I Beat Netflix’s Password Sharing Crackdown

[James]

With Netflix starting to crack down on Password Sharing, we uncover an easy way to keep watching without paying more.

 

https://tailscale.com/
https://www.softether.org/
https://github.com/micahmo/WgServerforWindows

 

 

 

[tg890tg]

Wow cool

 

[BaidDSB]

unlisted on YT?

[Levent]

Just another VPN tutorial with a different title eh.

[Llama123]

Why is it unlisted?

[Needfuldoer]

1 minute ago, Levent said:

Just another VPN tutorial with a different title eh.

Given the number of "how do I open my home server to the Internet so I can connect to it when I'm not home" threads we get in the Networking and Server/NAS boards, we need all the personal VPN tutorials we can get!

[ToboRobot]

Ahoy Matey, with OSS of course you can get all sorts of Rs

Sonarr, Radarr, Kudarr, Readarr, Prowlarr

[Lurick]

12 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Given the number of "how do I open my home server to the Internet so I can connect to it when I'm not home" threads we get in the Networking and Server/NAS boards, we need all the personal VPN tutorials we can get!

Especially easy to use solutions like Tailscale!

[genesRus]

Does anyone have recommendations for a Pi device I should get for this? I'll be home at my parent's in a few months maybe and this seems like it would be great for maybe also maybe letting me watch that one sports game a year on their cable that my Dad really wants me to watch with him, but I can't access because I'm not on the cable provider's wifi. 

[Lurick]

Of course this method only works for now until Netflix decides to do like YouTube TV (although they allow sharing to an extent) and others and have you authenticate your location by a combination of IP, scanning nearby wifi networks, and GPS by having you use a phone to authenticate the session with.

[swimtome]

Was worth noting that Tailscale is built on Wireguard.

But I'm shocked Linus didn't mention that WIreguard is built into Unraid considering how often they mention it...

[silentdragon95]

I still very much wonder how exactly they're going to determine any of this "primary location" nonsense. Technically the TOS say that you have to live in the same household, not be in it at the time of watching Netflix. And since you can't feasibly bring, say, your work PC or the TV at your holiday home with you, well, it's not like they can force you to log in at home on every device.

 

Besides, IP addresses of home connections often change, so all they can really do is check if the IP is in the same general geographic area (unless you happen to access Netflix from two IPs at the same time). Except of course if you use two internet connections with load balancing like I do, in which case technically I could connect from two IPs at the same time while being in the same household, but, well, I doubt they thought of that and that's probably on me.

 

Still, I am very much still curious how any of this will actually play out, since I do share my Netflix account with my in-laws. I would just pay for my own, but Netflix still locks 4K behind the most expensive subscription with 5 members, so I'm sure as hell not going to do that.

[RacingSlow]

The best option is to stop paying all together until they realize that people use Netflix because its convenient, Content is shared over multiple services now making it more expensive than ever too.

 

Plenty of tools to get the content you want for free, a plex server with sonarr that automatically downloads any episodes when they come out for free is sounding more and more enticing...

[amanger_guy]

They should have included something about tailscale subnet routers to give a solution for chromecast (or TVs which cannot install a tailscale agent) since that's probably how most people are using netflix in their homes.

 

But it's a bit more advanced setup, so who knows

[nekollx]

tail scale looks like it has oter potential. how robust is the routing like could you use your host pc to serve as a anti virus node scanning anything you download ona remote device since it has to go though the host basically leting your host act as a security hub? Imagine setting up a remote hub for your less tech savy family so they dont download totallynotavirus.exe

[Bitter]

Isn't this piracy like blocking ads?

[terroralpha]

anyone try to run this in a docker container? i do not want to keep my computer on 24/7. but i do have an unraid box. 

[swimtome]

1 hour ago, terroralpha said:

anyone try to run this in a docker container? i do not want to keep my computer on 24/7. but i do have an unraid box. 

As I mentioned above, if it’s just for you, you can use Unraid’s built in Wireguard VPN. 
 

Tailscale is built on top of Wireguard. 

[Thaldor]

I would recommend just to stop paying and get your entertainment elsewhere.

 

Going around the blocking in the long run is just cat and mouse play while the costs keep rising and the content keeps getting worse. Every penny going to developing countermeasures will be taken from the pile of money coming from the users.

 

The best thing to do, just walk away. Show them the middle finger and take your money elsewhere. If there's a service that fits your needs and does things right, take your money there and hope they don't turn evil, and if they do, just walk away.

 

Also, you are already going against their TOS by bypassing the IP location thingy, why not to go all the way with the same effort and just, you know? If you're going to walk the plank anyway, why not do something really worth it?

