IPlayer access on virgin internet (not TV!!)

[Gurberly]

Up until about 2 weeks ago we had no problems accessing BBC's IPlayer on any of our 3 home PC's.

Then starting from about two weeks ago, we launch IPLayer, it plays the intro and then just dies before the programme launches.

A mixtue of XP and vista machines (None will play when they did before)
Have reinstalled flashplayer

Tried it with the firewall and antivirus disabled
Tried it with a PC direct to modem (by passing router) and still no joy.

Any other suggestions to fix it or are Virgin doing something crappy to encourage you to take it up on a TV package instead!!

Cheers

Gurb

[JackSon]

I haven't noticed any problems to date with accessing iPlayer on VM XL. My usage is mostly off-peak though, at what times are you having the prolems, or is it more or less constant throughout the day?

[Jelly]

Working on my size L connection. Have you scanned for viruses and spyware?

[Gurberly]

Thanks for the replies.

Guess its a problem this end then

We generally use it offpeak, Sunday mornings in bed in fact!!

Absolutely evrything else works (streaming video/UTube etc) just not I Player... which frustratingly used to work.


G

[BloodyL]

Are you viewing the programmes on the website itself or are you using the actual iPlayer application?

iPlayer does not use Flash, it uses Windows Media Player.
Consider any applications that you have installed on all three machines that might interfere with Media Player such as media codec packs, media players, things like that.

[Gurberly]

We are viewing on the website rather than downloading the file.

Website definitely does use Flash as if Flash is not installed you get the messgage as below.

http://www.pigyn.com/virgin/Flash.png

Whether Media Player is wrapped within there somehow I don't know.

This is getting frustrating, have tried it with and without firewall, with and without router, with Firefox and IE

In the good old days of NTL it used to be possible to change/switch proxy servers. Is that still possible?

Have removed codec packs if installed (2xp machines and 1 vista machine)

Is there a list of up to date servers somewhere?

Thanks for suggestions so far!!

G

[Stuart]

Whether Media Player is wrapped within there somehow I don't know.



Flash does not use Windows Media Player. It has it's own video decoding system built in..

Have you tried uninstalling Flash player, then installing the latest player from http://www.adobe.com ?

[BloodyL]

Ahh, my mistake, sorry! :)

[Gurberly]

Flash does not use Windows Media Player. It has it's own video decoding system built in..

Have you tried uninstalling Flash player, then installing the latest player from http://www.adobe.com ?

Hi thanks.

Yes uninstalled/re-installed Flash (and some other Flash plugin that was listed in the Windows add/remove programmes applet)

G

[JackSon]

Only asking as I can't see it mentioned; tried alternative browser(s)?

[Gurberly]

Thanks... tried Firefox and IE7 no joy....

[Graham M]

Do you have any programs such as a firewall which block Javascript?

[wintergreen]

I started having similar problems with iplayer about a week or so ago.
For a few days I could not get iplayer to work at all, it just stopped working for no reason at all and at the same time web browsing became really slow although I am still able to download files at normal speeds. I tried different browsers IE and Firefox but they were both slow, I even put together another computer with a fresh install of windows and connected straight to the cable modem without connecting to my firewall to make sure it wasnt a problem my end
Now iplayer is working sometimes but not always and browsing the net is still slow at times (not just peak times).
I havent bothered getting in touch with virgin yet because I know it will mean sitting and listening to some muppet in india telling me to reboot my computer over and over again until they realise they dont know what they are talking about and then hang up on me and all for the discount price of 25p per minute :td:

[Gurberly]

OK I think I am starting to understand why IPlayer won't play....

The BBC thinks I'm located in Ireland!!!

Just noticed that when I go to default Google page, it takes me to the Irish domain, not the UK one.

i.e. http://www.google.ie/

Download Failed (1)

If Google thinks I'm Irish, I guess the BBC might do also (and I know IPlayer is blocked from access outside the UK)

BUT I'M NOT IRISH...AND I DON'T LIVE IN IRELAND. I'M ENGLISH AND LIVE IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE!!!

So the question now, is why do these sites think I'm Irish. Country location is set to UK on all my PC's. How else do they decide which country you live in?

G

[Maggy]

I'm having no trouble with iPlayer apart from the occasional really slow download times.I just leave it and try again later.

[Gurberly]

It's not slow, access seems to be blocked.

[mojo]

If they think you are in Ireland, it must be because the IP address you are using was leased to an Irish company. Maybe not now, but at the point when the lists were compiled. You should call VM and get them to fix it. Might possibly help to reboot your modem too, just to get a new IP address.

[techyguy4]

OK I think I am starting to understand why IPlayer won't play....

The BBC thinks I'm located in Ireland!!!

