Yes, I have a had a couple of problems, but chalked it up to a dying Motherboard (Dell informed me that I should replace it, but that was 5-6 years ago) and my cooling fan has started to squeak so who knows how the temperature fluctuations might be affecting it. I've just disconnected or rebooted and get on with my 'business'.... 👍😇😂

On 6/6/2026 at 3:39 PM, liddelljohn said:

I use VPNs to get TV content mostly , and movies downloads ,, also for cricket ,, and hopefully for feeds for the 2026 world cup .... also VPN for some banking and UK websites that are blocked in thailand ....

I was using KODI for sports but its now heavily edited and many of the seeds for sport content is policed and disabled especially football .. FIFA will be busy selling all their ripoff friends TV channels and BBC are able to block UK VPNs on their i player , they have a dedicated team assigned . HO HUM

Express VPN doesn't connect to UK Tottenham and/or Jersey but it's' ok with UK east London, best and fast to connect to Singapore, Australia and even HK is fast

On 6/5/2026 at 6:08 PM, liddelljohn said:

Both My Nord and Surfshark VPNs and also some others i use are now not connecting with UK or USA over last 9 days ,, I have asked NORD VPN support and they say that nothing is wrong but Surfshark have told me that True, and AIS have been throttling all vpns recently ... Is this true because i am having problems using some sites based in UK and USa that rely on VPN,, I was in Singapore 2 days ago and and both NORD and Surfshark connected to Vpns in USA, EU and UK no problem ?????

Nord works ok. There was an issue with TNT sports UK on my app for 2 days over weekend it ok now. It was not a vpn issue. I can access without vpn. I still got Aussie AFL via channel 7 Australia with VPN and Fox USA without VPN.

Edited June 8Jun 8 by Bruce Aussie

Thanks for all the useful info and replies ,,,, I have got Nord working again OK by re installing ,, im mainly concerned for being able to watch live world cup over next few weeks ,, i did same for Surfshark is also working again but its being slow..

I do have a UK place but its only basic Freely TV and also the Local internet is poor ,House is in a major town but No fibre to my door , still copper line , and 5g signal is crap compared to Thailand . UK is very 3rd world ....

im back to UK end of June to spend summer in UK riding my motorcycles , go to shows and festivals and to watch cricket matches live and drink real Ale ...

To block VPNs BBC have a dedicated team with contractors Serco and Capita of over 200 staff to locate and block VPNs For NORD and others its a continual game .....Its probably counter productive for BBC as the number of people paying the mandated license fee has fallen by over a MILLION IN LAST FEW YEARS AS A MASSED PROTEST AGAINST THE FEE, SCANDALs,, AND BBC WOKISM AND LEFTY BIAS ... prosecutions for not paying have fallen too as people are more savvy and so BBC revenue has collapsed as well by about £1.5bn ...

BBC is becoming an unsustainable national embarassment

18 hours ago, liddelljohn said:

To block VPNs BBC have a dedicated team with contractors Serco and Capita of over 200 staff to locate and block VPNs For NORD and others its a continual game .....Its probably counter productive for BBC as the number of people paying the mandated license fee has fallen by over a MILLION IN LAST FEW YEARS AS A MASSED PROTEST AGAINST THE FEE, SCANDALs,, AND BBC WOKISM AND LEFTY BIAS ... prosecutions for not paying have fallen too as people are more savvy and so BBC revenue has collapsed as well by about £1.5bn ...

BBC is becoming an unsustainable national embarassment

iPlayer works fine for me using Surfshark with 3BB as my fibre provider. See screenshot from a few minutes ago.

OK VPN is working fine to watch World cup football and other UK tv ,, but when trying to use BBC radio for test match special , all my VPNs are geoblocked on UK based servers ???? managed to find an alternative called Guerilla cricket but its not that great commentary

On 6/18/2026 at 11:27 AM, liddelljohn said:

OK VPN is working fine to watch World cup football and other UK tv ,, but when trying to use BBC radio for test match special , all my VPNs are geoblocked on UK based servers ???? managed to find an alternative called Guerilla cricket but its not that great commentary

Just out of interest, what VPN protocol are you using with Surfshark? Is it Wireguard?

Test Match Special works fine for me via iPlayer.

Edited June 20Jun 20 by Mutt Daeng

On 6/20/2026 at 9:14 AM, Mutt Daeng said:

Just out of interest, what VPN protocol are you using with Surfshark? Is it Wireguard?

Test Match Special works fine for me via iPlayer.

yes wire guard

12 hours ago, liddelljohn said:

yes wire guard

OK. Your setup seems to be the same as mine. I can offer no explanation why mine works and yours doesn't.

On 6/18/2026 at 11:27 AM, liddelljohn said:

OK VPN is working fine to watch World cup football and other UK tv ,, but when trying to use BBC radio for test match special , all my VPNs are geoblocked on UK based servers ???? managed to find an alternative called Guerilla cricket but its not that great commentary

I use PIA to connect to iplayer everyday - at the moment its blisteringly fast - I can download 10 gig / 2.5 hour show of world cup match in 10 mins.

It's never been blocked for the past idk, 8 years. Sometimes the provider has had issues, but they admitted it when I contacted them on chat and normal service was returned within a couple of days.

