netflix – Squix – TechBlog https://blog.squix.org Tue, 13 Dec 2016 20:29:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 121913304 Use proxydns and your dd-wrt router to watch Netflix on Chromecast outside of supported countries https://blog.squix.org/2014/05/use-proxydns-and-your-dd-wrt-router-to.html https://blog.squix.org/2014/05/use-proxydns-and-your-dd-wrt-router-to.html#respond Mon, 05 May 2014 17:26:00 +0000 http://blog.squix.org/2014/05/05/use-proxydns-and-your-dd-wrt-router-to/ Read More

]]> Sadly tunlr ceased to exist – so compared to the setup I described here http://blog.squix.ch/2013/12/use-tunlr-together-with-dnsmasq-on-your.html I had to find a working solution again. But this time I couldn’t find a free dns service anymore, but I wanted to find a cheap one at least. It appears that http://proxydns.co/ does a good job and only costs about 3$/month (depending on the price plan you choose), which is slightly lower than the ~ $4.20 that unlocator.com offers for the long term price plan.

Prerequisistes

The following guide assumes that you own a router with a up-to-date DD-WRT installation. It is certainly possible to do this with other router firmware as well. Then you’ll have to setup an account at http://proxydns.co and make sure that your IP is enabled for this service.

Firewall rules

To get Chromecast running with netflix add this to your firewall script in the Administration > Commands section:

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -d 8.8.8.8 -j DNAT --to-destination 74.207.242.213
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -d 8.8.4.4 -j DNAT --to-destination 50.116.28.138



This will forward all DNS traffic that was intended for the Google Nameservers to the proxydns servers. This is necessary, since the chromecast device ignores what your DHCP server tells it and always uses 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 for DNS requests.



DNSMasq


Under Services > Services add


strict-order
server=/tunlr.net/74.207.242.213
server=/hulu.com/74.207.242.213
server=/netflix.com/74.207.242.213
server=/proxydns.co/74.207.242.213
server=/manager.proxydns.co/74.207.242.213





to the “Additional DNSMasq Options”. What was new for me was the “strict-order” config attribute. The DNSMasq man page says this:


By default, dnsmasq will send queries to any of the upstream servers it knows about and tries to favour servers that are known to be up. Setting this flag forces dnsmasq to try each query with each server strictly in the order they appear in /etc/resolv.conf





Before I had this option watching Netflix would only work from time to time. The other lines only forward DNS requests to proxydns if the are requests for Netflix and similar services.



You might have to restart all devices after changing these settings. And don’t forget to check your status at http://manager.proxydns.co/ to see if the dnsmasq options were applied properly.



Explaining the solution


The here described solution only routes DNS requests to a few specific services to proxydns. Configuration manuals of services like proxydns or unlocator usually tell you to set their DNS server in the general configuration of your router, which would send all DNS requests to them. But that might be very risky, since they would learn about your usage/browsing profile and could potentially even redirect you to malicious servers (instead of routing you your e-banking server, for example). So the less we send there, the better. But this only solves one part of the problem. The other half is Chromecast sending all DNS requests to the Google DNS servers, ignoring what you have setup for your local network and thus bypassing your settings for proxydns. The firewall rules with the iptables commands rewrite all requests for 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 to the proxydns servers. You could (and maybe should) narrow that down for requests coming from the Chromecast. But I will leave that for a later post;-)


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		Use Tunlr on Boxee to watch Netflix outside of US (e.g. Germany, Switzerland)
		https://blog.squix.org/2013/09/use-tunlr-on-boxee-to-watch-netflix.html
					https://blog.squix.org/2013/09/use-tunlr-on-boxee-to-watch-netflix.html#comments
		
		
		Mon, 09 Sep 2013 03:44:00 +0000
				
		
		
		
		
		
		http://blog.squix.org/2013/09/09/use-tunlr-on-boxee-to-watch-netflix/

					Read More
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The following how-to describes how you can watch Netflix on your boxee even if you are living outside of a country where Netflix is available.


First of all you need a Netflix account. For USD 7.99 per month you can watch all their series and movies they have available. In my country VOD services cost that amount PER MOVIE!


    

  1. To register for Netflix I used the Hola Unblocker Plugin for Chrome (https://hola.org/). After installing it you should be ready to go. The unblocker tricks Netflix into thinking that you are within the US. Alternatively you can use a VPN or Tunlr (http://tunlr.net/)
    2. 

  2. Then you go to the Netflix page and register an account. Don’t use the “Connect to Facebook” button. In my case I kept returning to the main page. I think that Netflix checks your location in Facebook and blocks any further progress if you are not living in a supported country. After entering email and password you add your credit card details. I read that PayPal doesn’t work since the delivery address contains your country but I didn’t confirm this. Together with the credit card details you have to add the ZIP code of a US city. I picked one here, to be sure that it exists: http://www.zip-area.com/. 
    3. 

  3. Now enjoy Netflix on your workstation. BTW: the first month is free. If you don’t like the service just cancel it before the first 30 days are over
    4. 




To get Netflix running on your Boxee you need to do some additional steps. The company behind the boxee box announced in 2012 that it would no longer maintain the software on the D-Link boxee box and that users would be on their own, which is really sad because the boxee is such a cute box and I like the simple remote control that makes it perfect for the couch.




    

  1. First of all head over to http://tunlr.net/get-started/get-started-with-a-mac/ and write down the IPs for the replacement DNS server. At the time of this writing it was 69.197.169.9 and 192.95.16.109, but that might change. 
    2. 

  2. Start your boxee and go to the network settings. If you are using DHCP change the settings to manual and replace the DNS server entry with one from Tunlr. I read somewhere that the second one worked, so I used 192.95.16.109, but maybe the first one works as well.
    3. 

  3. Optional: For testing I opened the boxee browser and navigated to Netflix.com and logged in. If Tunlr doesn’t play it’s magic here you won’t be able to login. Note: watching movies on the boxee browser doesn’t work. You will only get a page that says that the hard/software is not supported!
    4. 

  4. In order to get see the Netflix App on boxee you need to install BOXEE+Hacks. This is a non-intrusive inofficial extension to the boxee firmware and can be installed with a few simple steps. Beside other nice additions it makes the otherwise hidden Netflix App visible. Follow the step-by-step guide here: http://boxeeplus.com/
    5. 

  5. You will realize that Boxee+Hacks has been succesfully installed if the start logo changed from Boxee to Boxee Hacks and the home screen looks different. I had to do the procedure of installing hacks twice… Once it is active head over to the Apps page and look for the Netflix app. When you select it you have to choice to add it to your favourites. This will make it easier to start it later. When the app is installed login with your credentials and start enjoying endless lists of movies and series!
    6. 





    





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