Borg Collective...good afternoon.

I did some research here on SF in making a decision to go with a VPN when traveling out of the country. I eventually went with a 3-year subscription with PIA (Private Internet Access) because of their good customer ratings and the good reviews from many on SF who also use their product.

What I absolutely FAILED to research, however, is their usability in streaming sports, mainly hockey games, whether in the domestic U.S. or abroad anywhere in the world. This is the PRIMARY reason I was looking for a VPN in the first place...to stream hockey games. To that end, IS there a VPN service that allows streaming of sports events with their product?? I've read the reviews on several of the more popular VPN providers, but have yet to discover one that allows the streaming of games via their product.

Any assistance/advice is appreciated. TIA!!!

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PIA (Private Internet Access)

I would guess that PIA isn't blocking your access to sporting events, but the broadcasting company is doing it based on your VPN's reported location when you access content.

If you are in China and trying to get Hockey games from the USA the US network won't let the broadcast through due to issues with rights and Chinese law. So you need to go into your VPN settings and tell it to report that you are in the USA, even though you are sitting in an airport hotel in Guangzoo.

Then the broadcaster will see your ip address as a USA address and you should be able to see the event...

Same if you are tying to watch curling in Austria, you may have to switch your location to the EU to see it. Neighbors son was playing pro ball over in the EU, Spain, Russia, et al prior to the current unpleasantness, this is how he could watch NBA games from his room in Lithuania

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Originally posted by HRK:
I would guess that PIA isn't blocking your access to sporting events, but the broadcasting company is doing it based on your VPN's reported location when you access content.

Negative, sir. The sporting event is getting blocked directly from PIA's network, i.e., they will not broadcast ANY sporting events. It might be a "broadcasting rights" issue??? IDK. I can't find the e-mail, but was told exactly that via that e-mail conversation.

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Originally posted by erj_pilot:

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Originally posted by HRK:
I would guess that PIA isn't blocking your access to sporting events, but the broadcasting company is doing it based on your VPN's reported location when you access content.

Negative, sir. The sporting event is getting blocked directly from PIA's network, i.e., they will not broadcast ANY sporting events. It might be a "broadcasting rights" issue??? IDK. I can't find the e-mail, but was told exactly that via that e-mail conversation.

If that is the case, and I'd wonder how they know what you are watching is a sports broadcast, then a different VPN maybe, one that isn't USA based might work.

I used NordVPN and the issue I had was companies like AMAZON blocking use of a vpn not reporting a valid location since their software uses it for delivery information...

ProtonVPN has a free service, might be worth trying to see if it works although it has limits, the full paid might work.

https://protonvpn.com/free-vpn

How to watch ESPN using ProtonVPN

https://protonvpn.com/support/...h-espnplus-with-vpn/

I'm a ProtonVPN user, and the only hitch I've run into is that some content providers have Proton's server addresses in their blocklist. Of course, these folks will do the same for all VPN provider's servers. Same same for an AWS vhost on which I have set up my own VPN server. If your purported IP address originates from any cloud hosting provider, expect it to be blocked. I am pretty sure that most high-end commercial firewalls have subscribable real-time blocklists to facilitate this so the content providers need not bother with any pesky data collection or ACL maintenance. Welcome to the Internet in the 21st Century!

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the only hitch I've run into is that some content providers have Proton's server addresses in their blocklist

I use PIA while at work, and Amazon Prime Video now does the same thing. “It looks like you’re on a VPN…”

I don't know if this off topic or not but I use Mullvad VPN and I was just able to log into Amazon and Netflix from Seattle and Malmo Sweden. I'm in Missouri.

Thanks for the responses, y'all.

Does your home router support OpenVPN? It's a bit involved to setup, but then you look like you are at home no matter where you are because all traffic will go through your ISP.
You are your own VPN provider & it's free. You could also add this on to PIA & turn it on when you want to stream out-of-the-country. But if PIA is really blocking access, they are spying on you & negating the point of a VPN.

Are you sure you are connecting to a US-based PIA server? I haven't used PIA, but I always thought they were one of the 'There are no logs, we have no idea what the user is accessing' outfits. Either that changed, or you are not using it correctly.

FWIW, every website thinks I'm in St Louis or Kansas City via Nord, I have only had a few issues with websites (Lowes.com is the worst).