Streaming UK TV to Germany using work (UK) VPN?

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

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I'm currently doing a bit of work in Germany and occasionally want to watch iPlayer etc.. I should say thay I'm a license fee payer and UK resident. I remote into work into an office in the UK using a VPN and wondered what settings I would need to change to have it spoof my location to the UK so I can watch the services I pay for?

B@
 
Check with your work what their bandwidth policy is. They might take offence that someone is using gigabytes of bandwidth out of their office, even after hours, as it might impact other users.

Realistically if Netflix etc. isn't filtered on your work network then you shouldn't have to change anything. It IS terminating in the UK and if it's an actual VPN to your office then Netflix won't know where you are (unless they now have systems to detect non-public VPNs? Idk)
 
I use my work VPN all the time. You shouldn't need to change much if it's as simple as mine (I vpn in and get the exact same IP as the main office). I spoke with IT and they don't care, we've a ridiculous pipe into the office.
 
Can you install your own software on the work machine? If so, and presuming you don’t work and watch TV at the same time, then get an account with a VPN provider that supports iPlayer. When you want to watch TV disconnect the work VPN and connect to the one that supports iPlayer.
 
Just bear in mind that even though you are a TV licence payer your work might not be and thats who the service is going through. If the TV licence authority every checked out the IP address being used and it went back to your work and they dont pay then they would be liable.

Probably wont happen but where I used to work they had a big clamp down on it as the TV Licence people were sniffing round doing checks once and I had to issue a notice to not use iPlayer or any TV related streaming. We also created group policies to restrict it too.

I always find iPlayer over VPN is very laggy anyway.

By the way when we went to Lanzarote few years ago I watched UK Netflix on the Villa's broadband via my laptop no problem, didnt need a VPN then. (I know its different for iPlayer)
 
varkanoid said:
Just bear in mind that even though you are a TV licence payer your work might not be and thats who the service is going through. If the TV licence authority every checked out the IP address being used and it went back to your work and they dont pay then they would be liable.

Probably wont happen but where I used to work they had a big clamp down on it as the TV Licence people were sniffing round doing checks once and I had to issue a notice to not use iPlayer or any TV related streaming. We also created group policies to restrict it too.

I always find iPlayer over VPN is very laggy anyway.

By the way when we went to Lanzarote few years ago I watched UK Netflix on the Villa's broadband via my laptop no problem, didnt need a VPN then. (I know its different for iPlayer)
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That's also not strictly true is it now. You are at least covered on your own licence if you are on battery power anyway, so if he's using his laptop he can use it wherever, through any connection he likes.

I don't want this thread going off topic, though, if anyone wants to discuss licence issues we've got a TV Licence Super Thread in GD.
 
I think you missed the point that is relevant. If the OP doesnt get permission and his company dont allow it if by some bad luck the licensing authority come knocking they will visit his company and not the OP and then even though he has a TV licence (so thats a tick for your reasoning) his company know he's broken IT policy rules and this could lead to who knows what. Also they might question why the VPN traffic suddenly shot up alarmingly from someone in another country. ie dont get yourself into trouble. Same principle if you take a pool car out and break the speed limit. Your company as the registered keeper gets the notice first, not the driver.

So the moral is check with your company if they allow it. If you don't want to do this then accept the potential risk also.
 
You need to make sure you're not doing a split tunnel VPN, and that you aren't resolving DNS in Germany and then trying to connect to the addresses you get returned over the VPN.

I provided a full-tunnel OpenVPN endpoint to a couple of our directors when they were working in Iraq and everything worked perfectly.
 
varkanoid said:
I think you missed the point that is relevant. If the OP doesnt get permission and his company dont allow it if by some bad luck the licensing authority come knocking they will visit his company and not the OP and then even though he has a TV licence (so thats a tick for your reasoning) his company know he's broken IT policy rules and this could lead to who knows what. Also they might question why the VPN traffic suddenly shot up alarmingly from someone in another country. ie dont get yourself into trouble. Same principle if you take a pool car out and break the speed limit. Your company as the registered keeper gets the notice first, not the driver.

So the moral is check with your company if they allow it. If you don't want to do this then accept the potential risk also.
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It's a moot point any way as TV Licensing don't resolve IP addresses. Otherwise you might as well stop using iPlayer on public WiFi or anywhere else that you can't determine whether they have a licence. Which, is still irrelevant as according to current rules I'm completely welcome to legitimately sit in a friend's house, Costa, my office, licence holder or not and use iPlayer on my phone/device. It's a simple fact.

The only key point here (which I absolutely agree with you on) is whether or not the OPs company are happy for him to use the VPN for non core business purposes.

So I'd just advise checking.
 
B@Th*nG said:
iplayer seems to know i'm using a VPN :/

B@
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What VPN are you using? I personally use NordVPN for streaming and it works fine. SaferVPN also seems like a good choice. Finally, there's a new product called Surfshark VPN which should support streaming and because it is quite new, BBC may not be aware of it.
 
Caged said:
You need to make sure you're not doing a split tunnel VPN, and that you aren't resolving DNS in Germany and then trying to connect to the addresses you get returned over the VPN.

I provided a full-tunnel OpenVPN endpoint to a couple of our directors when they were working in Iraq and everything worked perfectly.
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how can i check this?

Eternalec said:
What VPN are you using? I personally use NordVPN for streaming and it works fine. SaferVPN also seems like a good choice. Finally, there's a new product called Surfshark VPN which should support streaming and because it is quite new, BBC may not be aware of it.
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it's a work VPN, so it's just one that's setup in the networking section of my laptop.

B@
 
my vpn deets:

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anything wrong here?

B@
 
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As it sees that you're in Germany which means the VPN is more than likely not split tunnelled. That means only traffic destined for the specific IP ranges your company uses goes down the VPN tunnel, everything else goes over your local internet connection.

It's unlikely that iPlayer will work using that VPN.
 
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