They know who is using a VPN to access the service, I can watch and download ITV, channel 5 is blocked for me, C4 is not available on my appleTV but I can watch, I can DL that stream but its encrypted. I see no evidence of BBC actively blocking VPN access, they could follow the other channels but dont.

On 6/24/2026 at 5:14 AM, recom273 said:

They know who is using a VPN to access the service

This one reason decentralized VPN's are gaining popularity.

People rent out some of their residential bandwidth, thus, their IP address. Very difficult for companies to detect and black list IP addresses if one uses a DVPN.

Edited June 27Jun 27 by KhunHeineken

BBC have a dedicated tech team based in Manchester that tracks and blocks VPNs and closes the server access to some BBC product mostly sports , its a cat and mouse game ,,,

1 hour ago, liddelljohn said:

BBC have a dedicated tech team based in Manchester that tracks and blocks VPNs and closes the server access to some BBC product mostly sports , its a cat and mouse game ,,,

I have been using Windscribe (paid version) for the last 3 or 4 years on BBC, CH4 and ITV with no problems.

Express VPN seems fine.

1 hour ago, Why bother said:

I have been using Windscribe (paid version) for the last 3 or 4 years on BBC, CH4 and ITV with no problems.

Curious as I use the free version for some financial stuff but I cannot have it open and access Daily Mail Money since about a month ago. Not an issue as normally just access without but is there any chance you can see if it is an issue for you to satisfy my curiosity?

https://www.dailymail.com/money/index.html

7 minutes ago, topt said:

Curious as I use the free version for some financial stuff but I cannot have it open and access Daily Mail Money since about a month ago. Not an issue as normally just access without but is there any chance you can see if it is an issue for you to satisfy my curiosity?

https://www.dailymail.com/money/index.html

Have just tried from Thailand with Windscribe set to Manchester on (both desktop and extension) and no problem.

I also accessed without VPN.

PS; The above on a laptop but have done the same just now on my Oppo phone.

Edited June 27Jun 27 by Why bother

17 minutes ago, Why bother said:

Have just tried from Thailand with Windscribe set to Manchester on (both desktop and extension) and no problem.

I also accessed without VPN.

Thanks - .something to look at then. I usually use London so will try elsewhere and see.

Yes without VPN no issue.

19 minutes ago, topt said:

Thanks - .something to look at then. I usually use London so will try elsewhere and see.

Yes without VPN no issue.

Just noticed that you a quoting the use of the free version whereas I am using the paid version.

8 minutes ago, Why bother said:

Just noticed that you a quoting the use of the free version whereas I am using the paid version.

Yes that is why I asked. I just tried a different (and new to me) London server and it opened first time so thanks for confirming it wasn't generally unavailable.

19 hours ago, liddelljohn said:

BBC have a dedicated tech team based in Manchester that tracks and blocks VPNs and closes the server access to some BBC product mostly sports , its a cat and mouse game ,,,

Then every one of their employees must be on the payroll or totally incompetent - where did you find this info?

I dont want to get into details, but a raw 1080 mp4 file of the World Cup can be captured with commercial / open source software and a VPN in 10 minutes of appearing on the iplayer.

The only reason I started using PIA was because I had so many issues with surfshark during the Beijing Winter Olympics. They may have been trying to outsmart the providers. Surfshark was limited to 720 streams, moving to PIA I could access 1080 HLS streams, instantly, and bar the odd couple of days here and there, I haven't had any issues since.

Recom 773 there was newspaper investigation by Daily Mail and Telegraph last year about BBC license enforcement by Capita and it also mentioned the BBC piracy and VPN teams based in Manchester , also Rip Off Britain TV show had complaints from VPN users in UK about BBC and it was shown that BBC have a dedicated anti VPN team

I've heard they are closing connections of those that are partial to child porn sites and are sharing the information with governments. Sure that is not the case but just saying...

10 minutes ago, atpeace said:

I've heard they are closing connections of those that are partial to child porn sites and are sharing the information with governments. Sure that is not the case but just saying...

Where have you "heard this" and who are "they"?

Please provide links.

Edited June 28Jun 28 by Why bother

17 minutes ago, liddelljohn said:

Recom 773 there was newspaper investigation by Daily Mail and Telegraph last year about BBC license enforcement by Capita and it also mentioned the BBC piracy and VPN teams based in Manchester , also Rip Off Britain TV show had complaints from VPN users in UK about BBC and it was shown that BBC have a dedicated anti VPN team

Any links to such so called investigations?

21 minutes ago, Why bother said:

Where have you "heard this" and who are "they"?

Please provide links.

You worried?

43 minutes ago, liddelljohn said:

it was shown that BBC have a dedicated anti VPN team

Of course they have because they want to prevent that BBC streams are watched abroad, since they don't have the broadcasting rights for abroad.

4 minutes ago, CallumWK said:

Of course they have because they want to prevent that BBC streams are watched abroad, since they don't have the broadcasting rights for abroad.

I watch all the UK TV channels using Windscribe.

14 minutes ago, atpeace said:

You worried?

No but you are making unsubstantiated claims. Please prove those claims with a link or two.

2 minutes ago, Why bother said:

I watch all the UK TV channels using Windscribe.

Good for you, but it doesn't work with some other VPN's because BBC detects them.

Did you know that you even can watch some BBC streams without a vpn?