[Biohazard777]

14 hours ago, genesRus said:

Does anyone have recommendations for a Pi device I should get for this? I'll be home at my parent's in a few months maybe and this seems like it would be great for maybe also maybe letting me watch that one sports game a year on their cable that my Dad really wants me to watch with him, but I can't access because I'm not on the cable provider's wifi. 

You don't need much processing power or RAM for WireGuard, also it doesn't have to be Raspberry (it can be cheaper alternatives, like Orange Pi, Banana Pi etc.).
I do recommend getting an SBC with Ethernet though, WiFi on these SBCs can be flakey.

Anyhow here is one of mine, Orange Pi Zero running WireGuard on Armbian OS.

It fully saturates the ISP it is hooked up to (sh!ty cable provider with only 60 Mb/s upload, though it is enough - streaming usually takes up ~15 Mb/s per client) and it is barely putting any load on the SBC.

That being said I bought my OPi Zeroes for 10$ back in the day, they are now 25$...  It is 100 Mb/s ethernet, you can find SBCs with 1 Gb/s nowadays, which might be a good idea if the ISP at your parent's house offers more than 100 Mb/s upload. Also, OPi Zero is meant to be used as a headless device (no video output / GUI, just ssh and terminal) and since you are just starting out you might want something with HDMI output and running a Linux distro with a desktop environment (and a bit more RAM because of the DE).
Depending on your budget:
- 40$ : Orange Pi 3 LTS. HDMI output, Gigabit Ethernet, 2GB of RAM and it has 8GB of EMMC (enough for OS, eliminating the need for a good SD card).

- 100$: Orange Pi 5 (8GB of DDR4 version). Which is IMHO a total overkill for something like this, but hey if you want something even faster than Raspberry Pi 4B but want to pay the same or less (RPi 4B is out of stock and heavily scalped) then go for it. it doesn't have EMMC but it has an M.2 nvme slot, which is a fair bit more reliable than SD cards. There is also OPi 5B 8GB variant with 64GB of EMMC for 125$... but IMO if you are paying this much you might as well get an nvme and skip EMMC.

(prices from the official store of Shenzhen Xunlong Software on AliExpress , with shipping to my where I live. You can also find them on Amazon)

A few notes:
1) Make sure your power supply is adequate. Either buy the bundle (SBC + power adapter) or check how many amps it needs and use an appropriate power adapter (same or better yet - greater amp value), preferably from a reputable manufacturer (not a no-name 2$ phone charger).
Crappy power adapters can cause system hangs, reboots, and all kinds of weirdness. You don't want to troubleshoot that if the SBC needs to be online 24/7 at a remote location.
2) If you will be running the OS from an SD card then buy a "high endurance" one (typically used for IP and dash cams), pick at least UHS 1 speed (guaranteed 10 MB/s sequential writes), or better yet UHS 3 (30 MB/s seq). 32GB is plenty of capacity.
Crappy SD cards can die quickly, not uncommon for them to fail in less than a year. High endurance ones from known brands (like SanDisk or Kingston etc.) easily last 2+ years.
It would be wise to clone the SD card to your PC once you've got everything setup. In case of a failure you can just burn that image to a new card and mail your parents the replacement.

3)  You don't need a fan or an enclosure to cool the SBC, passive cooling for what you are doing is fine, so do get some heatsinks at least (2-3$).

 

PS my reply is growing a tad bit too big for this thread. If you need help setting it up start a new thread on the forums. I'll just add that with WireGuard you will most probably need to set up DDNS (because I doubt your parents have a static public IP, just how ISPs usually work), on your router you'll need to reserve a local IP for your SBC, and forward a port to the SBC.

 

[grss1982]

I've always called it the the three dots menu. Blew my mind that it's called the meatballs menu. The heck?

[Commaster]

I wonder why ZeroTier wasn't mentioned, especially since it was (possibly) first to the party of "magical local networks". Maybe due to the admin console looking more techy?

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, grss1982 said:

I've always called it the the three dots menu. Blew my mind that it's called the meatballs menu. The heck?

If you think that's cool the three lines menu icon like what this forum uses (mobile mode) is called a hamburger menu.

[dogwitch]

11 minutes ago, Spotty said:

If you think that's cool the three lines menu icon like what this forum uses (mobile mode) is called a hamburger menu.

whoa their buddy...

Respect the hamburger!!!!

[Naijin]

I'm cancelling subscription once that launches in Belgium.

Me and my sister both use Netflix on 1 account from different addresses. I also sometimes watch Netflix on my PC at work during lunch, which never connects to my home network (VPN is not allowed at work and have no admin rights to install anything). I already have a VPN setup on my firewall but that's mainly for NAS purposes when I'm abroad.

 

Everything is subscription based these days and I also have Amazon Prime for 2.99 EUR (for now).