Watching Online Streaming Television From The U.S. And/Or U.K.

[negreanu]

Fake link above for social security number. No credit card required

[2008bangkok]

Fake link above for social security number. No credit card required

social securit number or credit card needed... try it and see

[jfchandler]

Ok, thanks for the feedback and comments received above...

When I registered for this service in its earlier version, there was no issues about providing a SSN or a U.S. credit card....

But because of comments above, I just now created a new user ID on the USTV Now site and found indeed they have changed their registration process. They don't ask for that info on the initial web site registration.

But when you follow the email link they send you to confirm your registration, it takes you to a page where they want to confirm you're a U.S. citizen or resident.... either by providing a SSN or U.S. credit/debit card info/billing address. The web site indicates they won't use that card to make any charge, but only to verify you have a U.S. account address.

I don't like the idea of providing a SSN to anyone, including any commercial service, online.... And I don't think that's a good way of doing business. But I don't have any problem with providing them a U.S. credit/debit card info, especially when it won't be charged....

The reason for the above, clearly, is that they aim to limit their service to U.S. citizens, even if they're living elsewhere in the world. Sorry I wasn't clear in specifying that earlier... It wasn't an issue for me because I am a U.S. citizen...

The current account verification process is not the same one as when I first registered with their service a month or two back... I wasn't asked to provide any SSN or credit card info at that time... Apologize for the confusion over that....

Here's excerpts of the info on their current account verification page...fyi....

Authorization

Please choose a method to verify that you are authorized to watch US Television. Any information you enter will be transmitted using 128 bit secure SSL encryption.

If you signup with a .mil or .gov email address you can bypass this verification page. If you have one and did not use it, please register again by clicking here.

Verification Method 2

Use your US credit card. For your protection, only the last four digits of your credit card number will be stored for our records. Your card will never be charged from filling out this form. We will just check to see if US billing address entered matches card.

Edited August 8, 2010 by jfchandler

[2008bangkok]

I registered with USTV Now and never was required to provide a SSN....and there's no place for it on their online member registration form...

And, for the record, I'm not trying to "promote" any service here, and have no personal interest in any of them.... USTV is just one of more than a half dozen different services I've reviewed in this thread....and if people bothered to read, you'd see I had some negative comments about their service in prior posts (when they canceled their prior service plans).

But, if anyone else can point to a site where, for free, they can watch ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW and PBS any time 24/7 all from the same site, please do post the info here....

Its not for free though is it... you have to provide the most personal of information which is your SS number, if you cant do that you have to provide a credit card,,

[Lordfoul]

Yes, and I provided you with a link that will create a fake SS number that will work on the site.

I registered with USTV Now and never was required to provide a SSN....and there's no place for it on their online member registration form...

And, for the record, I'm not trying to "promote" any service here, and have no personal interest in any of them.... USTV is just one of more than a half dozen different services I've reviewed in this thread....and if people bothered to read, you'd see I had some negative comments about their service in prior posts (when they canceled their prior service plans).

But, if anyone else can point to a site where, for free, they can watch ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW and PBS any time 24/7 all from the same site, please do post the info here....

Its not for free though is it... you have to provide the most personal of information which is your SS number, if you cant do that you have to provide a credit card,,

[jfchandler]

Thanks for calling to my attention the fact that they have changed their account verification process, since I originally registered with them a month or two back... At that time, they did not have that process involving SSN or credit card info in place.

I suspect they made the change because, in the past, they had no FREE plan... All three of their plans previously you had to purchase, presumably with a credit or debit card... So they'd get the address verification thru your purchasing process...

Now they have added a really FREE TV plan...with no costs at all involved. So apparently for legal reasons they then needed to institute some other way to verify some connection to the U.S. I suspect that relates to legal issues about their ability to retransmit U.S. over the air TV content to U.S. folks, but presumably not to everyone anywhere in the world.

However, this thread is NOT about promoting USTV Now, and I have absolutely no connection or interest with them, other than now being a regular nonpaying account holder.

If you actually read thru this entire thread, you'd see that I've reviewed and documented more than a half dozen different online TV providers, this one and many others including Livestation, RealNetworks, AtoBTV, and even provided my own file collection of various all free streaming sites for channels like CNN and MSNBC... That's the facts...

As much as i thank the OP for some good info i think this thread has always been about promoting this ustvnow, the op never mentions in his lengthy posts that you have to be a US citizen to use it and you need to provide proof of that something that isnt mentioned until you have signed up and provided your email address!!

