Websites believe I am using a proxy/VPN (factory & Merlin) on N66U

[seaside_CT]

Hi all --

I have Comcast as an ISP w/ ASUS NT-R66U router. As of about two weeks ago, several websites have been blocking my home's IP address claiming I am using a proxy or VPN -- including Netflix.

Comcast came out, said there was nothing wrong with my service on their end, I previously used Merlin's firmware, I deleted nvram (using 'mtd-erase -d nvram'), restored to factory settings and updated to the latest ASUS factory firmware. I previously had used dnscrypt and a couple of other modifications when I had Merlin installed.

I connected my laptop directly to my modem, bypassing the router and was able to connect to Netflix without the Proxy/VPN detection error.

What am I missing here? Are there any other steps I can take with my router? Losing my mind here, any help/suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[RMerlin]

Your WAN IP is simply blacklisted. You get a different IP when you connect the modem directly, which is why it works. This has nothing to do with your router.

 

[BeachBum]

Its not just you. Netflix,Hulu, and a few others have recently started blocking anyone connecting through a VPN or proxy. They say that people are using them to get around geo-restrictions, which violates their usage policies. So, of course, anyone using a VPN must be bad so they blocked it all. As I understand it they block the entire range of IPs used by a given VPN/Proxy provider.

I called Netflix to chew them out, as I am using a VPN for legal security reasons and have also been blocked out. The way I see it they are in violation of their contract with me, as they are not providing the service I am paying for. They are also insulting me by punishing me for 'bad behavior' of other people. They took the stance that VPN's are illegal, and I had to keep reminding them they are not. I gave them 1 month to fix it or I will cancel my account.

I would recommend you call them and complain...

 

[seaside_CT]

Your WAN IP is simply blacklisted. You get a different IP when you connect the modem directly, which is why it works. This has nothing to do with your router.

Merlin, you were spot on. I had a few other sites which were inexplicably blocking me out of the blue and after dealing with their technical support (believe it or not, Liftmaster, the garage door company was fantastic in troubleshooting) they let me know I was indeed on a blacklist. Comcast sent two guys out that were completely worthless, surprisingly, and charged me $50 for the pleasure of them dismantling my network. I was able to clone a MAC address with your firmware, reboot the modem and wah-la, new IP and no issues.

Thanks

 

[BeachBum]

Are you actually using a VPN? Is so, try Netflix again and see if you are still blocked...

 

[Lucky8888]

There are ways around the Netflix block for VPN users. One just has to be creative. I have no problems.

 

[BeachBum]

There are ways around the Netflix block for VPN users. One just has to be creative. I have no problems.

Thats not the point. Netflix is punishing their customers and calling them criminals for something that is completely legal. They, and the entire entertainment industry, have started a campaign to demonize VPN's and get them banned. It behooves ALL of us to stand our ground and not let them do this, weather you can get around their block or not...

 

[RMerlin]

Thats not the point. Netflix is punishing their customers and calling them criminals for something that is completely legal. They, and the entire entertainment industry, have started a campaign to demonize VPN's and get them banned. It behooves ALL of us to stand our ground and not let them do this, weather you can get around their block or not...

Blame the dinosaurs behind the movie/TV industry, not Netflix. Netflix never were aggressive with blocking VPN/proxies. A few months ago, their content providers complained at the fact that an increasing amount of Netflix customers were accessing content not licensed for their region, and started pushing Netflix into better controlling that, or otherwise face the consequences (such as losing access to the content and/or facing price rises). So Netflix had no alternative but to comply.

Let's face it: the very large majority of VPN/proxy users who apply it to Netflix are doing so to get around region locks. It's not about privacy/security/whatever. Netflix isn't demonizing anything, they are simply trying to protect their butt.

This whole notion of having video content restricted to specific region makes zero sense in 2016, when the world is connected together. Content providers need to start taking into account the Internet as a region of its own, and stop trying to apply the same distribution rules as they apply to the existing mediums (DVD, TV, cable, etc...).

