VPN and Dolphins games

[Pappy13]

Does anyone use a VPN to watch the Dolphins games? I think most of you live in the Florida area so I'm assuming you don't have to worry about things like this, but I've been looking for a way to watch the Dolphins games live without having to pay for NFL Sunday ticket and thought the solution would be to get a VPN, but after 1 day of frustration, I'm not sure this is really a good solution.

Here's what I did. I bought a 2 year subscription to NordVPN. I had seen it advertised in a few places and someone from work also mentioned it so I figured it was as good as any. 2 years because that's the package you get, they didn't have any type of month to month thing or I would have gone that route to try it out. I probably should be using a VPN anyway for gaming and such so even if I can't really watch the Dolphin games using this, it's still probably a wise investment. I'm not too worried about my data really, but I probably should be and maybe this will give me a reason to actually learn how all this stuff works.

Here's the problem. I thought that I would just be able to get the VPN and set it to Miami and then watch the games on my PC, phone or tablet via NFL Game Pass but when I go to the game pass website it won't show me any of the games are available to watch. It's like they don't know where I'm located now so they won't show me any games. If I disable the VPN then it shows me the games, but then I won't be able to watch the Dolphin games because they wouldn't be local.

So I had another idea and thought what if I set my VPN to Canada and tried to use NFL Game Pass, but when I did that it wouldn't even let me go to the Game Pass website, it rerouted me to some company from Canada and wanted me to sign up for that to get NFL games. Didn't expect that.

I found out that I could actually tune into some local Miami stations via Youtube, but not sure that's an ideal option as I'm not really even sure if any of these channels will broadcast the Dolphin games.

Here's something else that vexes me. I have Spectrum as my cable provider, but it seems like they know that I live in the Dallas area so if I log into Spectrum to try to watch local programming even if I'm using the VPN, it gives me the Dallas area channels. Anyway I can fool Spectrum into thinking I live in Florida? Can I just put in a change of address with them? I kinda think not as I also have some equipment from them and they'd probably ask for that back if I said I moved to Florida. I'm not even sure if you can get Spectrum in the Florida area. I'm thinking I'll just leave this alone for the time being. I could perhaps try to change this but my Internet is through Spectrum as well and I really don't want to have to change my internet provider for this.

I thought maybe I could go to CBS or FOX sports or whatever, but they want me to put in my cable provider and then we are back to the above problem.

Edit: Oh something else I thought about. This NordVPN runs on my PC or mobile devices, but what if I want to get the games on my smart TV? It runs off the wifi. Is there a NordVPN app that I can run on the TV? A way to make the router use the VPN?

Needless to say this doesn't seem to be as simple as I thought it might be and probably just need some good advice on how to use this VPN. Anyone have any good advice? I'd prefer that someone actually already does this and have it all figured out and can tell me how they do it, but if someone is really knowledgeable even if they don't do it themselves, I'm always willing to listen.

[Pappy13]

Well after a LOT of fiddling with NFL Gamepass, I finally was able to get it to work using the VPN, so maybe this will work. Just seems like it really does NOT like that I'm using a VPN. I had to actually turn off the VPN, go to gamepass and pull up the game first without the VPN enabled and then enable the VPN. But I'm not sure if that's going to work on Sunday's. It will work with pre-season for sure as I can get the pre-season games live, but not the regular season games. I *should* be able to get the regular season games live if they are local which I'm assuming the VPN will do for me. Just seems like they are trying VERY hard to not let me use a VPN. Maybe it's just settings or something.

[Pappy13]

Well here's something new. I can't post to this website with the VPN on. I have to completely exit out of the NordVPN application to make updates to this website. If the application is up, even if I'm disconnected from the VPN, I get an error when I try to post an update. I can view the website, but if I try to post, error.

I use a VPN for my work as well and I found out the same thing for that, it won't work if the NordVPN application is even up, I have to completely exit out of the application for that VPN to work.