[CDNinKS]

already posted info....

Edited August 8, 2010 by CDNinKS

[jfchandler]

CDN, yes, you're correct....

They don't ask for that info on the initial registration page. But they did they did ask for either SSN or U.S. credit card info when you go to verify your registration in the link in the registration email they send you....

Their six major U.S. TV networks service is 100% free and a very good deal, IMHO.... But I should have been clearer in my original posts that their service is aimed at U.S. citizens, wherever they may be living....

Edited August 8, 2010 by jfchandler

[2008bangkok]

CDN, when I tried a new registration earlier today (separate from the original one I had done a month or two ago), they did not ask for a SSN or credit card info on the initial registration web page...

bull crap man.. you posted and within 5 minutes i had signed up.. please dont try and tell us that they chnaged in that period of time/..like i said i thank you for your good topic but i think you have a interest in the site or..........

you are just posting random hear say stuff which is no good to anyone

[jfchandler]

Thanks for catching the change in their reg system, from when I originally signed up a month or two ago...

But you're NOT reading what I actually wrote... They DONT now ask for SSN or credit card on the initial web registration page, just password and email address. But as you noted, they DO ask for SSN or U.S. credit card number when you go to confirm your registration, via the email they send you... That's what I said, after signing up for a new account with them today, after reading your post... And that is indeed the correct info.

Nothing I have posted was "hearsay". It was all from direct personal experience... But as I stated earlier, they have indeed changed their registration process since I originally signed up previously. I appreciate you bringing that to everyone's attention.

Their service is aimed at U.S. residents, wherever they may be living... And as I said before, I have absolutely nothing to do with that venture...other than being a nonpaying member.

If you have alternate resources for people in Thailand to watch U.S. TV online, I'm sure everyone here, including me, would be appreciative to hear them.

bull crap man.. you posted and within 5 minutes i had signed up.. please dont try and tell us that they chnaged in that period of time/..like i said i thank you for your good topic but i think you have a interest in the site or..........

you are just posting random hear say stuff which is no good to anyone

[2008bangkok]

Thanks for catching the change in their reg system, from when I originally signed up a month or two ago...

So you signed up a month or 2 ago but you only posted yesterday at 5pm after havering a thread live for 2 weeks.. you could of posted this info at anytime during that time so why did you not?..

if you ask me this whole thread has been about self promotion otherwise why have you not mentioned it in the 2 or 3000 lines you have posted but never mentioned something you knew about 8 weeks ago

im very disappointed i generally thought the OP had TV people interests at heart..

I for 1 would like a apology

Edited August 8, 2010 by 2008bangkok

[jfchandler]

Your comments are ridiculous... All you want to do is continue to argue and throw personal jibes, and I'm not interested in that...

Here was my original review of their PRIOR service....posted back in July.... As anyone reading it can see, I was hardly entirely positive about their offering at that time. But I did say in that original post: "On their web site, they say you need to be either a U.S. citizen or have a U.S. address in order to qualify for an account."

However, that service was discontinued as of middle July. Now, as of the beginning of August, they've launched a new and different service, which is the subject of these latest posts.

USTVNow, in its new form, seems a perfectly good service, and the ability for U.S. citizens living abroad to watch the six major U.S. TV networks online for FREE is a good deal, provided you're willing to give this company a SSN or U.S. credit card info to verify a U.S. billing address...

In my original paid trial with them a month or two ago, when they offered a DIFFERENT service from the new one they have just launched, they handled my credit card transaction just fine. I had paid $5 or so for a three-day trial, and when they canceled their prior service in the midst of my paid trial, they immediately refunded my $5 charge.

The original service did not involve any FREE TV plan, so anyone using the service had to pay via a credit card. Perhaps that's why they didn't have the same verification process back then.

If anyone doesn't like USTV Now, this same TV thread that I launched includes my and other people's reviews of a bunch of other paid and free alternatives... Use whichever one best suits your needs.

Edited August 8, 2010 by jfchandler

[2008bangkok]

Your comments are ridiculous... All you want to do is continue to argue and throw personal jibes, and I'm not interested in that...

USTVNow seems a perfectly good service, and the ability for U.S. citizens living abroad to watch the six major U.S. TV networks online for FREE is a good deal, provided you're willing to give this company a SSN or U.S. credit card info to verify a U.S. billing address...

