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[NEED IDEAS] Watch a live stream through VNC or connect using VPN?

dastinger

dastinger

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 18, 2012
818
3
Hey guys,

I'm going to London for a month or two. When I'm there, the team I support will play against our biggest rivals and I just can't miss that match.. I would die if I couldn't watch it.

In Portugal, the match will be Pay Per View and I don't really want to be looking for a place (bar, cafe wtv) that may or may not transmit the match so I'm looking for ways to watch it.

I am a subscriber of the channel the match will be on and they offer a live streaming service for Macs, PCs, Droids and iOS... BUT it's country restricted. I really really don't want to resort to illegal live streams so I thought about two options:

1 - Create a VPN server in my iMac back at home in order to connect to the service through that;

Issues:
- Does any one know if there will be a problem with this? The platform for the live stream uses Silverlight;
- I don't really know how to do this;

2 - Use a VNC app on my iMac and watch it that way.

Issues:
- Are there apps that stream sound as well?
- What are the FPS with these? Imagine watching sports at 15FPS or something :X
- What is the best app for this?

Please help :confused:
 
Last edited:
VPN. Any VNC solution would bring awful results and require a much higher upload speed than a VPN would and still deliver near unwatchable results.
 
Intell said:
VPN. Any VNC solution would bring awful results and require a much higher upload speed than a VPN would and still deliver near unwatchable results.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the quick reply.

Do you think that there will be a problem with Silverlight or, as long as I'm navigating connected through my home VPN, it will always think I'm in Portugal?

Also, I don't know if you know much about it but what's the best option to create a VPN on a Mac? I'm comfortable with technology but I never ever touched on something like that before so, I'm looking for something simple. Obviously, if I need to work harder in order to make it work perfectly, I will.

FYI, my upload speed is 8Mb/s (Megabits). Really don't know if that would be enough for VNC.
 
As long as you have the VPN set to send all traffic through it, you should be able to watch the media on the client machine without a problem no matter the service. I've setup a Mac OS X machine to be a VPN server by using the built in VPN server. If you're running just the regular Mac OS X, you'll have to do some stuff in the Terminal to get it working.
 
Intell said:
As long as you have the VPN set to send all traffic through it, you should be able to watch the media on the client machine without a problem no matter the service. I've setup a Mac OS X machine to be a VPN server by using the built in VPN server. If you're running just the regular Mac OS X, you'll have to do some stuff in the Terminal to get it working.
Click to expand...
Do you have any idea if there's any detailed guide on how to do that? I found that iVPN would easily do what I want but it has problems under Mavericks. By the time I actually go to London, maybe the issues are fixed but I can't count on that. I googled but couldn't find much more.

Sorry for bothering you and thank you once again.
 
There may be some tutorials online that tell you what to input to make it work. I do not know of any for 10.9, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.
 
What you use for your streaming relies heavily on your upload speed performance.

I've used products like the Slingbox to do exactly what you're asking for. VPN can work but it all depends on the ISPs your connection has to go through in order to get back to your VPN server at home. I've had mixed results when I realized my VPN connection wasn't stable because some of the intermediate hops didn't support VPN passthrough reliably. I don't know about Portugal but when I was in the UK I had many issues having stable VPN connectivity back home.

If I were to make a suggestion, I'd avoid creating unnecessary overhead on your connection from home to Portugal and back and keep it as simple as possible.
 
Hyper-X said:
What you use for your streaming relies heavily on your upload speed performance.

I've used products like the Slingbox to do exactly what you're asking for. VPN can work but it all depends on the ISPs your connection has to go through in order to get back to your VPN server at home. I've had mixed results when I realized my VPN connection wasn't stable because some of the intermediate hops didn't support VPN passthrough reliably. I don't know about Portugal but when I was in the UK I had many issues having stable VPN connectivity back home.

If I were to make a suggestion, I'd avoid creating unnecessary overhead on your connection from home to Portugal and back and keep it as simple as possible.
Click to expand...
Thank you!

I'm not spending too much money on something I would only use once or twice really so the Slingbox or anything like it is out of the equation.

I am searching for the best VPN solution and I think I will resort to that. I hope all goes well and I will have someone testing it in the UK while I'm still at home so, hopefully, I will be able to know what is/isn't working. I will keep it as simple as possible, thank you for the suggestion :)
 
If your upstream is not up to par, it will be like watching a slide show.

Have you looked in to VLC's streaming solution? I don't have much experience with it (I've only played with it briefly once) but it may do what you need it to...
 
pastrychef said:
If your upstream is not up to par, it will be like watching a slide show.