I'm actually really disappointed in this service so far. I thought it would be really easy to setup and use. It was pretty easy to setup but it's been a nightmare to use. Having all kinds of issues with various websites, various applications, etc. I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna try to get my money back if I can't get the Dolphins games. It's not worth the hastle. This is why I kinda had been putting off getting a VPN. They make it sound so easy. It's not. I'm fairly tech savvy and I hate this. Can't imagine anyone without a ton of PC knowledge getting this to work right.

[Phishfan]

Just getting a VPN doesn't just give you access to stream anything. That just deals with identifying your location,  IP address,  etc. You still need to get a  service to provide the stream.

[Dave Gray]

Just getting a VPN doesn't just give you access to stream anything. That just deals with identifying your location,  IP address,  etc. You still need to get a  service to provide the stream.

As I understand it, he has the service.  He just needs to trick the service into thinking he's local to South Florida, so that he gets that services' in-market games.

[Fau Teixeira]

i use youtubeTV

the way youtubeTV decides what local stations you see is by logging in using your phone and the GPS location provides that information

When you're "travelling" youtube TV changes your local stations

You can get GPS spoofing apps for your phone.

When the dolphins are playing i happen to be travelling to brian's house for a few hours.

[fyo]

Well here's something new. I can't post to this website with the VPN on. I have to completely exit out of the NordVPN application to make updates to this website. If the application is up, even if I'm disconnected from the VPN, I get an error when I try to post an update. I can view the website, but if I try to post, error.

I use a VPN for my work as well and I found out the same thing for that, it won't work if the NordVPN application is even up, I have to completely exit out of the application for that VPN to work.

I'm actually really disappointed in this service so far. I thought it would be really easy to setup and use. It was pretty easy to setup but it's been a nightmare to use. Having all kinds of issues with various websites, various applications, etc. I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna try to get my money back if I can't get the Dolphins games. It's not worth the hastle. This is why I kinda had been putting off getting a VPN. They make it sound so easy. It's not. I'm fairly tech savvy and I hate this. Can't imagine anyone without a ton of PC knowledge getting this to work right.

I've used a personal VPN for quite a few years now (as well as a work VPN for accessing work servers from home).

When you use a VPN, what happens is basically just that your network data is sent to the VPN server and from there to the actual destination. The destination server then sends replies to the VPN server, which then sends that data back to you. Any transmissions between you and the VPN server are encrypted, but that's kind of beside the point in the context of streaming.

Your streaming service provider has a couple of different ways of identifying your location, the most common of which is your IP address. VPN's can circumvent this by having the server physically located in the desired location and since the VPN server IP address is the one the streaming service will see, that works in the simlpest cases.

However, a lot of services (including even just a simple google search) will blacklist/graylist IP addresses that they have determined to be behaving "oddly". Since most VPNs have only a very limited number of IP addresses for a given location, it's pretty easy for services to see that something is off with that IP and they might block you (common for streaming) or require a captcha (google).

There are quite a few ways that services try to crack down on VPN use, but unless they are mobile-only (and require GPS permissions) or subscriber-centric (like requiring your account details with your ISP - or direct access through whitelisted IPs by that ISP), the biggest hurdle is that the IP address of the VPN server is "blacklisted" and use a custom player that has permissions that can detect a locally running VPN client.

It seems like NFL is doing the latter (and probably IP blocking as well), but shutting down the VPN when the check occurs is allowing you to get around that. It seems like that should work for regular NFL games just as well as preseason games, since they are unlikely to use a different method. They might get around to "enhancing" their protections, of course, but that's always the case.

