Help me with Netflix ?

[Gentleman.Jack.Darby]

4 hours ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

My home modem does not allow for VPN access so I use my phone and Chromecast it to the TV. That does need a Chromecast dongle on the TV, though. 

A modem, such as a cable modem or DSL modem aren't designed to do 'network things', such as a VPN; their function is to give one a connection to the ISP (Internet Service Provider) and from there to the internet or the ISP's programming, e.g., if one's ISP is also a content provider, such as a cable company.

That being said, some ISP provide a box that has both the modem and a very basic wired/wireless router together; those are desirable from the ISP's point of view for two major reasons - the ISP can charge the customer more for the monthly rental of the box and the ISP can 'lock down' the router sdie of the box to  control exactly what the customer, network-wise, can do with the wired/wireless router part of the box.

The only thing one really needs from the ISP is the modem - it's always better to buy one's own router for connecting multiple wired or wireless devices.

By buying one's own router, one can get a router that performs well, for example, wireless over longer distances, connecting multiple wired devices, ensuring that one's network security is maximized, and configuring things like a VPN or prioritizing internet traffic, such as preferring dad's Netflix viewing over the kid's online gaming in the evening.

If one wishes to set a VPN connection at the router level rather than for each individual device, such as a computer or cellphone, the best place to start looking is at routers from Asus; Asus has been around forever and makes great consumer-level routers and most of their mid- and high-level consumer routers have VPN capability baked in.

[Gentleman.Jack.Darby]

15 hours ago, Gratefuled said:

Yes, I do not know anyone who has Netflix here in the Philippines.; I assume it is legal. I just do not like to use a credit card online here. Is it safe? 

I also heard that there are other web sights that offer movies online. Any suggestions?  I have heard of some but I do not know anyone who has access to any or how to download and if it is legal. 

Some websights are suggesting  VPN for privacy protection but I already have anti virus and protection. Never had any problems. So,why would I need VPN and pay a monthly fee for it?

Thank You and will consider any help.

Watching U.S. Netflix outside the U.S. is not legal, strictly speaking, since the content owners may have licensed their content to U.S. Netflix for viewing only by folks in the U.S.

Using a credit card online at a reputable company, such as Netflix, doesn't have any significant risk when setting up or updating an account since the the internet connection between one's computer and Netflix will be an encrypted connection - not even one's ISP (Internet Service Provider) will be able to 'see' what is happening on the connection.

The major risk to one's credit card comes from two places - Netflix's storage of one's card details within their computing infrastructure and any security vulnerabilities on one's computer, such as a virus or keylogger or an out-of-date operating system or web browser.

A VPN's function is to provide a secure and encrypted connection between one's computer and the VPN service's servers and to a lesser extent, IF PROPERLY CONFIGURED, the ability to disguise the physical location of one's computer which is helpful, for example, when watching U.S. Netflix outside the U.S., or accessing one's U.S. bank, etc.

When using a VPN, the places one 'goes' on the internet, such as Netflix or the New York Times, for example, 'see' only the VPN service's IP address, physical server location, and server details, not one's own. That's only part of the privacy puzzle, but a big part.

If you do choose to use a VPN service, use one for which you pay - stay away from the free ones that show up on a Google search. Your VPN service, since it acts as a 'proxy' for you by fetching all your web content, knows everywhere you go - the VPN service won't be able to 'see' the content between your computer and your destination since most sites nowadays use secure connections (https;//).

A VPN service is also helpful because there are still some sites out there that don't use secure connections (https://), so a VPN helps by encrypting an unsecure connection and hiding that traffic from, for example, snooping ISPs.

A VPN and anti-virus software are two different things designed to protect against two different threats - a VPN is designed to help protect one's privacy and anti-virus software is designed to protect against malicious software by, in the best case, preventing it from reaching and being installed on one's computer or, in the worst case, removing it from one's computer.

As far as alternatives to Netflix, I'd recommend looking at Vudu - it's WalMart's movie streaming service that competes with Netflix.

