NETFLIX US blocked on FireTV Stick

[vpn2go 1]

Hi guys,

 

i'm totally happy with the service of AirVPN so far.

With the new direction of netflox on banning / blocking VPN providers i noticed, that as soon as i try to access netflix through my FireTv and a VPN-Router, netflix will detect me.

 

Using netflix via browser is perfeclty finde with the eddie client.

 

Any ideas how to setup the router or Fire-TV Stick so that it will work with netflix again?

 

Thx in advance.

[SirJohnEh 6]

I'm having the same issues with a roku3.  If I route my traffic thru any of the "native" servers listed here (I use Canada) then the roku3 works fine.  If I try to route thru any of the servers that are supposed to go thru USA then netflix on roku flags them immediately as connecting thru a proxy.  Browser seems to work fine regardless.  I've got a Chromecast in the closet somewhere that I was using before roku.  I might have to try to hook that back up and see if it plays nice with the non native servers.

 

Also worth noting, I'm redirecting all requests destined for 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4 (Google's DNS) to my internal DNS server (which just forwards to Air's DNS), but doesn't seem to help with the roku.  Also tried just blocking all requests to those ips, same result (roku flags as proxy, browser seems not to).

 

Also did a packet capture from the roku and as far as I could tell, all it's doing when running netflix app is when you pick a video to play, it makes dns requests to Google's addresses (which I'm redirecting to Air) and then it hits the CDN server where the video is.  How/why the roku is flagging as a proxy and the browser does not remains a mystery to me.

[Khariz 109]

I suspect that Google really is doing the DNS resolving. Obviously I don't have evidence of that, but it's the only thing that makes sense. Without the advanced features of the AirVPN DNS system, this is exactly what would happen.

[SirJohnEh 6]

Also captured the packets coming into the dns server to confirm that Google requests are being redirected to internal dns along with logging in pfsense.  No requests going out to 8.8.8.8, which seems to be correct given the fact that browsers have no problems connecting to native or US redirected netflix.  Seems like roku (and the other devices mentioned here by others) are doing something else.

[Staff 10015]

@SirJohnEd

 

Try to capture all the traffic from the Roku to understand. While it's true that it is commonly said that Neftlix app on Roku forces queries to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, maybe it performs some more tricks with DNS queries. You might decide to redirect anything coming from Roku and with destination port 53 to your local nameserver, just in case the Netflix software tries some alternative Google (or non-Google) DNS IP address. However traffic analysis might be very necessary: for example (just to say) what if the Netflix software queries some custom DNS with some DNSCrypt-like protocol on some non-standard port?

 

Kind regards

[SirJohnEh 6]

Not really an expert at reading these wireshark dumps, but from what I can see, the roku and firefox do not talk to netflix the same way at all.  I was able to confirm that absolutely 0 packets destined for Google's DNS servers exited the WAN interface on my router -- they were all redirected to my internal DNS, which is definitely forwarding to Air's DNS.

 

On a "native netflix" air server, roku works fine.  On a "rerouted to US netflix air server", roku is angry and says I'm using a proxy -- and I've discovered this evening that once you anger roku it will cry "proxy!" until you restart the device no matter which Air server I route its traffic thru.  Firefox happily plays Canada Netflix when I'm on a native Air server and US netflix when I'm on a rerouted (Canadian) Air server.

[Earful8 8]

It's getting close to me being tempted to cancel my Netflix subscription... it was always good to have US Netflix on my Roku and Netflix not care about the VPN but since its been blocked its.. rendered it useless.

[SirJohnEh 6]

So my final findings on all of this is as follows: roku3 sucks!

 

Got the chromecast out of the closet and hooked it back up.  Using it + an android tablet and Netflix plays nice: route thru Canadian native Netflix server and get CA Netflix, route thru a rerouting CA server and get US netflix.  With the Roku the same problems persist: route roku thru native CA server and it works, route it thru an Air server that's rerouting to US netflix and it's flagged as a proxy connection.

 

For me, I'll just leave the chromecast hooked up to the tv for accessing US netflix, but still sucks that I now need two devices on my tv to get netflix working "properly".

[vpn2go 1]

Are you still blcoking all 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 requests and send them to the air dns?

Because i cant get chromecast to work either. Says the same thing in the app.

 

Can you walk me through your setup a little bit?

[SirJohnEh 6]

Yeah, I use pfsense as my router and I have a NAT rule on the LAN interface that catches all traffic headed towards 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 and redirects it to the pfsense dns server, which in turn hits Air's dns.  I also added a NAT rule that catches icmp requests to the same addresses and just redirects them to the LAN interface because I caught the chromecast pinging the dns servers a lot, too.  Maybe that's the key?

 

Anyway, that's all I added and (as of last night when I last tested) tablet + chromecast works as desired.

 

No matter what I've tried, roku3 only works when routed thru (non-US) Air servers that are doing native Netflix routing and so you can't get US Netflix on roku3.