BBC iplayer doesn't work

[marcysio 0]

BBC iplayer doesn't work on airvpn anymore - do you know why?

[klume 2]

from here too, but only Manchester, Maidenhead still works

[marcysio 0]

I've tried all of them and on all connetions I get an iplayer error message I'm outside UK - can anyone help? cheers

[Guest]

https://airvpn.org/topic/11608-bbc-inlayer-will-not-admit-from-these-servers/

 

related?

[Staff 9761]

Hello!

 

BBC iPlayer is currently working just fine on every and each server. Just make sure that you use the VPN DNS. Should you find a specific server from which you can't access BBC contents, first make sure that your system queries the VPN DNS, and only after that specify the server(s) in this thread.

 

Kind regards

[klume 2]

from here Naos and Nashira don't work for iplayer, now Nunki does and Carinae always did.

[SlyFox 10]

I confirm this is working from USA server (serius) today I just tried iPlayer. Yesterday however when I was trying from three UK servers I was getting the error "outside the UK"

 

Always set 10.4.0.1 as DNS in past, and now use the new beta client with all the force DNS settings checked. Windows 7.

[h3lix 0]

Looks like the BBC is mixing things up with their CDN providers, which is likely giving places that automatically route BBC traffic (like airvpn) headaches.

 

General BBC traffic does go through the UK gateways, but it looks like one (or two) Akamai domains don't get caught. 

 

I setup a dd-wrt router with airvpn, and did a network trace between the client and tunnel. It looks like it queries a743.g.akamai.net and AirVPN's DNS servers are returning a US location rather than a UK location. Akamai picks up on this and forbids the stream.

 

Some of the streams are served from limelight and those get streamed OK - which is probably the reason why some people are impacted and others aren't. There really isn't rhyme or reason as to which ones get chosen for Limelight vs. Akamai to be streamed.

 

I am able to download (not stream) shows with no issues. I think downloads use a different path that doesn't involve CDNs, and thus easier to redirect.

 

Only real options I see to this is route every IP address for the CDNs to the UK (and constantly keep them updated) or possibly introduce a transparent proxy that intercepts port 80 traffic, looks at the Host: header, and routes based on that information. Obviously all this should be done with logging and caching turned off.