What could be the reason for Netflix proxy false positive?

Question

After recent Netflix worldwide launch I gave it a try. I can watch it fine from office, but when I go home, it gives me error:

Streaming Error. You seem to be using an unblocker or proxy.

However, I am not. I tried contacting online chat support, but they gave me a very non-technical answer to contact ISP. I don't connect via any ISP provided proxy, and have full access to internet.

What could be the possible reason behind this false positive?

Answer 1

Current understanding is that the blocking is applied to an IP. Probably means:

1) You are really unlucky to get an IP previously blacklisted. Maybe your IP is in a range used by a proxy. Restarting your modem could get you another IP.

If you were on a vpn checking your geoip would show another country however for a dns based proxy...

2) You are using a proxy, some specialised ISPs offer this as a value-add (but more likely someone you live with set it up). ping www.netflix.com and android.nccp.netflix.com and see if the IPs returned are not what you get at work. You could try an IP "whois" and a geoip lookup on those IPs to see if they are owned by AWS and are in the same country respectively. Of course so may be the proxy. Check what your dns server is set to (ipconfig/ifconfig), is it your router or an IP from your ISP?

3) Is your account or credit card somehow associated with another country? There is no evidence that Netflix will care but that may change

No doubt more information about how they block vpns and proxies will leak out soon

Answer 2

*I can't comment because of my rep right now, sorry.

Quick question first:

Does this happen on all browsers? (try Firefox or chrome in Safe mode or without any installed plugins):

Chrome: http://googlesystem.blogspot.hk/2010/02/google-chrome-safe-mode.html

Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode

If it works in safe mode, its possible that a proxy is being set within one of your plugins.

Next, what does a Whats my IP return? Does it correctly find your location?

It would be good to determine first whether your IP is accurately represented within your browser of choice (this does verify whether there is a proxy in place or not).

Answer 3

I found an interesting article that suggest that Netflix is now using some kind of delay detection for proxy and VPN as those type of connection usually add some latency. Let say that for a particular region Netflix should expect a specific delay and for whatever reason this is not, a false positive may occur.

I had those issues and most of the time my internet connection was saturated because someone else in the house was doing big download or also listening video streaming. Stopping the download resolve the proxy error on my netflix session.

Ref:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/canadian-researcher-proposes-new-way-to-shut-down-netflix-content-tourists/article28640224/