VPN Provider for iPlayer and Netflix

[CAMRAMan]

I bought a Surfshark subscription for my daughter - who lives in Budapest - to access iPlayer and Netflix. A while ago, Netflix became unavailable, but iPlayer still works.


Renewal time is approaching, so does the panel have any recommendations for a VPN provider that will reliably give access to the 2 above media sources?


Are there any free ones that work?

[Ham]

I use Proton VPN, paid as I need to but it has a reasonable free tier too. Not up to doing much on, I would distrust a free VPN more than I can say. Trusting a paid VPN is a dodgy idea, too.

[pcolbeck]

Are there any free ones that work?

Providing VPNs requires equipment and loads of bandwidth both of which cost (lots of) money. If they aren't charging you for it how are they covering their costs .....

Like Ham I wouldn't touch a free VPN provider with the proverbial.

[Auntie Helen]

I use NordVPN and it works really well.

[Karla]

You could always run one on a server in your home and have her connect via that if the aim is to share your streaming subscriptions?

[lissotriton]

Cheaper to VPN to Turkey, and sign up for a Netflix account there?

[SoreTween]

You could always run one on a server in your home and have her connect via that if the aim is to share your streaming subscriptions?

This. 
I tried VPN after VPN & rarely did server node work for more than a few days.  Then you have to play for an hour to find another that Netflix etc haven't figured out the IP is a VPN & blocked.  Search for the privacy friendly VPNs, I've tried most of the top ten. 

For the last 30 months or so I've had a PiVPN set up at home and connect to it when away using a GL.iNet Slate.  All my devices are configured to connect to the slate so when I'm in a new location I just configure the Slate to connect to the hotel WiFi & get on with it, phone, fondleslab & firestick untouched.  Netflix, Amazon, Auntie, Dismal+, banks & all the rest all think I'm at home & just work.  The Wireguard protocol is very efficient, even before I upgraded the home broadband to fibre neither I nor Mrs Tween ever saw slowdowns.  We have Signal video called on it meaning the call was going up/down our line 3 times just fine.

The Pi is set up to auto install security updates (an option during PiVPN setup takes care of it), it has not missed a beat in all that time.  The Slate has worked mostly.  It used to get stuck & not connect no matter how many times I rebooted it requiring a factory reset & re-setup but a firmware update a year or so ago fixed that.  It still occasionally won't connect but a reboot now sorts it out.  It never fails in use so my habit of unplugging it when not in use is the problem really. A bit spendy up front but zero ongoing cost.

[farfetched]

I recently tried NordVPN out on a 30 day trial scheme, paid with the credit-card. While it worked I noticed that it wasnt always that reliable
as BBC iPlayer does seem to reject a lot of the UK servers I was using (based in NL), once i found one it was fine but the next day I had to usually
find another one. I did it for my wife but it was a bit too much faffing around for her. Good news... at least their helpdesk was very responsive and they
reimbursed my card within 7 days (you have to pay a year subscription to get the 30 day trial)

[Auntie Helen]

That’s interesting as I have zero problems with NordVPN, it often stays logged onto one server for 5 days at a time. And iPlayer always works with it.

[farfetched]

I only tried it out for a couple of days, and didn't make any attempt to find out what the problem was. I had read on various forums that i might have to try a few servers before I found one that worked with iPlayer, that was my experience in the end. It's possible that if we stayed logged in it might have worked the next day.

[Auntie Helen]

You must have just had mega bad luck. When I log in to the VPN I am always immediately able to access iPlayer, have not had a failure to connect/play for a few years now.