they are doing if forwarding your request and streaming content back and forth between the VPN server, which then sends everything out into the world from there. So the rest of the world thinks your location is wherever the VPN server is and they have no way of tracing it back to you (unless the VPN keeps logs and turns it over). The VPN encrypts all the communication between you and their server so your all your ISP knows is that you are sending encrypted data packets between your computer and the VPN server. Of course they know its a VPN server, and they know what the deal is, but they can't prove anything and honestly at that point they probably don't care - they are not culpable for your actions. VPNs aren't just for grabbing content that is questionable, they also serve a purpose for companies to keep data private, video and audio conference is private and secure, etc.
After connecting to a VPN, if I were to go to the "whatsmyipaddress.com" , it would tell me I am not in Cincinnati (actually I default to a Columbus server), but wherever the VPN server is. And that's all the information the PPV snoopers are going to have. One benefit to this is, in some cases anyways, if you choose a location outside the USA, then if you go to Netflix for example, you can see different movies that are available to that area.
There are a few ways to use a VPN. On a computer they have software you install , you log in, and then it usually has an option to choose the fastest server for you.
Similar to using a device like a Firestick or Chrome, you install an app, log in and then run it. It runs in the backgroun while you do watch whatever.
The last way is what I'm doing and that is installing it on your router. If you have a decent brand name router, then you can set it up to route thru the VPN and everything device that uses your network - phone, tablet, smart TV, washer, light bulb, whatever - goes thru that VPN. Basically you have to enter a user id and password that is different than your login, then using a wizard on the router, upload a file. A good VPN will walk you thru it step by step.
The down side of using a VPN is that since you are adding an additional computer to your internet connection, and *everything* goes thru that server, you could see a drop in internet speed by as much at 60%, so its important to go with a big VPN with mutliple servers to choose from. The router option I mentioned above is the biggest hit to performance, but most people won't do that anyways.
Now I've talked about IPTV before. There are probably at any given time 100 IPTV services out there. The one I know most about is Xooms, which has about 34,000 movies on demand, and complete cable packages from just about every major country in the world, along with 4000 or so complete TV series, and every ESPN channel - like 200 ESPN Plus, NFL, NBA, Hockey, MLB, MLS and F1. They have PPV events, movies that you can only rent (both streaming on demand as free as part of their package) , as well as every major movie release from Disney, Netflix, Hulu, etc. It costs like maybe $60 for 3 months. Oh, and they have 100 porn channels. I'm too jaded to like streaming porn that I can't control. I'm not about to watch any porn I can't fast forward but to each his own.
The down side of these IPTV things is that they are constantly getting busted. I'm on my 3rd in about 2 years, so you really don't want to subscribe for more than 3 months at a time.
The VPN I went with is a big one called Surf Shark. From a price point they are pretty easy to deal with. A 2 year subscription is about $58. Its more expensive if you buy less time constrained plans. Other popular ones are IPVanish, Express VPNa and NordVPN.
I have a 200mbps internet connection and over my mesh connection its distributed down to about 50mbps for every user connected. With the VPN at the app level its hardly been noticeable - no lag or buffering. My son hasn't said anything about his gaming. Using the router version there was a definite performance hit. In order to use the router, I'll probably have to put another wireless router on the network - one for VPN and one non-vpn and then all the devices like echo-dots and smart appliances would go on the non-vpn, and all the streaming devices would go on the VPN. I probably wouldn't consider a VPN if I was below 20mpbs on internet but by todays standards if you have "high speed" internet, its going to be faster than that.
Anyway, food for thought.
If anyone is interested in how to setup one of the IPTV services, its pretty easy, I can help you out with it. Its cheap TV, but its not risk free.
There are free VPNs out there but they suck, usually they limit you to a 1.5gb of streaming data and they only open up 2 or 3 of their servers in an attempt to get you to become a paying subscriber
