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Comment by tenacious_tuna | Hacker News Reader

That is an exceptionally broad statement. I think it's probable that Netflix doesn't work with large-scale VPN providers because it's broadly easy to identify the traffic source. However, using a wireguard tunnel from my ipad back to my house, netflix works fine.

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He obviously didn't mean to include people who are just tunneling back to their residential IP.

There’s many ways Netflix could detect VPN use, especially on mobile devices.

It’s not obvious at all. Netflix could be doing something as simple as checking the IPs or could be actually checking the use of VPN at a system level. Both are equally valid readings of the GP comment.

seems like torrenting is still easier (and safer) than using netflix and co

I was suspended by Disney+ for accidentally turning on my VPN to a location they didn't like...I instantly cancelled my subscription. I couldn't believe the suspension message, banned a paying user... Never again.

What location was that, out of curiosity, and what was the reason given?

especially if you're on arm linux, it seems

I find this "easier" argument amusing.

Any solution that requires me to reach behind my TV and plug in my laptop is already not easy.

With Netflix you just punch your password into your smart TV and you're watching content.

i can stream torrents from my phone to tv without hassle

You don't have to, I can use my Android TV to stream torrents in a Netflix-like GUI using public torrents. My father uses it and he's not very "techy".

It even syncs progress across devices, works on all my devices (doesn't work in the Apple ecosystem).

Would you mind sharing the software you’re using?

iirc they also use the TTL of the request to see if it differs from others on the same IP. This was a while ago however.

What about a VPN that tunnels relevant traffic (i.e. usually the one to their backend API and/or DRM key/licensing server, not to their CDN) through residential connections in the same geography as the VPN relay?

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