But if you want to complain, go to the root of the problem, not to the messenger. Netflix are simply caught in-between.

Region locks are something that need to go away.

 

[Nullity]

Blame the dinosaurs behind the movie/TV industry, not Netflix. Netflix never were aggressive with blocking VPN/proxies. A few months ago, their content providers complained at the fact that an increasing amount of Netflix customers were accessing content not licensed for their region, and started pushing Netflix into better controlling that, or otherwise face the consequences (such as losing access to the content and/or facing price rises). So Netflix had no alternative but to comply.

Let's face it: the very large majority of VPN/proxy users who apply it to Netflix are doing so to get around region locks. It's not about privacy/security/whatever. Netflix isn't demonizing anything, they are simply trying to protect their butt.

This whole notion of having video content restricted to specific region makes zero sense in 2016, when the world is connected together. Content providers need to start taking into account the Internet as a region of its own, and stop trying to apply the same distribution rules as they apply to the existing mediums (DVD, TV, cable, etc...).

But if you want to complain, go to the root of the problem, not to the messenger. Netflix are simply caught in-between.

Region locks are something that need to go away.

I saw the results, but not the origin. Do you have any links to this initial complaint from the content providers?

 

[RMerlin]

I saw the results, but not the origin. Do you have any links to this initial complaint from the content providers?

The only public part I can track down at the moment comes from Netflix competitors such as Bell (such as this report):

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...ous-how-to-limit-use-of-vpns/article28100804/

I can't remember where I've read about content providers also actively pushing Netflix into being more aggressive in blocking proxy/VPN content, it was probably on DSLReports. But it's pretty obvious that Netflix isn't doing on their own decision, because they actually gain more users by allowing people access more content. Someone is pressuring them to play within the confine of their distribution deals.

 

[RMerlin]

This might be the quote I had in mind:

One of the outcomes of the Sony Pictures hack has been evidence of just how much Hollywood studios care about VPN usage, as emails from 2013 show a Sony exec complaining that “Netflix do not closely monitor where some of their subscribers are registering from and don’t take steps to counter circumvention websites that allow people… to subscribe illegally”. He specifically cited Australia and South Africa as countries without legal Netflix services despite high penetration. GWI’s figures show that 5% of internet users in those nations accessed the service in the last month.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/09/why-netflix-wont-block-vpn-users

It came from information "extracted" through the Sony hack.

It's all happening behind closed doors...

 

[BeachBum]

Blame the dinosaurs behind the movie/TV industry, not Netflix. Netflix never were aggressive with blocking VPN/proxies. A few months ago, their content providers complained at the fact that an increasing amount of Netflix customers were accessing content not licensed for their region, and started pushing Netflix into better controlling that, or otherwise face the consequences (such as losing access to the content and/or facing price rises). So Netflix had no alternative but to comply.

Let's face it: the very large majority of VPN/proxy users who apply it to Netflix are doing so to get around region locks. It's not about privacy/security/whatever. Netflix isn't demonizing anything, they are simply trying to protect their butt.

This whole notion of having video content restricted to specific region makes zero sense in 2016, when the world is connected together. Content providers need to start taking into account the Internet as a region of its own, and stop trying to apply the same distribution rules as they apply to the existing mediums (DVD, TV, cable, etc...).

But if you want to complain, go to the root of the problem, not to the messenger. Netflix are simply caught in-between.

Region locks are something that need to go away.

Great points. Netflix though has the ability to restrict users to their billing geographic region. So they are being a bit heavy handed and could have handled this a bit better. They didn't need to throw all their subscribers under a bus. They, in fact, did demonize VPNs in their discussions with me. I quote: "our roll out is to avoid the illegal usage of the VPNs but since it's a new feature we are still working on getting the legal VPN usage working back again" See, they characterize illegal use of VPN. VPNs are not illegal, period.

