Friday, March 12, 2010

Wow - TVcatchup.com == ukvpn.net

So, after their much publicized vendetta against people in the UK choosing to use VPNs to access their service, tvcatchup.com finally reveal their real motives.

I was, until recently, using a VPN server via Witopia to access TVCatchup's service whilst I was on campus at uni. Unfortunately, ports except TCP/80 and TCP/443 are unavailable to me, so the only option is OpenVPN. It was working really well until last week, when suddenly, without warning, I could no longer access the service. Obviously I wasn't best pleased but it wasn't exactly life and death. TVcatchup's service had been getting progressively worse recently anyway, with increased audio dropout and desync, so I just let the problem slide. However I was about to be angered...

Firstly, I always sign up for online services using custom yahoo email addresses - AddressGuard is a great service - it lets you know exactly where a particular email address has been used, and who's selling out. Upon checking my email, i found the following...

Do you currently subscribe to a VPN service and use it to watch UK TV when abroad?

If you do, you may have found that your VPN service has let you down recently, in that one or more popular TV sites are no longer available.

With so many VPN services recently being blocked from TV websites, I wanted to let you know about UKVPN.net, assure you that I have personally checked and confirmed operation of ALL the major commercial TV streaming websites, and offer you the chance to try it out FREE OF CHARGE with no obligation.

One of the best things about the UKVPN.net service when compared to our competitors is that all the software you need comes pre-installed with Windows (2000, XP, Vista and 7 tested) or Apple OSX. You simply need to sign up to our service, tell your PC where to find our VPN servers, and you are off. By not downloading, there is no chance of being infected with spyware, viruses, or other nasties that have been associated with the software provided by similar services to ours.

To try out our service, please sign up on our website at www.ukvpn.net. Once you have logged in, enter the promotional code 'vpnletdown', and you will receive a free 1 week trial of our VPN service absolutely free. This is absolutely no obligation to continue once your free week is up, and at no point will you have to enter any financial details in order to take up this offer.

If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to drop us an email and we will do our best to help.

We look forward to welcoming you as a customer of UKVPN.net.

Finally, if you are not currently subscribing to a VPN service, or are thinking 'VPN? What's that?', please accept my apologies for bothering you. I'm unlikely to use this email list again, but if you would like to make sure you are removed, simply reply to this email telling me so.

Best Regards,

UKVPN.net

(To unsubcribe from our mailing list, simply reply to this email requesting your address to be removed)

Interestingly, this was sent directly to an address that had only EVER been given to tvcatchup.com - no one else, period, ever got this email address.

With my interest piqued, I continued to investigate tvcatchup and ukvpn, and it turns out that they're both hosted with netrino.co.uk. Netrino is owned and operated by Chris Wilkens, a well know close associate of TVcatchup. Additionally, it appears that UKVPN is owned and operated by Inviba.com, a company owned by Adam Smith. Guess who was a co-founder of tvcatchup.com.... that's right - the very same Mr Smith!

So, tvcatchups thinly veiled sham vendetta against VPNs has motive.

What it all comes down to is that tvcatchup own and run ukvpn.net (along with several other VPN companies), and actively market these companies to tvcatchup customers. Ultimately,
tvcatchup is promoting the breaking, and assisting in the breaking of the same law which TVcatchup says it has to abide by.

TVcatchup - nice. Looks like you've got some explaining to do.


5 comments:

  1. Good post bro!

    Whatever VPN provider you have, it's their JOB to give you a WORKING LOCAL IP to access whatever content you desire in the respective country. If they can't unblock the service you wish - they have FAILED! Change your service ASAP.

    Best,

    Uncle Abe
    http://www.vpntelevision.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Uncle Abe" seriously, that is a awesome trolling/spam comment.

    ::::ALERT HE RESELLS STRONGVPN:::::

    You are basically trying to say that if someone uses a vpn then all the network admins in the world could not stop them from accessing any site they want. Get real, and stop trying to advertise via spam links.

    I am a network admin, and I block entire COUNTRIES from viewing my website since I get lots of hack attempts from certain locations. A vpn can make you appear from another location, but you still get a IP and if I learn that people from X ip or ip range are doing things I do not want then BANG it is dead.

    The point of this article was not to try and get links for your affiliate merely to point out the fact that a website decided to block vpns (yes STRONGVPN is blocked also, but you failed to mention that), because they are starting their own service. I think it is stupid and evil of a company to pull this kind of block and bait type move. I think it is even more evil that they sell off the information from one company to the other without disclosure to the consumer. The best though is that they got caught, and hopefully alot more people read this article and get enraged.

    So, everyone use a vpn for what it is intended for. PRIVACY.

    ReplyDelete
  3. friends I think what tvcatchup done it's illegal because they blocked others VPN competitors, moreover it's not tvcatchup job to be worried that someone outside Uk is watching UK tv illegaly tvcatchup it's not the autority of tv licence. I'm living in Uk and I can't watch tvcatchupaswel even if I paid tv licence. What we can do is boycott that viscid Company by using some free Uk servers from popular UK cable operators like Virgin,BT,telewest(that are used in UK aswell) so it will be impossible for them distinguish users from Uk or outside Uk and if they will block them they have blocked all UK connections in Uk(they can't do it).
    I gave you an idea how to fuck those assholes
    what we needs are some main servers to share like P2p systems where more people we have and more quality the streaming video will have.
    I hope some hackers are reading me

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you.Good article about UKVPNNET.
    Cool solution for VPN client.
    10webhostingservice.com

    ReplyDelete