Please tell us why you didnt put this info in the original post... i generally believe this is the new way for spammers to obtain and harvest email addresses, how can you not know that the website needed a social securit number when you posted this info at 5.30pm saturday.. what are you going to do with our email addresses now you have them? i have had my ermail address for nearly 10 years and have always ben dubious to give it out now we are being conned by fellow TV members into revealing email addresses...

I for one would like an apology and feel that the OP has certainly lost my trust

[2008bangkok]

Your comments are ridiculous... All you want to do is continue to argue and throw personal jibes, and I'm not interested in that...

USTVNow seems a perfectly good service, and the ability for U.S. citizens living abroad to watch the six major U.S. TV networks online for FREE is a good deal, provided you're willing to give this company a SSN or U.S. credit card info to verify a U.S. billing address...

Please tell us why you didnt put this info in the original post... i generally believe this is the new way for spammers to obtain and harvest email addresses, how can you not know that the website needed a social security number when you posted this info at 5.30pm saturday.. what are you going to do with our email addresses now you have them? i have had my email address for nearly 10 years and have always been dubious to give it out now we are being conned by fellow TV members into revealing email addresses...

I for one would like an apology and feel that the OP has certainly lost my trust

[jfchandler]

To answer your question, I already had my member registration with USTVNow from back in July when I signed up for their PRIOR service...and I gave them credit card info at that time to pay for a $5, 3 day trial of their PRIOR service... At that time, perhaps because all their plans were pay then, there was no SSN issue involved.

So when they launched their new service this week that included the new free plan, I didn't have to register again.... just use my original ID and password with them. That's why I was unaware of the new SSN or U.S. credit card verification process... As I've already said, I appreciate you correcting the info about that..of which I had been unaware for the reason I just explained.

I've been registered with them for about a month now, and had absolutely no spam or any other problem with them. And as I mentioned before, after they canceled their prior service amid my 3 day trial, they immediately refunded my $5 credit card charge. They are a reasonably big company in the U.S. providing expat telephone and TV services... I have no reason to think they are anything other than a legitimate business. They've certainly acted that way in my dealings with them.

That said, I wouldn't provide them or any other vendor over the Internet with my SSN number... That's not a good thing to do... But I'd have no problem giving them a credit card number to verify my account and U.S. billing address. I paid them $5 via credit card, and then they refunded my $5 later. And nothing further beyond that.

[TwentyBaht]

jfchandler, thanks for doing the research on this. Watching it right now.

Lordfoul, thanks for the link. Works well.

[2008bangkok]

To answer your question, I already had my member registration with USTVNow from back in July when I signed up for their PRIOR service...and I gave them credit card info at that time to pay for a $5, 3 day trial of their PRIOR service... At that time, perhaps because all their plans were pay then, there was no SSN issue involved.

So when they launched their new service this week that included the new free plan, I didn't have to register again.... just use my original ID and password with them. That's why I was unaware of the new SSN or U.S. credit card verification process... As I've already said, I appreciate you correcting the info about that..of which I had been unaware for the reason I just explained.

I've been registered with them for about a month now, and had absolutely no spam or any other problem with them. And as I mentioned before, after they canceled their prior service amid my 3 day trial, they immediately refunded my $5 credit card charge. They are a reasonably big company in the U.S. providing expat telephone and TV services... I have no reason to think they are anything other than a legitimate business. They've certainly acted that way in my dealings with them.

That said, I wouldn't provide them or any other vendor over the Internet with my SSN number... That's not a good thing to do... But I'd have no problem giving them a credit card number to verify my account and U.S. billing address. I paid them $5 via credit card, and then they refunded my $5 later. And nothing further beyond that.

was this you post at 9.23 ?

Re the post above, you definitely DO NOT need a credit card or SSN to register for and watch the free service (6 major networks).... As I said above, only create a User ID and password.

I think you should take a big thick hard back book entitled 'how to not shoot myself in the foot' into the woods and rethink

Edited August 8, 2010 by 2008bangkok

[jfchandler]

Appreciate that... I'm watching as well...

As I said earlier, I'm going to give their free plan a trial...and see if they're reliable in terms of their streaming content... So far in 2 days of using it, absolutely fine.... If they continue in similar fashion, I'd seriously consider signing up for the $39 a month, 21 channel plan... to get CNN, CNBC, TNT, TBS, ESPN and the other offerings... For the money, much better than anything TrueVisions has to offer...

