Intl Streaming - Use provider's VPN solution or DIY?

[russch]

Moving to Singapore in February, so worrying about the important things in life - Internet and access to my US-based streams like Hulu, Netflix, etc.

From reading through threads, it sounds like any of the major providers will certainly be good enough for me.

Does anyone have any opinions on VPN solutions?

• I have use a VPN provider here at home (USA) that I could continue to use
  I could wait till I get to Singapore and find a local provider
  I could use a "bundled" service from the ISP

Anyone have an opinion on the price/performance of any of these combinations?

Any VPN providers well-known for "playing well" with online commerce / banking sites? For example, it's not completely uncommon that purchases I make while traveling and "VPN-ing back to the US" get flagged with fraud alerts - the site sees that I'm exiting from range of IPs know to be associated with a commercial VPN provider and assume I'm a "bad guy". I then have to call and talk to a human being to get stuff fixed.

Also, one last question - are the Routers typically provided by the ISP any good?

[zzm9980]

If it's solely for streaming then go with Viewquest or Myrepublic as your fiber ISP and use their integrated service. It'll be much simpler and higher quality than using a Vpn for the same.

Both give you a choice of routers starting at free to paying a bit for a higher end one. With MyRepublic your options are various popular Asus models. Subsidy on it varies by length of contract and the plan you take.

[russch]

Thank you, sir.

[curiousgeorge]

If it's solely for streaming then go with Viewquest or Myrepublic as your fiber ISP and use their integrated service. It'll be much simpler and higher quality than using a Vpn for the same.

Both give you a choice of routers starting at free to paying a bit for a higher end one. With MyRepublic your options are various popular Asus models. Subsidy on it varies by length of contract and the plan you take.

zzm9980 is right - these are the guys to go with.

However, and whatever they call it, their services are DNS-routing based, not VPN. This is to fool DNS-lookups into thinking you are in Singapore. A commercial equivalent would be something like UnoTelly.
The difference might be important to you - VPN encrypts every bit of information between you and the server in the destination country. That single secure pipe between you and the VPN server is a bottleneck for congestion.
A DNS-based service basically looks access going to the site you want to visit, and masks itself to allow the visit. Which means multiple routes as the internet intended, so usually better speeds. The drawback is that any DNS based service will not access ALL sites in another country, only those with services it is monitoring. Netflix, Hulu, BBC being the big ones. If you bank with a small-town unknown whose website isn't on the radar of the DNS-service, you're SOL.

For myself, I can do 95% of what I need to do with a DNS based service, and I use StrongVPN as a backup when I need it. At $5 a month its not going to break the bank.

But yeah, big upvote for MyRepublic and Viewqwest. (VQ is about to offer a 2Gps service too, so if speed is your need its a no-brainer). If you go with the big three orange/green/red then you can use an independent DNS service and put the details into your router, the outcome is the same.

FYI, the Asus AC87U is $299 subsidised with a 1Gps service with VQ, for instance.

[russch]

Good stuff.

Are said content providers doing anything to try and prevent these services from doing their thing?(blacklisting IP address ranges, etc). I didn't know I could get away with a service that would (essentially) just spoof my IP without using VPN.

[zzm9980]

Good stuff.

Are said content providers doing anything to try and prevent these services from doing their thing?(blacklisting IP address ranges, etc). I didn't know I could get away with a service that would (essentially) just spoof my IP without using VPN.

Yes, they do with varying degrees of aggressiveness. Hulu seems pretty aggressive with it. Most of these services rapidly update their IPs though. Same thing happens to VPN Services.

[russch]

Heh, thanks. I thought Singapore was all about law and order -- interesting that these providers are willing to participate in what must pretty much be a running battle to keep these services viable.

I'm not complaining though.

You gents have any idea what the lag time generally is for Fiber installation assuming I land somewhere where a previous tenant has already used the service and/or I end up in a "brand new" apartment? I guess I'll be doing the phone 4G hotspot thing until I can get properly hooked up...

[zzm9980]

A few weeks at least for hookup. They advertise about a month. I just signed up Monday, so will update you once I have a scheduled date. (Going with MyRepublic myself, used them previously and loved their service. Rare quality in Singapore )

Singapore doesn't have much of their own creative/media IP worth protecting, thus probably why you see such lax enforcement on this stuff. Besides, technically bypassing geo-blocks isn't illegal. Maybe in the Us under DMCA... But that doesn't apply here.

[curiousgeorge]

You gents have any idea what the lag time generally is for Fiber installation assuming I land somewhere where a previous tenant has already used the service and/or I end up in a "brand new" apartment? I guess I'll be doing the phone 4G hotspot thing until I can get properly hooked up...

I signed up on the 19th Dec for Viewqwest, got install date of 12th Dec for the ONT (optical network terminal) as the fibre point is already installed in my place. The wait is for NetLink trust (the /installers operators of the fibre network) to do the backend splice into VQ.

It could be as little as two weeks depending on the time of year. The six weeks following any of the quarterly IT shows here (where the ISPs announce their new packages) are usually the busiest. Quietest is the week immediately prior to an IT show, but you could be locking yourself in to a old package

[Splatted]

use Hola. It's free, and works with chrome. Can access hulu and netflix , though sometimes there are dropouts.

http://www.hola.org

[zzm9980]

December 21st (late evening) online sign-up for MyRepublic, and they just called today to give me a January 7th install date.

[PNGMK]

I've tried the local MyRepublic DNS spoofing and have through work have previously used VPN's.... neither are really good solutions - just bandaids.

[zzm9980]

I've tried the local MyRepublic DNS spoofing and have through work have previously used VPN's.... neither are really good solutions - just bandaids.

Well, what issues are you having that aren't being addressed?

[Brah]

Somewhat related to this thread is this I came across:

https://www.unblocknetflix.co.uk/us-vs- ... n-proxies/

If you think Netflix provides all its subscribers across its regions with the same content, you’re mistaken. It’s widely known that US Netflix version contains a larger library compared to UK Netflix. But why settle for one Netflix version when you can access all using one Netflix account? All you need is Smart DNS or VPN. Info for both can be found in this guide on how to change from one Netflix country to another and flip through Netflix regions using a simple switch.

[russch]

Interesting, looks like NetFlix may start playing "hardball" on geo spoofing:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/3/748686 ... -block-vpn