There's a post on reddit that seems to detail the process you are using: https://www.reddit.com/r/vpnnetwork/comments/13ein1y/how_to_watch_outofmarket_nfl_games_from_anywhere/

(except recommending buying an international game pass)

The easiest solution is the one you actually request in your first post: Running your VPN client on your router. I'm not familiar with NordVPN, but it's supposed to be the best (unlike mine, which has mediocre reviews, but it works for me and I haven't felt the need to change) and there's a huge community around it and they appear to have great support. There's an article on their site describing how to do this: https://nordvpn.com/blog/setup-vpn-router/

Personally, I've relegated my "cable-modem+router+wifi" device to just being a modem and purchased a better router and a full wifi setup. That router will work with my VPN provider just fine (although it's a bit more than just running an app on it) and NordVPN should work as well from what I've read. What your router can do, I don't know.

Finally, I just thought I would mention (again) that NordVPN is supposed to have really great customer service and they know what people are using their products for. Heck, they are directly advertising their product as a way to circumvent geoblocking. So why not try asking them if you have a specific question? That is, if you cannot find the answer in the community (after all, geoblocking is one of the main things people are using VPNs for).

[AQNOR]

Who is your phone carrier?   If it's not Verizon, you may want to consider switching to them.  They allow you to watch NFL games live on your mobile device.  All you have to do is mirror screen it onto your TV.

[fyo]

^ Just as an addendum... that error you are getting when your VPN app is running but disconnected... the app might have a "killswitch" enabled which blocks all network data that isn't going to the VPN (often with an option to allow local network data). This can be a nice safety feature if you are worried about leaking your IP address should your VPN connection die.

One final note... if you determine that the problem is in fact IP blocking, most VPN providers (including NordVPN) will sell you a dedicated IP address. That *should* get you around the issue of your address being in a blocklist.

[Pappy13]

Thanks all for the responses. I'm going to check out that link FYO gave, that seems the most promising.

I did disable the kill switch in NordVPN, so I don't think that's the issue. Also it allows me to get to site, but I just can't do certain things for instance I can't update on this site with the NordVPN app running, but I can view the website just fine so it's obviously not disabling all internet traffic. This is a pretty minor issue though as I can just close the app, it's just annoying that I have to do that and can't just disconnect from the VPN.

[Pappy13]

Just getting a VPN doesn't just give you access to stream anything. That just deals with identifying your location,  IP address,  etc. You still need to get a  service to provide the stream.

Agreed, but a lot of these are free streams as long as you are local and that's what the VPN should provide me. So the trick is finding a free stream in the Miami area that is providing the game. I could use a pay stream as well as long as it's fairly cheap. It's around $72 a month to get NFL Sunday Ticket so unless the VPN and service is less than that it's not worth it. Fortunately the VPN is only like $4 a month so I could pay a little for a good streaming service and still be much cheaper than NFL Sunday ticket. That's what I shooting for here.

[Pappy13]

i use youtubeTV

the way youtubeTV decides what local stations you see is by logging in using your phone and the GPS location provides that information

When you're "travelling" youtube TV changes your local stations

You can get GPS spoofing apps for your phone.

When the dolphins are playing i happen to be travelling to brian's house for a few hours.

NordVPN has an app that will run on my phone and I'm pretty sure that I can watch the Dolphins games on my phone using the app, but I'd rather get it on my PC which has a nice big screen..

[pondwater]

S4U has been really good for several years. Don't remember exactly what it cost, something like $40-50. But you have to pay with bitcoin or other crypto.

[Pappy13]

Ok, I found out that NordVPN also has a browser extension that seems to work better than using the app. For instance I can post on this website using the web browser extension even when I'm connected to a VPN which I couldn't do when using the app even if I was disconnected. Don't ask me why. I can also connect to my work VPN while using the web browser extension, I couldn't do that with the app either. I can also get to NFL Game Pass and seems to work fine this way although I'm not sure if that's because I'm using the web browser extension or because I'm using the Location Guard browser extension as well now. Anyway using the Location Guard browser extension along with the NordVPN browser extension seems to have resolved all of my browser issues anyway.

[Brian Fein]

When the dolphins are playing i happen to be travelling to brian's house for a few hours.

Who invited you?