ref Now TV

[maccasa]

Some time ago I suggested use of a uk Now tv box and a router here in PT - I have a tried a Vodafone Mifi and it gets 11-12 Mps but unfortunately I cant get it to work on the Now box - I assume it's something to do with the IP address? anybody got an idea on this? The now box detects the Mifi and I can input the key with the box picking up the signal and network, but when I select a channel it just goes blank after a few secs

[Farol]

Now TV is part of Sky so I would expect it to look for a UK IP address. The IP address would be what Vodafone assigns and assuming it uses a dynamic address then you would have no control over that. The link between the Now TV box and your MIFI device is independent of what is presented to the outside world so what you say makes sense. I suspect the only way you could get it to work would be the same as other IPTV solutions where you have to go via a proxy site to spoof an UK IP address.

[RichardHenshall]

I use Smart DNS Proxy which seems to work well with Now TV but whether you can use it depends on whether you can alter the DNS settings in your router. This is a generic guide to altering DNS settings.

I haven't really bothered with the subscription channels but used the BBC Iplayer, ITV Player, 4OD & Demand5 services. In the absence of a VPN or DNS proxy service, they will appear to work in my experience (providing program listings etc and playing introductory advertisements) until the real content should start when they will fail as it's only then that your location is checked.

Have you done any better using Now TV apps on phone or tablet, or using spotify or tunein?

[Farol]

I use Smart DNS Proxy which seems to work well with Now TV but whether you can use it depends on whether you can alter the DNS settings in your router. This is a generic guide to altering DNS settings.

DNS settings as described in the guide have nothing to do with this. DNS servers are the servers that provide a way to translate domain names/URLs to IP addresses whcih is how the internet works. All ISPs have domain name servers (DNS servers) and you can use any of them as the internet keeps them all in sync.

Your router/hub needs an IP address for the internet to route anything to it. You get this in one of two ways: either your ISP uses dynamic addresses (which is normal for PAYG and domestic contracts) or static IP addresses which is normal for business contracts. It is this address that a proxy masks. You cannot change it. Typically with a dongle you get a different IP address every time you connect (and they are often reset at midnight). This is eluded to in the last footnote in the guide that you refer to:
"Remember whenever your PC/Router IP changes, our service will stop working for you. You will need to LOGIN to Smart DNS Proxy and UPDATE your IP address. So our system will check your IP address and add your new IP to our database. Then you will be able to continue using our service. If this is the first time you setup, we also suggest you to login with your PC to our site from the same Wired/Wireless network to show our system your IP address."

So if you use PAYG with dynamic IP addressing then everytime you log on you would have to update "Smart DNS Proxy"'s database.

[RichardHenshall]

Most of what you say is correct but if you use smart DNS proxy services they somehow mask where the enquiry to the DNS server has come from and pretend it has come from somewhere acceptable to, in this case, Now TV. Unlike a VPN it doesn't have the same negative impact on bandwidth. If you aren't a registered user/subscriber it won't work.

The issue of dynamic IP addresses is in part 2 of the tutorial. Only when the service is working is it necessary to worry about keeping it working!

I use a free dynamic host name from no-ip.com which is automatically updated by my router with my router's allocated IP address each time it changes. It's possible to do this manually if you're on site but I use the same host name to obtain remote access (from the UK) to my router and other network devices (such as an IP camera and home automation kit).

Again it will depend on whether the necessary settings in the router can be altered. If you're using smartphones/tablets/PCs etc it can usually be sorted on the device but the Now TV box does not have the necessary options and relies on the router to provide these services to the whole home network.

[Farol]

I stand by what I said in my original reply.

What we are talking about is the relationship between a client device (the Now TV Box) and a server (the Now TV servers).

I believe Now TV needs to get a service request from an UK client IP address. There is nothing you can do in any part of your equipment to change your IP address - that is always allocated by your ISP. That is how the Internet Protocol works.

DNS is a means of translating names to IP addresses. This is required because the internet does not understand domain names such as Google.com it only understands IP addresses so if you want to connect to Google.com then the DNS server says OK what you want is 173.194.78.106. (You can see this by going to a command prompt on your pc and typing in tracert www.google.com hitting return and watching what it displays.)

Macassa wants to connect a client device (his Now TV box) to the Now TV (Sky) servers. A client device does not have a domain name so DNS does not apply to his box. His connection to the internet is allocated an IP address by Vodafone - he has no control over it and cannot change it. The server that he wants to connect to also has an IP address and the ISPs know through routing tables how to connect the two addresses to each other (as you can see in the tracert).

The way you can attempt to fool the system is through a proxy server where the proxy sits in the middle and creates a hidden link between the two parties. So when it gets a request from a client IP address such as 123.234.1.2 it passes it on as perhaps 234.123.5.3 keeping the client secret. It then knows though when it gets traffic back from say Sky to 234.123.5.3 that is has to pass it on to the client 123.234.1.2 This is not to be confused with a VPN and should have no impact on bandwidth.

Macassa's connection between the Now TV Box and his Vodafone router is a purely internal matter and should work, as indeed it does.

[RichardHenshall]

I stand by what I said in my original reply.

I stand by what I've said in both my replies.

Macassa's connection between the Now TV Box and his Vodafone router is a purely internal matter and should work, as indeed it does.

The connection between the Now TV box and the mifi router is made and not (AFAIK) an issue. My replies are attempting to address the issues faced by Macassa's router's attempts to connect to the Now TV servers and obtain a stream in response. There are two issues; masking the Portuguese IP address (can be dealt with by Smart DNS Proxy) and making sure that Smart DNS Proxy continues to work (can be dealt with by using no-ip.com) - or to be precise, they do successfully deal with these issues in my setup, though I use ADSL broadband. Smart DNS Proxy cost me approx USD35 for 2 years and no-ip is free.

Whether this combination will work for others (including Macassa) depends on whether they can configure their router in an appropriate way. I have a suspicion that it may not be so easy with a 3G/4G broadband connection.

I'm just sharing what works for me. If others have solutions, we'd all love to hear them.

Other smart DNS proxy or VPN services and DDNS providers are available.

[widge]

How do you manage to type all this technical stuff at two O'clock in the morning ???????

[RichardHenshall]

Slowly and carefully. That's why it took until 2am.

[maccasa]

Thanks for the comments - as the mifi connects (via Vodafone) direct to my wireless adapter and not a separate router, I cant change the ip address. The answer is - from my son! smart ass! to use a dongle ( 20mps same as the mifi) into a TP link router where I can change the ip address. so next time I shall buy one.

In the meantime I watched the F1 practice and both rugby games by using my pc (a USFF) connected direct to my tv and used a german free tv service tvpc.com tuned to BBC1. It was pretty good and had 0 adverts (apart from a running script download which kept popping up every 10 mins but as it was at the bottom of the screen it didn't effect anything) I am going to determine what channels I can get as well as beeb 1 today. After watching Lewis win the oz F1