Vudu does a lot of neat things - one can convert some DVDs one already owns (or borrows) to digital copies for a nominal fee, one can buy digital movies, often at huge discounts (there's always some kind of sale going on), one can download movies one owns to a computer for viewing where there's no internet connection (international flight), and Vudu has movies, often in HD (HDX) that have never been released on DVD (Pursuit of D.B. Cooper) and movies that even Amazon doesn't offer in HD (Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine)

Vudu also has a large number of movies that one can watch for free with minimal ads - the ads are, as much as ads can be, 'nice' because they're ads from 'pleasant' national advertisers such as Target. Sling, etc. Nothing ruins watching an episode of 'Gilligan's Island' or 'I Dream of Jeannie' on local broadcast TV quicker than ads for adult diapers or a local nursing home or the ASPCA - those ads make me feel really old and harsh my mellow.

Vudu changes the free movies frequently and there is usually quite a few very good movies for any taste there; they're usually just few years old, but occasionally there are 'classics' and 'just released' films

 

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, Gratefuled said:

How do you watch a movie that you choose from Netflix? 

The Netflix content resides on a server somewhere.  When you choose something, it is actually playing remotely on that server and streaming a view of it to you as you need it.  You do not download the file.  Netflix is not a download service.  

[Gentleman.Jack.Darby]

13 hours ago, Gratefuled said:

I get books from Amazon. I wonder if movies are available to download to my computer then to flashdrive.

The only movies one can download, at least without going to the trouble of using screen capture software, are movies to which one has licensed ('bought' and 'owns') viewing rights  (one never really 'owns' , in the conventional sense of owning a paper book, phonograph record or music CD, or movie DVD or Blu-Ray disc any digital content - and that goes, in very large and nasty measure, to Kindle books as well).

Services such as Vudu, Amazon, Google Play (movies) and Spotify (music) will allow one to download copies of movies and music one 'owns' (has paid for viewing rights) for viewing on devices like computers, but there are some aggravating hoops to jump through, such as using somewhat 'locked down' devices (Amazon) or connecting the device periodically to the service (Vudu and Spotify).

Netflix is strictly a streaming service.

[Old55]

2 hours ago, Gentleman.Jack.Darby said:

Watching U.S. Netflix outside the U.S. is not legal, strictly speaking, since the content owners may have licensed their content to U.S. Netflix for viewing only by folks in the U.S.

Using a credit card online at a reputable company, such as Netflix, doesn't have any significant risk when setting up or updating an account since the the internet connection between one's computer and Netflix will be an encrypted connection - not even one's ISP (Internet Service Provider) will be able to 'see' what is happening on the connection.

The major risk to one's credit card comes from two places - Netflix's storage of one's card details within their computing infrastructure and any security vulnerabilities on one's computer, such as a virus or keylogger or an out-of-date operating system or web browser.

A VPN's function is to provide a secure and encrypted connection between one's computer and the VPN service's servers and to a lesser extent, IF PROPERLY CONFIGURED, the ability to disguise the physical location of one's computer which is helpful, for example, when watching U.S. Netflix outside the U.S., or accessing one's U.S. bank, etc.

When using a VPN, the places one 'goes' on the internet, such as Netflix or the New York Times, for example, 'see' only the VPN service's IP address, physical server location, and server details, not one's own. That's only part of the privacy puzzle, but a big part.

If you do choose to use a VPN service, use one for which you pay - stay away from the free ones that show up on a Google search. Your VPN service, since it acts as a 'proxy' for you by fetching all your web content, knows everywhere you go - the VPN service won't be able to 'see' the content between your computer and your destination since most sites nowadays use secure connections (https;//).

A VPN service is also helpful because there are still some sites out there that don't use secure connections (https://), so a VPN helps by encrypting an unsecure connection and hiding that traffic from, for example, snooping ISPs.

A VPN and anti-virus software are two different things designed to protect against two different threats - a VPN is designed to help protect one's privacy and anti-virus software is designed to protect against malicious software by, in the best case, preventing it from reaching and being installed on one's computer or, in the worst case, removing it from one's computer.

As far as alternatives to Netflix, I'd recommend looking at Vudu - it's WalMart's movie streaming service that competes with Netflix.