Just noticed that when I go to default Google page, it takes me to the Irish domain, not the UK one.

i.e. http://www.google.ie/

http://www.pigyn.com/virgin/google_irish.png

If Google thinks I'm Irish, I guess the BBC might do also (and I know IPlayer is blocked from access outside the UK)

BUT I'M NOT IRISH...AND I DON'T LIVE IN IRELAND. I'M ENGLISH AND LIVE IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE!!!

So the question now, is why do these sites think I'm Irish. Country location is set to UK on all my PC's. How else do they decide which country you live in?

G

seems like the routing is done through Ireland and it causing issues with Google and BBC Iplayer as well.Can you paste tracert report to google and bbc as well?

[ceedee]

seems like the routing is done through Ireland and it causing issues with Google and BBC Iplayer as well.Can you paste tracert report to google and bbc as well?

Or another consequence of the doomed 92.x.x.x IP range?
Does the same thing happen when using a proxy such as webcache.virginmedia.com?

[Gurberly]

Does this help?

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Josh>cd c:\

C:\>tracert www.bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.253.67]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 127 ms 153 ms 115 ms 10.100.52.1
2 90 ms 68 ms 86 ms cmbg-t2cam1-b-v107.inet.ntl.com [80.1.202.241]
3 96 ms 87 ms 91 ms cmbg-t3core-1b-ge-014-0.inet.ntl.com [195.182.17
9.218]
4 132 ms 125 ms 130 ms nth-bb-b-so-710-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.197]

5 124 ms 129 ms 132 ms nth-bb-a-ge-000-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.117]

6 103 ms 121 ms 142 ms gfd-bb-b-so-010-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.98]
7 156 ms 163 ms 151 ms redb-ic-1-as0-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.78]
8 171 ms 167 ms 168 ms 212.58.238.189
9 167 ms 159 ms 167 ms 212.58.238.133
10 168 ms 171 ms 128 ms te12-1.hsw0.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [212.58.239.222]
11 187 ms 159 ms 163 ms www-vip.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [212.58.253.67]

Trace complete.

C:\>tracert www.google.com

Tracing route to www.l.google.com [66.102.9.104]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 30 ms 25 ms 28 ms 10.100.52.1
2 30 ms 30 ms 29 ms cmbg-t2cam1-a-v107.inet.ntl.com [80.1.202.113]
3 29 ms 30 ms 28 ms cmbg-t3core-1a-ge-013-0.inet.ntl.com [195.182.17
9.206]
4 34 ms 35 ms 23 ms pop-bb-a-so-132-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.193]

5 33 ms 32 ms 34 ms pop-bb-b-ae0-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.174.230]
6 37 ms 33 ms 35 ms tele-ic-2-as0-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.6]
7 33 ms 35 ms 27 ms 212.250.14.138
8 13 ms 14 ms 14 ms 209.85.255.175
9 23 ms 28 ms 29 ms 209.85.250.216
10 43 ms 27 ms 27 ms 72.14.232.237
11 30 ms 36 ms 65 ms 64.233.174.18
12 26 ms 24 ms 22 ms lm-in-f104.google.com [66.102.9.104]

Trace complete.

C:\>

---------- Post added at 16:36 ---------- Previous post was at 16:33 ----------

Or another consequence of the doomed 92.x.x.x IP range?
Does the same thing happen when using a proxy such as webcache.virginmedia.com?


Not tried it via a different proxy. To be honest, not sure how to try!!

Once again thanks to all for your interest in trying to help me fix this. My wife is desperate to watch the "Nancy" re-runs!!

G

[homealone]

Some info on specifying a proxy here

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/trancache.html#sidestep

the only one which seems to be able to be explicitly set is the webcache.virginmedia.com one already mentioned by ceedee

[ceedee]

Or another consequence of the doomed 92.x.x.x IP range?
Does the same thing happen when using a proxy such as webcache.virginmedia.com?

Not tried it via a different proxy. To be honest, not sure how to try!!
Click on "Connection" in the bar at the top of this page and let us know (at least) the beginning of the IP address it reports for you?

If your IP address starts with "92." then you may have difficulty connecting with the occasional website unless you use a web proxy.
To access t'internet thu' a proxy in Firefox, go to Menu/Tools/Options and select the Advanced icon at the top and then the Network tab.
Now select Connection Settings and click on "Manual proxy configuration", enter webcache.virginmedia.com as the HTTP Proxy and 8080 as the Port, and click OK and exit.

You will probably need to reboot for the changes to take effect.

[Gurberly]

IP address is 86.9.94.xxx

That said, I changed to the proxy as above, and I'm English again!!!

Correct google domain is loading (google.co.uk) and more importantly IPlayer functions. That will keep the missus happy :)

Once again thanks to all who have taken the time and interest to help me get it fixed :)

[techyguy4]

IP address is 86.9.94.xxx

That said, I changed to the proxy as above, and I'm English again!!!

Correct google domain is loading (google.co.uk) and more importantly IPlayer functions. That will keep the missus happy :)

Once again thanks to all who have taken the time and interest to help me get it fixed :)

Glad you are sorted. :)