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fatgrandad

Coach⭐⭐
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Messages
958
Location
County Kerry / Southchurch Park
I've been having a quick look at the iFollow service, so this may be of interest to overseas fans, especially those based in Ireland.

When the new service offering, for overseas supporters, live streaming of all league games next season was announced, I then went from ecstasy to agony within a few minutes when it was pointed out that the service would not be available in Ireland where I am normally based.

I thought I would attempt to find out what would happen when using a VPN to access the service. I use a paid-for VPN service.

First of all, I attempted to register using my standard Irish ISP, and sure enough I was only given the option to purchase a "listen-only" subscription for £45.

I then activated my VPN service to serve me an American IP address. I also cleared out cookies and internet history to give a clean-ish start.

This time when I went to the registration page, I was presented with an option to buy the live streaming service for USD140/£110.

While far from conclusive, this tends to suggest that this approach may be viable. Having said that, I suspect that I may still struggle with bandwidth even if the service is accessible, as my broadband is very slow in comparison to UK speeds - fibre is currently being rolled out in Ireland, but at the moment delivery to rural areas like mine is seemingly via a donkey carrying a tin-can attached by string to the nearest hub.

Wondering whether anyone else has looked at this yet? I've always refused on principle to use any of the dodgy streaming sites to pick up illegal Sky feeds in the past and I would much prefer to pay the £110 IF viewing by VPN is feasible. However, those principles would be under severe pressure if I find that VPN won't work and that the dodgy sites can supply the feed.

PS if anyone from iFollow is reading this post, I wrote this on behalf of a friend.
 
Grandad! I cannot call you that as you already reckon I am older than you but I still feel mentally twelve!

1015 Every Sunday Morning,in my formative years, outside the entrance to what was then the Southchurch Park athletic track for a game of make your own soccer matches.A good few of us turned into Southend Manor second team after Malcolm Frost, talent?? spotted us.

Any way, have also tried the i follow and got same response £45 or nothing.

I have a techie looking at it so watch this space. No conscience ,as we unable to get to match so not making a difference to the "gate" receipts ,but would be a plus if can pay £100 instead of £45?

Marooned in Co Clare.
 
Grandad! I cannot call you that as you already reckon I am older than you but I still feel mentally twelve!

1015 Every Sunday Morning,in my formative years, outside the entrance to what was then the Southchurch Park athletic track for a game of make your own soccer matches.A good few of us turned into Southend Manor second team after Malcolm Frost, talent?? spotted us.

Any way, have also tried the i follow and got same response £45 or nothing.

I have a techie looking at it so watch this space. No conscience ,as we unable to get to match so not making a difference to the "gate" receipts ,but would be a plus if can pay £100 instead of £45?

Marooned in Co Clare.

Hi there Growler,

Very interested in anything your techie comes up with. As I say, it looks like VPN may be feasible even if bandwidth could still be a problem. We get about 10mb down in Kerry, which is better than some down here. What do you get in Clare?

PS The Southchurch Park athletics track was the scene of a couple of my early sporting failures while running for Thorpe/Greenways school. But I went on to bigger and better failures in the main Southchurch Park, losing our first organised football match 20-0 in 1968 or 69 (ish, I think). My brother played quite a while for Southend Manor in goal, though he is still just about in his 40s so I guess not in your age bracket esp if you reckon you are older than me!
 
Hi Grandad. We used to get 4.5mb but Eircom put a fibre box half a mile down the road which has 100mb but the string from there to our place brings it down to 14.5mb. An vast improvement but a way to go yet! Hopeful enough for a VPN if thats the way to go.
Watch this space. May have to be a carrier pidgeon in case we over looked!:winking:
 
Does anyone know if the payment method for the non UK+Ire version of iFollow needs to be from abroad too?
 
It's also worth noting that the £45 subscription for domestic customers provides full match replays from the following day. Even if there are only a proportion of away trips you can't make it seems like decent value. Possibly of particular note to those of us who are semi-exiled and less likely to receive spoilers from those around us.
 
It's also worth noting that the £45 subscription for domestic customers provides full match replays from the following day. Even if there are only a proportion of away trips you can't make it seems like decent value. Possibly of particular note to those of us who are semi-exiled and less likely to receive spoilers from those around us.

Unless of course the reason you don't go to many away games is because you have a young family. That family would also make it nigh on impossible to find time to watch the entire match back (as much as I would like to).
 
Unless of course the reason you don't go to many away games is because you have a young family. That family would also make it nigh on impossible to find time to watch the entire match back (as much as I would like to).

I have a young family and I can always find a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon :smile:

Ill be getting the service, if I have to get my brother to pay for it from Oz then fine. Will be interesting to see how well it streams using a VPN if that is required.
 
I've been having a quick look at the iFollow service, so this may be of interest to overseas fans, especially those based in Ireland.