Vudu does a lot of neat things - one can convert some DVDs one already owns (or borrows) to digital copies for a nominal fee, one can buy digital movies, often at huge discounts (there's always some kind of sale going on), one can download movies one owns to a computer for viewing where there's no internet connection (international flight), and Vudu has movies, often in HD (HDX) that have never been released on DVD (Pursuit of D.B. Cooper) and movies that even Amazon doesn't offer in HD (Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine)

Vudu also has a large number of movies that one can watch for free with minimal ads - the ads are, as much as ads can be, 'nice' because they're ads from 'pleasant' national advertisers such as Target. Sling, etc. Nothing ruins watching an episode of 'Gilligan's Island' or 'I Dream of Jeannie' on local broadcast TV quicker than ads for adult diapers or a local nursing home or the ASPCA - those ads make me feel really old and harsh my mellow.

Vudu changes the free movies frequently and there is usually quite a few very good movies for any taste there; they're usually just few years old, but occasionally there are 'classics' and 'just released' films

 

Thank you for taking the time to clearly explain how VPN works.

 

[Jake]

Thank you everyone, especially Gentleman Jack for informing us about VPN, modems, routers, downloading vs streaming.  Regarding the modem/router, I thought all along that these days, that both functions are housed in one package?  I guess one needs to be careful when buying your own device(s) that it is compatible with the ISP service.  And if you bought your own, does the ISP still come out and  charge you for problems in devices not in their inventory?  

Does your ISP impose a data cap?  For example here in Las Vegas, we initially had COX internet service with a whopping 1 terabyte data cap with $10 more for an extra 50 gigs, if you go over the 1 terabyte limit (that's one thousand gigabytes).  I figured that was more than enough with multiple devices in my household.  But we exceeded the upper limit with only a few more days before it resets back to zero.  I soon found out that YouTube has an "autoplay" and will continue to stream unless you disable it.  I don't know about NetFlix or other services.  You may want to check out their settings.  

Happy binge watching.......
 

 

Edited January 9, 2019 by Jake

[Gratefuled]

Thanks to Gentleman Jack and others who have helped with this concern of mine. 

It looks like I'm stuck here. Nothing worth watching on tv anymore. CNN has commercial breaks every 10 minutes and they are the same ones over and over. 

I'm not fond of basketball. So, that leaves PGA, LPGA and tennis. I still have my music and Expat community here. 

It's a good thing that I have a loving wife to play with. 

[Rayj]

I posted back awhile back about bringing with me DVDs and player for my 2 week vacation. Today at the GoodWill, I scored The set of Indiana Jones , the 3 original Star Wars, a 4 disc PBS Planet Earth special and the 10 disc Ken Burns series The Vietnam War all for $16. That and the Clint Eastwood 5 movie western set will keep me and anyone else around happy for the entire length of my stay. Just FYI as the subject of movie watching came up.

[earthdome]

18 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Amazon Video also has a lot of content blocked here.  U.S. Copyright laws I assume.  I have to use VPN on my laptop in order for my kids to watch Dino Dana!  I was going to try to set up VPN for the TV but have not tried yet.

There are home wifi routers which can be configured with a VPN, but in that case all the traffic using that for wifi will use the VPN.

[earthdome]

5 hours ago, Jake said:

Thank you everyone, especially Gentleman Jack for informing us about VPN, modems, routers, downloading vs streaming.  Regarding the modem/router, I thought all along that these days, that both functions are housed in one package?  I guess one needs to be careful when buying your own device(s) that it is compatible with the ISP service.  And if you bought your own, does the ISP still come out and  charge you for problems in devices not in their inventory?  

Does your ISP impose a data cap?  For example here in Las Vegas, we initially had COX internet service with a whopping 1 terabyte data cap with $10 more for an extra 50 gigs, if you go over the 1 terabyte limit (that's one thousand gigabytes).  I figured that was more than enough with multiple devices in my household.  But we exceeded the upper limit with only a few more days before it resets back to zero.  I soon found out that YouTube has an "autoplay" and will continue to stream unless you disable it.  I don't know about NetFlix or other services.  You may want to check out their settings.  

Happy binge watching.......
 

 

You can buy and configure your own wifi router then just plug it in to the one your ISP provides. Then if you change ISP's you don't have to reconfigure all your devices. Just plug your router into the new ISP's router. This also allows you to have a nice router which you can configure with a VPN.