Funny Netflix - VPN story

[fox]

We share a Netflix account with our daughter, and until this past weekend, we only ran Netflix on our TV. On Saturday I was staying with a friend who has no TV. We decided to watch a Planet Earth episode, so I ran Netflix on my iPad for the first time. (Initially through a browser; subsequently through the Netflix app.) I have PIA VPN, and I forgot it was running. It was connected to their Montreal server. Halfway through the episode it suddenly stopped working. I tried to sign on again, but it wouldn't accept my password. I only found out this morning that my daughter somehow saw that someone was accessing Netflix from Montreal. Since none of us was in Montreal, she thought someone was hacking into her account and she immediately changed her password. (Good for her!!!) I only found out about it this morning.

The lesson here is that if you share a Netflix account and you are using a VPN, let the person you share it with know. Or if you remember, turn off the VPN when using Netflix. 

[Jason]

  That's funny. I'm amazed you managed to watch any of it while being on PIA. Usually, Netflix gives you an error message about using a proxy the minute you try to watch something. For a few weeks, it wouldn't even let me get to the website with PIA on!

I found that one "server" (i.e. it's actually a network of servers) in Texas that sometimes works with Netflix and lets me watch the US version of Netflix. But most of the time it's too much of a hassle to even try. It bugs me that Netflix blocks VPNs wholesale.

[fox]

.... It bugs me that Netflix blocks VPNs wholesale.

I suspect that they have to do this to satisfy their content contractors so that no one can watch from a different country whose content isn't under contract. Since anyone can connect to a VPN outside of their home country, how would Netflix know you're entitled to watch Canadian content even if you sign on from a Canadian VPN?

[Jason]

.... It bugs me that Netflix blocks VPNs wholesale.

I suspect that they have to do this to satisfy their content contractors so that no one can watch from a different country whose content isn't under contract. Since anyone can connect to a VPN outside of their home country, how would Netflix know you're entitled to watch Canadian content even if you sign on from a Canadian VPN?

Yep, I realize that's why they do it. But they used to allow it.

To please their content providers there is a super easy fix. They could make it so that very first time you sign-up if it notices you're using a VPN it asks you to turn it off temporarily while you sign-up. In the sign-up process, it detects which country you're connecting from and that becomes your home country.

Thereafter after when you sign-in to your account, it doesn't matter where your IP is or if you're using a VPN, they only let you access the content of your initial home country.

The drawback is that if you travel you'd still be only able to access the content of your home country. Travellers now can access the content for whichever country they happen to be in. But I can't imagine that makes up a large segment of their user base.

[fox]

A small point, but what if you decide to sign up for Netflix while you're traveling in another country? (And you don't have a VPN.)

[Jason]

A small point, but what if you decide to sign up for Netflix while you're traveling in another country? (And you don't have a VPN.)

They should warn you when you do this. However, you could just delete the account when you're done using it another country and re-create one when you get back. I believe Netflix gives you a 30 days trial (or at least 15) to try it out so you wouldn't lose money. I think that's probably an even smaller subset than those who travel using Netflix and want the country they're in.

By giving up on these small inconveniences we're not sharing what we watch with our ISP by being able to use a VPN and protected when we use hotspots from bad actors grabbing our login information.