Netflix

[Sallywebstersnipples]

Are you able to use your UK subscription in TRNC via Multimax VPN on a smart tv?
Non geek speak answers appreciated.

Thanks in advance from a non geek technophobe.
SWN

[ozankoys]

Well the non geek answer is that we just press the Netflix button on our remote & it comes up! We thought we had disconnected the wi-fi on our TV as we were not smart enough to fathom out how it worked so it is a bit of a mystery us.

[jimm]

Yes you can but some programmes may not be available in this area

[Sallywebstersnipples]

Cheers Ozankoys & Jimm

[Mowgli597]

My Netflix has stopped working (was fine last night). It’s now reporting:
“You seem to be using an unblocker or proxy”
I’m on Multimax and not using a VPN.
Same problem on the Apple TV, and iPhone.
iPad shows “Network error.......Please try again later.”
Anyone else having difficulties tonight?

[Mr Chinnery]

Mowgli597
Try signing out of Netflix then sign back in.
If that doesn’t work try removing app and re- downloading.

[Mowgli597]

Tried that but no joy.
I guess my question is: is anyone else using Netflix without any kind of MAG box or anything else, with Multimax as their ISP, who is having trouble connecting?
Perhaps it’s to do with Multimax’s DNS servers and the way subscribers connect to them (which is non-standard in that we connect with DHCP disabled).

[Keithcaley]

Tried that but no joy.
I guess my question is: is anyone else using Netflix without any kind of MAG box or anything else, with Multimax as their ISP, who is having trouble connecting?
Perhaps it’s to do with Multimax’s DNS servers and the way subscribers connect to them (which is non-standard in that we connect with DHCP disabled).

I'm confused!

If you don't use a MAG box or 'anything else', how do you connect to Netflix?

Also, I don't understand the part about having DHCP disabled - all of the routers (3) that Multimax have set up for me have had DHCP enabled, and until I recently subscribed to StreamVia's 'Smart Stream service, all of my devices have had DHCP enabled...

Anyway, to answer your question, I can access Netflix programmes via KODI, but that may not be what you are asking.

[Mowgli597]

Keith
Thanks for your reply but it isn’t quite what I’m asking as you suspected.
I run Netflix as an app on my Apple TV, my iPhone and an iPad. These connect direct to the internet via my Multimax connection (which is through an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station supporting an Airport home network). There is no VPN (at least on the Apple TV - there is a “pseudo-VPN” on the iPad and iPhone since I run those via Encrypt.me for security when roaming but even turning that off doesn’t resolve the issue.)
The configuration I was given when I joined Multimax (with a TPLink router bought from and configured by Multimax) had DHCP disabled. I presumed this is because we use a WiMAX connection? It also gives me a fixed IP address.
The AirPort Extreme matches that original configuration.
As I say all worked well until yesterday when I started to get the message saying I was connecting via some sort of proxy device.
I’m guessing the only reason it would say that is that it appears to think Multimax is some sort of proxy service (and no I don’t have the old Multimax VPN enabled on any device.) If this is the case then either Multimax has changed its connection somehow or Netflix has now mistakenly flagged it as a proxy server.
Netflix, of course, is telling me to resolve it with my ISP.

[Keithcaley]

Sorry!

You have exceeded the limits of my knowledge! <waits for raucous comments from the back row>

I think that it's unlikely to be anything to do with the configuration of your gear - as it worked fine until recently - unless Netflix have made some changes that they haven't told anyone about...

... or Multimax have made some changes that they haven't told anyone about!

Have there been any comments or queries on the Netflix User Forum?

[Mowgli597]

You have exceeded the limits of my knowledge!

Heaven forefend
After a few years as a scaley tech and many more in the industry designing, building and fixing mainframes (remember those?) I fear that without No. 2 son (a S/W developer) and the 6 year old grandson my technical knowledge is also somewhat jaded!
I remember the days when a 75 baud T100R was the bees knees, and an audio coupler was “broadband”!

[Keithcaley]

I remember it well

I fear that the days when I will have to pop over the road to 'borrow' a six year old are fast approaching also!

[Soner]

Keithcaley wrote:
You have exceeded the limits of my knowledge!

Gasp!

[Mowgli597]

But! Thanks to Keith’s inspiration I’ve fixed it!
I tried enabling DHCP in my Base Station but it wouldn’t work - the base station couldn’t connect to Multimax.
I reconfigured it as before and then had a notion that perhaps it wasn’t “Multimax” that was being blocked but rather my fixed IP address (as I mentioned earlier).
Sure enough when I tried Netflix after restoring the configuration - lo and behold it worked!
At least that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it!
Reminds me of the days when the old “switch it off and back on again” worked (although with the mainframes in those days it took a bit longer than now!). We had one Data centre manager who insisted that it MUST have been a hardware fault and wouldn’t believe we hadn’t changed something. So we took to carrying an old circuit board around and said that was the fault. Because, of course, software doesn’t “break”. It just never worked in the first place!
Thanks Keith!

[erol]

At least that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it!

Check your private messages

[Mowgli597]

Thanks a million Erol. Response sent.
Now ... what should I do
I’ll say nuffin’ if you say nuffin’

[erol]

I’ll say nuffin’ if you say nuffin’

Well my advise to any other MM customers having similar problems with netflix would be to contact MM before playing with settings on their internal network

[Mowgli597]

Oh come now Erol. The first port of call is surely to check one’s own equipment before presuming it’s a supplier fault. The old switch off and back on much favoured by Keith.
The next port of call is: is it a common problem which others are experiencing? Hence my message on the Forum here. If it is then over to the ISP. If not then back to one’s own setup.
Will you tell the Forum as to the cause of my problem or will I?