Have you looked in to VLC's streaming solution? I don't have much experience with it (I've only played with it briefly once) but it may do what you need it to...
Click to expand...
Never tried it.. did not ever remember about that feature on VLC. But I don't think it would work for what I'm trying to achieve here. Thanks for the suggestion :)
 
I don't know what the OP needs to connect to and other details so I'll just share what happened with me.

I was overseas in a location where I also wanted to watch local streaming content, but I ran into a few problems.

1. My home network had dismal upload speeds, it was like watching a podcast as a very jerky slideshow.

2. Using VPN to reach my home network only made matters worse with the additional overhead of VPN in addition to the dismal bandwidth.

So I realized that the video network did offer streaming access for a small price, so instead of being restricted to 768kbs from home, now I had access to a server with an advertised 50Mbps+ from the media server.

The next issue I ran into was I couldn't view the stream from my IP (not available in your country/IP message). So I ended up using a VPN service (Private Internet Access) to tunnel back to the USA, then the media servers were able to identify me as being in the authorized country to view the content.
 
Hyper-X said:
I don't know what the OP needs to connect to and other details so I'll just share what happened with me.

I was overseas in a location where I also wanted to watch local streaming content, but I ran into a few problems.

1. My home network had dismal upload speeds, it was like watching a podcast as a very jerky slideshow.

2. Using VPN to reach my home network only made matters worse with the additional overhead of VPN in addition to the dismal bandwidth.

So I realized that the video network did offer streaming access for a small price, so instead of being restricted to 768kbs from home, now I had access to a server with an advertised 50Mbps+ from the media server.

The next issue I ran into was I couldn't view the stream from my IP (not available in your country/IP message). So I ended up using a VPN service (Private Internet Access) to tunnel back to the USA, then the media servers were able to identify me as being in the authorized country to view the content.
Click to expand...
I'll try being as explicit as possible.

My ISP provides me with Internet, Phone and TV. I pay an extra fee to be able to watch the biggest sports channel in Portugal. My ISP offers an online streaming service with great quality and the sports channel is available through that.
You just lgo into their website, login, choose the channel you want to watch and it's on. The webpage uses Silverlight.
The only issue with that is that the service is blocked outside Portugal so I can't just go to the UK and still watch the match. That's the only thing I want to be able to watch so it is a 2 hour connection tops.
My home network gives me a constant 8Mb/s (megabits, not megabytes) upload rate.

Given all this, do you think I will be able to use my iMac as a VPN server so I am able to watch content by making the website think I'm in Portugal? If I run into problems on the tests I'll make, do you think that the best solution is to try finding a VPN server based in Portugal and pay for the service?

Thank you
 
If the issue is you won't have access to those services because you'll be in a country that will be blocked?

If so then yes, you could try a VPN service to get around that problem.

You could use Private Internet Access VPN and switch locations to a VPN server closer to home. It's about $7 USD per month. Since it's a true VPN service, you'll also benefit from the additional security it provides when connecting to hotel or other public networks.

If you intend on using your Mac, that service provides an app you can download and configure to your account. From there it's just pointing and clicking which VPN server you want to use by country.
 
That's exactly the problem.

I will try to first use my iMac as a VPN server back at home and use my rMBP to watch the match connected through my VPN. If that doesn't work I'll try that service as long as it gives me the option to connect to a VPN based in Portugal since that's the only country where the service is allowed to be used. I'll test things before the day of the match of course so I have time to make decisions.

Thanks once again
 
Can you watch this content on your MBP if you are in the US (I think the answer is YES based on your post)

If so get a VPN - I can recommend Strong. Setup account and install software on the MBP.

When you wish you can connect to VPN using US servers. Then you can access anything you wish as though you were in the US.

This will cost you approx $30 for a years subscription. Other methods may work but I can vouch for this, I've spent quite a bit of time living outside the UK and it's good to be able to watch a few favourites.
 
Thank you for your reply!

Yes, I am able to watch it on my MBP and that's exactly what I want to do. The only reason why I can't watch it is because the service is country restricted.

My main issue with a VPN service is finding one that has servers based in Portugal since that's the only country where the service is not blocked. I'm going from Portugal to the UK for a few months so I needed a VPN with a portuguese IP in order for it to work. All the main services people usually recommend do not offer that option, unfortunately :(
 
Thank you a lot! I think that is exactly what I was looking for.. with an Auto Config feature just as I hoped there would be. I'll test it once I am able to and let you know if it worked :D
 
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