Help with streaming movies from Hopper......

[Rockyii911]

Good morning all, I have a problem and hope that maybe someone here can help me,
last month I upgraded all my equipment to 2 hopper with sling and 1 Joey , I did this cuz I have a son in the marine corps that stationed in Okinawa japan, and they only get 1 American channel PBS there.....
before I upgraded I spoke with Dish and explained to them why I wanted the hoppers with sling, so my son in okinowa could access live tv, on demand , blockbuster etc, etc, I was assured that he would be able to use sling to receive everything I pay for....I am Microsoft certified in networking for 18 yrs now so I know my way around so to speak....
my setup at home is 50mb download, 12mb upload, have Motorola SB 141 450mb modem, an Asus AC dual ban 1750 Router, router is directly wired to hopper, only have 1 hopper online for now,
my son has a 25mb, down, 7mb upload, with a Netgear dual ban AC router, also directly wired to his laptop, his laptop is an Asus gaming laptop 3g video card, 16 mb memory i7 intel processor, and all video and other drivers r up to date ,all cables for connections being used are Cat7 700 mhz , (started with Cat5 and worked my way up just in case it was cables)so I know all equipment is top of the line, and works flawlessly, for 3 weeks now I've been back and forth with dish, my son can only watch live tv, channels 6-380 from his laptop using dish anywhere, he can't watch onDemand,Blockbuster, or TV shows.....when he tries to watch movie, he gets spinning connection hr. glass in dish, black screen.......
i am wits end here, he's tried both different browsers, IE, Chrome, I tried putting hopper on static ip, and on DMz , to see if that was it, I saw on here somewhere where someone spoke of port forwarding, but don't know what's ports to forward, or if that would even help, but if you guys think it would please forward info and will try, the only reason why I upgraded all equipment was so my son could watch American TV, he stationed there for the next 2 yrs......if anyone has any ideas, on a fix, could you please contact me or post suggestion, it would be greatly appreciated by me and certainly my son.....if u need any more info on equipment or anything please post or pm me.....

thanks Rocky?

 

[jimdandyvi]

Sounds like your son is being geo blocked.

 

[osu1991]

Geo blocking was my thought too. Try a vpn?

 

[jimdandyvi]

Sounds like your son is being geo blocked.

To get around this he will need to run a VPN on his PC. He will need to connect using a VPN server on the west coast.

Using a VPN given the distance and processor overhead will speed by 10 - 40%.

Speed loss will be even worse if he tries to run VPN on router.

 

[Rockyii911]

thanks!!!!!!

I understand about vpn, but what's confusing me is vpn on west coast?? could you be more detailed , I would be more than happy to pay or make donation to site, maybe step by step, and geo blocking is a new term I haven't heard

thanks rocky

 

[Rockyii911]

I know how to set up a vpn, but to setup to access hopper, is another story.......if anyone can help with that again I will pay them or make donation......... if he was being geo blocked, I would think he wouldn't be able to watch any thing using dish anywhere?, but he can watch the live tv, channels 6-389, just not the movies or tv shows..... I'm new with this hopper stuff, just trying to see if its possible to get all dish programing to him. , I connected to him remotely, opened up dish anywhere, seen it connect to sling box, clicked on live tv and guide both worked, when I click on watch on demand, that's when I get hr. glass black screen, would like to try vpn from where he is to my hopper box, it seems to me like you guys know more on how to do that..................if someone could pm me with detailed info or

rocky

 

[osu1991]

can he see the recorded events on the hopper. I believe the on demand, can go thru various third parties such as Hulu, HBOgo, Encore and such. Those sites are blocked and only available for US ip addresses (geo-blocked).

You need a VPN that uses US ip's to be able to access those from overseas. I use StrongVpn so I can access UK sites like BBCiplayer from the US. They offer US vpn's also for people outside the US.

Setup the vpn on your son's laptop and connect to internet thru the VPN and it will appear as if your son accessing from the US and should get around any geo blocking.

 

[jimdandyvi]

VPN

To use a VPN you have to sign up and establish an account with a VPN provider. I use StrongVPN and highly recommend them. I have used HMA and don't recommend them. They have servers in a number of different cities in nineteen countries worldwide. I pay $85 per year for an OpenVPN account from them. It is possible to pay less ($55 ) for a PPTP VPN account from them. PPTP VPN will work in most countries to evade geo blocking, however PPTP is not very secure and it has been hacked but this makes no difference for evading geo blocking. Also PPTP VPNs won't work from Saudia Arabia or China who block PPTP connections. You can buy a VPN's services for a shorter period of time for less money to try it out. Most VPN providers do not allow free trials for very sound and logical business reasons.

Your son to watch videos that are for the American Market (50 US States ) would select a VPN server in California or perhaps Seattle as these are the nearest points in the USA to Okinawa vs picking a US server in the midwest or on the East coast of the US. Companies that stream video (Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon, etc.) check the IP of the device trying to stream video. If it is an IP from outside the USA they geo block it and you can't watch.

Once you or your son have paid your money and have established an account with a VPN provider your son will download a small program to his computer which when run will facilitate connecting to the selected VPN server on the west coast. Once this software is up and running run an IP checker or a speed test and he will see that he now has an IP from an ISP in the USA. Once the connection is up they he would go ahead and stream video from Blockbuster, Netflix or Amazon, however some streaming sources do have other checks that they apply so a VPN isn't always enough.

Just to be sure I have made myself clear, your son needs to run the VPN on his PC if he wants to stream American videos outside the USA. Apparently with the SlingAdapter he can watch TV without using VPN. I can watch my Dish anywhere in the world using my SlingBox, but to stream movies I need a VPN.

PM if you have any other questions.