When the new service offering, for overseas supporters, live streaming of all league games next season was announced, I then went from ecstasy to agony within a few minutes when it was pointed out that the service would not be available in Ireland where I am normally based.

I thought I would attempt to find out what would happen when using a VPN to access the service. I use a paid-for VPN service.

First of all, I attempted to register using my standard Irish ISP, and sure enough I was only given the option to purchase a "listen-only" subscription for £45.

I then activated my VPN service to serve me an American IP address. I also cleared out cookies and internet history to give a clean-ish start.

This time when I went to the registration page, I was presented with an option to buy the live streaming service for USD140/£110.

While far from conclusive, this tends to suggest that this approach may be viable. Having said that, I suspect that I may still struggle with bandwidth even if the service is accessible, as my broadband is very slow in comparison to UK speeds - fibre is currently being rolled out in Ireland, but at the moment delivery to rural areas like mine is seemingly via a donkey carrying a tin-can attached by string to the nearest hub.

Wondering whether anyone else has looked at this yet? I've always refused on principle to use any of the dodgy streaming sites to pick up illegal Sky feeds in the past and I would much prefer to pay the £110 IF viewing by VPN is feasible. However, those principles would be under severe pressure if I find that VPN won't work and that the dodgy sites can supply the feed.

PS if anyone from iFollow is reading this post, I wrote this on behalf of a friend.

This is good to know. I just have my doubts as to whether it will work when the season comes around. If it works through a VPN in Ireland it will work in a VPN in the UK and if Southend fans are trying it then so will fans of the other 71 League clubs. and iFollow will know this.

That said I'm likely to give it a go. It's worth the gamble.
 
Website seems to suggest we are even streaming the pre-season games (starting with Braintree on Saturday).

That seems a tad optimistic....anyone know anything about this?
 
This is good to know. I just have my doubts as to whether it will work when the season comes around. If it works through a VPN in Ireland it will work in a VPN in the UK and if Southend fans are trying it then so will fans of the other 71 League clubs. and iFollow will know this.

That said I'm likely to give it a go. It's worth the gamble.

Yep I agree. I don't know whether it is technically possible to block VPNs completely, but you would think that EFL would have put penalties in the contract with iFollow if it turns out that there is widespread access in UK and Ireland and a knock-on impact on attendances. On the other hand they may have gambled that the benefits outweigh the potential costs.

I don't particularly want to shell out £110 in the hope it will work, so I'll be pleading to "borrow" a Holland-based mate's login first to test it out.

I don't think we are going to know for certain until 5th August.
 
You can block vpns, some hotels do and as Barna posted above the chinese plan to.

However that isnt relevant for this. You arent using a vpn to access the service, you are only using the vpn to connect to the service from a different location. The actual method of connection will be the same as anyone else. The only way they will stop that is by blocking IP addresses of every vpn provider, cant see that happening.

Im certain the vpn method will work, what Im not so sure about is how reliable.

I have tested a vpn to Paris and using video streaming and the connection was fine, but I am on a 200mbit connection here so it wont be the same for everyone.
 
Yep I agree. I don't know whether it is technically possible to block VPNs completely, but you would think that EFL would have put penalties in the contract with iFollow if it turns out that there is widespread access in UK and Ireland and a knock-on impact on attendances. On the other hand they may have gambled that the benefits outweigh the potential costs.

I don't particularly want to shell out £110 in the hope it will work, so I'll be pleading to "borrow" a Holland-based mate's login first to test it out.

I don't think we are going to know for certain until 5th August.

It is possible. Netflix completely shut down the use of VPNs last year to circumvent their controls.
 
It is possible. Netflix completely shut down the use of VPNs last year to circumvent their controls.

You can still use VPNs to view USA Netflix, so they havent completely succeeded.They can ban specific VPN providers but more always turn up.

Whether iFollow have the will or resources to put as much effort into them is another thing.
 
Website seems to suggest we are even streaming the pre-season games (starting with Braintree on Saturday).

That seems a tad optimistic....anyone know anything about this?

Does rather look that way,doesn't it? Blimey who would have thunk it? Guess I'll have to forsake my planned trip to the beach to find out.
 
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Does rather look that way,doesn't it? Blimey who would have thunk it.Guess I'll have to forsake my planned trip to the beach to find out.
A real test of my devotion, a midnight kick off to watch a pre season game on TV.

Maybe have to view it as my own pre-season training for staying up late before the real thing starts.
 
What if you live in Scotland, Wales or even Northern Ireland? Obviously you'd be in the UK, but it's still another country jus not a foreign country. Would VPN still be the only option?
 
Just heard from ifollow and SUFC that they won't be showing any of our friendlies live and this has been now "corrected" on the OS.

Edit.Bit miffed about this as I've just seen a couple of minutes highlights of Fulham's (training ground) 4-1
friendly win against QPR on the Fulham website.


If they can do it why can't we?
 
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