Problems using BBC sites and services

[Welsh_Mike]

Hi,

 

I live in the UK and use MalwareBytes Privacy to add an extra layer of security but am not interested in circumventing geolocation controls.  So I use a server in London.  I also like to use the BBC's services a lot - every day.  I use their web site for news etc and also for streaming sports commentaries.  However the BBC is very anti-VPNs, because of geolocation control and licencing issues I guess.

If I have MalwareBytes Privacy running I just can't get the BBC to treat me like a UK customer even though I log into their site; am located in the UK; use a Privacy server in London,; and even pay their TV Licence fee every year.  If I try to connect to BBC.CO.UK I am automatically re-routed to BBC.COM which has a non-UK slant on the news and services.  If I try to stream a commentary or watch a video clip from the website I will be told the service is not available in my location. 

Theoretically I can set Privacy to bypass the VPN service when connecting to them - but how?  They do not publish all of the IP addresses of their many servers and services; I am not aware that they restrict their activities to Ports that are unique to them.  I saw a post where somebody recommended that I use a different browser for when I access the BBC.  I tried that.  My normal browser is Firefox so I set up MS Edge as a Bypassed application and that worked just once.  Thereafter even though I delete all of Edge's cookies every time I exit the program the BBC still switches me to BBC.COM and refuses to stream to me.  Deleting Edge from the Bypassed list and then rebooting and adding it back again hasn't cleared the problem.  Is there any way of checking that Privacy is indeed Bypassing the VPN for any given application?  Is there any way of identifying whether Edge (or any other Application for that matter) is calling on sub-applications or processes that are still being run through the VPN?

Experimenting, I find that after a PC reboot if I disconnect from the VPN service before I open a browser, I can successfully connect to BBC.CO.UK and use the streaming services; but if I then re-connect to the VPN after a few minutes the BBC services will fail again.  If on the other hand, after a reboot, I leave the VPN connected when I open the browser application - even if I don't use the BBC website initially, but disconnect from the VPN if I then try to connect to the BBC it won't work.  Which frankly I find bizzare.

 

Any ideas and suggestions will be gratefully received.  I have been living with this for months and currently my only working solution is to disconnect from the VPN.  That renders it totally useless to me and I will have to go off and find another VPN service that does work if I can't find an answer.

Regards

Mike

[gatortail]

I'm sorry to hear you're having this issue.  Assume you're using the latest Chromium Edge browser?  Could you try same with Chrome set to Bypass the VPN? 

[Welsh_Mike]

In the UK, the Edge browser is a Microsoft product.  But as you suggested it, I installed Google Chrome onto my PC and, hey Presto, it works.  I have set Privacy to not use the VPN for Chrome.exe and the BBC.Co.UK website loads absolutely fine.  And the streaming service runs fine.  Weirdly it still doesn't work for MS Edge.  But I'm a happy customer I can live with using Chrome for just the BBC services - that is an acceptable workaround. 

Do you think we will ever have the ability in Privacy to just say don't use the VPN for "BBC.CO.UK" or is that technically a step too far?

Thanks Gatortail.

I'll just be off now to uninstall MS Edge.......

[gatortail]

Glad to hear that worked. 

In a perfect world we would absolutely make it more straight forward and allow you to just specify BBC.CO.UK.  Unfortunately the readable url gets translated into an IP address and those can change so it would be a constant challenge to find the current IP addresses for a given site.  Should the BBC create an Application (similar to how we recognize the Chrome browser) then we could have a sure way to identify it and direct it around the VPN.

[Welsh_Mike]

Sad to have to resurrect this topic.  After a couple of days of the workaround working, listing Chrome.exe on the bypass list no longer works and my attempts to connect to BBC.CO.UK are instantly rerouted to BBC.COM and I am informed that "this content is not available in your location" if I try to run the radio sports commentary.

I have totally uninstalled Chrome, deleted all the browsing history and cookies.  Reinstalled it and still as soon as I try to get to BBC.CO.UK I get redirected.

 

There must be somthing else about my PC that the BBC is using to detect that I have a VPN running even when I am connecting to it without using the VPN.

 

I come back to one of my original questions in the opening post -

On 7/25/2021 at 12:36 AM, Welsh_Mike said:

Is there any way of checking that Privacy is indeed Bypassing the VPN for any given application?  Is there any way of identifying whether Edge (or any other Application for that matter) is calling on sub-applications or processes that are still being run through the VPN?

Having reposed the question, actually I cannot give it any attention for a few days as I will be away for a while.  I will return to the quest to convince the BBC that I really am in the UK in August.