Also as I said earlier, I'd be hesitant about giving any company my full SSN online... But I'd have no problem giving them a credit card info and billing address to verify you're eligible for an account. As they stated, there's no charge at all for the free plan, but they want to verify you have some connection to the U.S.

jfchandler, thanks for doing the research on this. Watching it right now.

Lordfoul, thanks for the link. Works well.

[2008bangkok]

Appreciate that... I'm watching as well...

As I said earlier, I'm going to give their free plan a trial..

So you havent actually tried the totally free no SS or CC details required package......

its tony tibbs

[jfchandler]

2008, if you want to continue your personal debate with me, I'd be happy to respond to you via PM...

As I said earlier, I'm going to give their free plan a trial...and see if they're reliable in terms of their streaming content... So far in 2 days of using it, absolutely fine....

Edited August 8, 2010 by jfchandler

[2008bangkok]

2008, if you want to continue your personal debate with me, I'd be happy to respond to you via PM...

As I said earlier, I'm going to give their free plan a trial...and see if they're reliable in terms of their streaming content... So far in 2 days of using it, absolutely fine....

ok

[CDNinKS]

Lordfoul......you da man

[jfchandler]

CDN and TwentyBaht, when you've had a chance to test the TV service, please do post here on your impressions, good and/or bad...

[sammycic]

CDN and TwentyBaht, when you've had a chance to test the TV service, please do post here on your impressions, good and/or bad...

With many thanks to lordfoul i have managed to login and would like to give you an impression but at the moment all I have is black box and no video.

will keep trying must be doing something wrong.

[jfchandler]

Sammy, after seeing your post, I logged onto my USTV Now account right now, and all the channels immediately came up just fine... So their site definitely is working....and not down...

For whatever it's worth, they are using Flash video to provide their stream, so you should have the latest version of the Adobe Flash player (version 10.1) installed on your P.C. Flash player is a free download from the Adobe site...

After you complete the registration process, and then go back to their main web page, you do need to sign in again using the user and ID password you've selected.

Other than that, I'm not sure what could be creating the problem for you... I'll also add that to use their service in Thailand or elsewhere, you shouldn't need to use any kind of VPN or proxy service, since their site is not being blocked by the Thai government, and of course is specifically aimed at U.S. expats living abroad.

If you continue to have some problems, you might email the company thru your account with them. They've always been responsive when I've had to contact them for various reasons.

CDN and TwentyBaht, when you've had a chance to test the TV service, please do post here on your impressions, good and/or bad...

With many thanks to lordfoul i have managed to login and would like to give you an impression but at the moment all I have is black box and no video.

will keep trying must be doing something wrong.

Edited August 8, 2010 by jfchandler

[sammycic]

Sammy, after seeing your post, I logged onto my USTV Now account right now, and all the channels immediately came up just fine... So their site definitely is working....and not down...

For whatever it's worth, they are using Flash video to provide their stream, so you should have the latest version of the Adobe Flash player (version 10.1) installed on your P.C. Flash player is a free download from the Adobe site...

After you complete the registration process, and then go back to their main web page, you do need to sign in again using the user and ID password you've selected.

Other than that, I'm not sure what could be creating the problem for you... I'll also add that to use their service in Thailand or elsewhere, you shouldn't need to use any kind of VPN or proxy service, since their site is not being blocked by the Thai government, and of course is specifically aimed at U.S. expats living abroad.

If you continue to have some problems, you might email the company thru your account with them. They've always been responsive when I've had to contact them for various reasons.

CDN and TwentyBaht, when you've had a chance to test the TV service, please do post here on your impressions, good and/or bad...

With many thanks to lordfoul i have managed to login and would like to give you an impression but at the moment all I have is black box and no video.

will keep trying must be doing something wrong.

Done all the above will try again in the morning as my connection seems a bit slow this afternoon. Thanks for the help.

[CDNinKS]

Actually I'm in Norway at the moment and it seems to be working just fine.....watching "Good Morning America"

BTW, I use a Mac, no problems.....

Edited August 8, 2010 by CDNinKS

[jfchandler]

Glad to hear it's working out...even on a Mac! Appreciate hearing the feedback...

Actually I'm in Norway at the moment and it seems to be working just fine.....watching "Good Morning America"

BTW, I use a Mac, no problems.....

[CDNinKS]

and I should say, thanks JF for putting this out there.....nice to watch some (free) streaming TV.

[cdnvic]

Please keep the fighting off the forum. Discussion of evading copyright restrictions via ip masking removed.