 

[Nullity]

Great points. Netflix though has the ability to restrict users to their billing geographic region. So they are being a bit heavy handed and could have handled this a bit better. They didn't need to throw all their subscribers under a bus. They, in fact, did demonize VPNs in their discussions with me. I quote: "our roll out is to avoid the illegal usage of the VPNs but since it's a new feature we are still working on getting the legal VPN usage working back again" See, they characterize illegal use of VPN. VPNs are not illegal, period.

Guns (VPNs) are not illegal, but usage of said gun (VPN) can absolutely be.

(I am not a lawyer.)

 

[System Error Message]

use of VPN within the same country should not get you banned from it as you wont be against their ToS as you arent trying to bypass geo restrictions.

Whats to stop private users from sharing their internet with others via VPN to allow them to bypass the restrictions.

They need to stop this because there are countries that want to use their service but dont have a local netflix and want a more variety of shows. If they keep this up piracy is going to increase.

Also it may be that netflix does a port scan of IP for VPN and proxy services so even if you arent using them it may be that is how they identify hosts. Easy bypass of using a whitelist for input and changing the ports you use for them.

 

[BeachBum]

Guns (VPNs) are not illegal, but usage of said gun (VPN) can absolutely be.

(I am not a lawyer.)

Correct. Cars are not illegal either, but we don't ban all cars because someone broke the speed limit or used a car in a bank robbery.

 

[Nullity]

Correct. Cars are not illegal either, but we don't ban all cars because someone broke the speed limit or used a car in a bank robbery.

I think I was misquoting the old "guns don't kill people..." quote, though... I am not so sure why I said that.

Kindly, disregard me.

 

[L&LD]

Great points. Netflix though has the ability to restrict users to their billing geographic region. So they are being a bit heavy handed and could have handled this a bit better. They didn't need to throw all their subscribers under a bus. They, in fact, did demonize VPNs in their discussions with me. I quote: "our roll out is to avoid the illegal usage of the VPNs but since it's a new feature we are still working on getting the legal VPN usage working back again" See, they characterize illegal use of VPN. VPNs are not illegal, period.

If you read what RMerlin wrote about this; for Netflix, VPN's are illegal (not their definition, btw) to the terms of their content and their distribution.

Nothing is black and white. The details mean something here.

 

[Lucky8888]

Thats not the point. Netflix is punishing their customers and calling them criminals for something that is completely legal. They, and the entire entertainment industry, have started a campaign to demonize VPN's and get them banned. It behooves ALL of us to stand our ground and not let them do this, weather you can get around their block or not...

I'm not debating the morality of Netflix's stance on VPN's. All I'm saying is legitimate Netflix customers can still stream content from almost anywhere through a VPN.

 

[sfx2000]

I can't remember where I've read about content providers also actively pushing Netflix into being more aggressive in blocking proxy/VPN content, it was probably on DSLReports. But it's pretty obvious that Netflix isn't doing on their own decision, because they actually gain more users by allowing people access more content. Someone is pressuring them to play within the confine of their distribution deals.

I'm wondering if this is more a crackdown on hacked Netflix accounts - they're pretty cheap on the dark web, and many that use these are outside of the home country of the account...

http://bgr.com/2015/12/01/netflix-hbo-go-spotify-hackers-lifetime/

Most folks actually don't really need a VPN to use Netflix if they're legit users in their home country...

 

[Nullity]

I'm wondering if this is more a crackdown on hacked Netflix accounts - they're pretty cheap on the dark web, and many that use these are outside of the home country of the account...

http://bgr.com/2015/12/01/netflix-hbo-go-spotify-hackers-lifetime/

Most folks actually don't really need a VPN to use Netflix if they're legit users in their home country...

I only recently discovered why VPNs were so popular with Netflix when I learned how the movie/TV catalog was so limited in non-USA countries. unofficial Netflix online Global Search.

As a stereotypical Team American, I was blissfully unaware of what the rest of the world was experiencing. Honestly, it looks like most of the world has a crappy Netflix catalog. Some markets have like 10% of what the US has...