[Mr Chinnery]

Mowgli597
I have a Apple products, ie iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. I too use the Netflix app on my tv but my set up is different,
I have a separate VPN router which allows me to put everything on the tv rather than through any 3rd party boxes.
I very rarely get any problems with this set up.

My question is for curiosity reasons is what is the advantage of the Airport Express.

[Mr Chinnery]

Erol,
Is it possible to log into a Multimax supplied router.

[Mowgli597]

Mowgli597
I have a Apple products, ie iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. I too use the Netflix app on my tv but my set up is different,
I have a separate VPN router which allows me to put everything on the tv rather than through any 3rd party boxes.
I very rarely get any problems with this set up.

My question is for curiosity reasons is what is the advantage of the Airport Express.

Mr C. The only advantage for me was that I already had an AirPort Extreme Base Station and an AirPort Express (both 2nd generation inherited from No. 2 son - isn’t it great they always want the latest and greatest gear and pass the old stuff on to the old folks! - both used as extenders thereby covering the whole house) and a new Extreme Base Station used as a modem/router. I brought them with me in the hope that they’d work. I bought the TPLink from Multimax in case they didn’t and to get the configuration. (I did email MM before moving here permanently to ask if the Airport system would work but got no reply).
Your set up is essentially the same as mine (no need for any other boxes) with your router replacing my Base Station.
And yes, if you use a TPLink router from MM you can log into it (again when I bought it from MM I asked the lady there who was setting it up for me to give me the u/n and p/w and noted the configuration. She said no-one had ever asked for that before - this was a couple of years ago.)

[Mr Chinnery]

Mowgli597,
Thanks for that, I’ve had my set up for a good few years now and regularly update the firmware when needed on my VPN router to keep it all up to date. As I have said I very rarely get any problems with this set up and very rarely if ever get any buffering.
Glad you got yours up and running again.

[Mr Chinnery]

Mowgli,
Further to that re the tp link router I can’t get into mine. Which ever way I type in the routers IP address 192.168. Etc
nothing comes up.
I need to try and find out.
Thanks.

[Mowgli597]

Mr C. PM sent

[erol]

Oh come now Erol. The first port of call is surely to check one’s own equipment before presuming it’s a supplier fault. The old switch off and back on much favoured by Keith.
The next port of call is: is it a common problem which others are experiencing? Hence my message on the Forum here. If it is then over to the ISP. If not then back to one’s own setup.
Will you tell the Forum as to the cause of my problem or will I?

It feels like I am being misunderstood ? I am not saying generically that any time anything 'weird' happens people should first contact their isp nor am I trying to imply or suggest that anything you did was 'wrong'.

What I am trying to make clear, in light of what has been 'learnt' already, is that as far as this specific problem is concerned , ie have been using netflix fine, now getting message saying blocked because of vpn/proxy use, then contact MM as a first response rather than start playing with internal settings. My concern was the the thread up till that point could quite easily lead to someone else with this issue thinking the solution was to amend their internal set up and that would be a bad conclusion imo.

The problem is the result of Netflix's ongoing actions to stop out of region use of their service using vpns/proxys. A recent change by Netflix resulted in some MM users being mis identified as such but this is something that MM can rectify / bypass with relative easy once they know a customer is suffering from this. Thus if you have this specific problem my advise would be contact MM and they should be able to resolve it for you without you needing to change anything your end.

Erol,
Is it possible to log into a Multimax supplied router.

If you mean the TP link routers sold by MM, then yes it is possible, In a recommended MM set up these routers however would not be acting as routers, they would be configured to act simply as wifi access points and switches. The 'primary' router in a MM connection would be the device on your roof and this it is not possible for customers to access. There are many ways to configure such things that will also work but this would be our normal recommended set up. Device on the roof acts as the 'router' (connects your internal network to the outside world via a single external IP address) and handles things like dhcp serving. Internal 'routers' would then be configured to act merely as wifi access points / switches - with all 'routing' functions and things like dhcp serving left to the MM device on the customers roof.

[Mowgli597]

Erol.
My apologies if I did misunderstand. And perhaps my own background leads me to try to resolve the issue in a different way from “phone support” (having been on the other end of that line, and in one case almost on the plane to South Africa from the US where we lived at the time when I’d been assured that “nothing has been changed at our end” only to discover that a disk farm had been newly installed - incorrectly!)
Perhaps a “latest news” panel or some such on the MM website could be used to inform users of changes which might potentially affect them would be useful? The text messages which are sent are great for that - but it might give a backup for these and other issues which some tech savvy people might appreciate.
Or is that too dangerous - giving customers info which might let them meddle with their setup - I’d understand that too

[erol]

Perhaps a “latest news” panel or some such on the MM website could be used to inform users of changes which might potentially affect them would be useful? The text messages which are sent are great for that - but it might give a backup for these and other issues which some tech savvy people might appreciate.
Or is that too dangerous - giving customers info which might let them meddle with their setup - I’d understand that too

Thank you for the suggestion. At this point I am reluctant to send out any sort of generic push message to all MM customers, as the changes that Netflix made are only affecting a tiny minority of MM customers, the vast majority are unaffected. To date we are aware of only yourself and one other MM netflix user who have had this issue. Such decisions are a 'judgement call' but there can be in my experience downsides of sending out such messages in a generic push manner. What we (MM) have done is make first line support aware of the issue and told them to refer any customers reporting problems with netflix to a specific 2nd line support person who has all the info about the issue and quickly determine if the problem is 'this one' or not and if it is rectify it.