My updated *dns-hacked* method to get PPL sports channels

[marine]

Hi there,

I have previously posted a way to get pplive sports channels up by hard-coding windows' dns lookup DB, which is *hard-coding* version of the previously used Chinese dns-server way.

http://myp2p.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6406

To sum that post up (you need some network knowledge here), why you needed Chinese DNS server is that oversea users are not able to resolve the IP of pplive's key server, which provides "complete" channel and peer information (it's like you don't have somebody's number on your yellow page), therefore you either don't see those channels listed, or have no connection even by using direct links. However, you might still not be able to connect to that server, even though you have obtained its IP by Chinese DNS server if your Internet ISP's network can't get to it, it's like you can't call somebody, even you know his number, if your phone company can't reach his line. That's why you need proxifier.

But using Chinese DNS server and proxies is not convenient: With Chinese DNS server you would lose access to many censored websites, and proxies usually become invalid after certain time. So the point of my previous post is like: this: Firstly I assume you have no problem to connect to pplive's key server directly, therefore you don't need proxifier and Chinese proxies; Secondly, by hard-coding pplive server's IP, you can keep your network setting untouched.

However, the modification stated in my old post is not working anymore, because PPLive seemed to have changed their scheme. Previously, PPLive simply blocks IP-registration of their key server on abroad DNS server (This is why you need Chinese DNS server). But that is a bit obvious and people come up with the changing-dns-server thing quickly. And now, they delicately put a "Fake" server IP on foreign DNS servers, so people won't notice. How to verify? Well, if you are using Chinese DNS server, use "ping" method to try www.pplive.com and list.pplive.com(This is the key server), and you will get

60.28.125.33 --> www.pplive.com
60.209.6.21 --> list.pplive.com (The real one)

However, if you look them up on abroad DNS servers
(like this one: http://www.zoneedit.com/lookup.html)

you would get

list.pplive.com --> 58.211.136.107
www.pplive.com --> 58.211.136.101 (The fake one without sports channels)

So now it should be pretty straight-forword, Edit the file (I assume your XP is installed on C drive)

C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

(If you need more info about this file, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file)

If you have previously made use of my old method, remove any lines from that. Then add two lines in the end:

60.28.125.33 www.pplive.com
60.209.6.21 list.pplive.com

Now start PPLIve (to verify if it is working for you, you better not use Chinese DNS server or proxifier), see you have gotten all the sports channels back.

Here is what I got on my desktop: (Without using Chinese DNS server or proxies)

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/5353/pplpe4.gif

IMPORTANT:
This method might not work for everybody !!! And the most common problem would be your Internet ISPs just don't have direct access to that particular pplive server (list.pplive.com), even by providing the explicit IP already. So, if you still don't get the sports channels after modifying "hosts" file, restore it to the original status(just remove the two lines you would have added) and resort to the chinese DNS+socks proxies theme.

My setup:

Windows XP Sp2 Chinese version
Bell Sympatico ADSL in Quebec Canada

[Jehu]

This is my Hosts file but not much luck here.

127.0.0.1 localhost
60.28.125.33 www.pplive.com
60.209.6.21 list.pplive.com

I have the same system here. Windows XP Sp2 English.

PPLive has gotten worse in the government CCTV dept. too. There one gets teh following message nowadays :"Sorry, The program sources have been cancelled, please choose other hannels." Lots of channels do not have program listings anymore, so some serious curbing of the action seems to be happening here. But why CCTV, one can still watch it through Sopcast and ppmate.

[Admin]

@Marine: So with this you get the sports channels back + they do work without a Proxy/DNS then ...

[KARDINAL]

Marine , you are the man!!! Your method works fine as a bitch for me.
How the hell this chinese came with the idea of fake Ip's?
Well, in this case the developers of pplive are not smart enough. They just can ban the non-chinese Ip's like afreeca dudes are doing instead of using this bullshit dns faking.
I just cannot understand why pplive are trying to restrict foreigners of watching some of the channels? Maybe because of legal rights? Well, I don't think watching cabel channels on pplive is legal even in cCina. It cannot be because there servers are overloading because it's p2p tech, so more people better conection.
Anyway, thanks for the tips.

[gu8lal8]

Yes this works for me too, way easier than my method. Big THX
Still need a proxy to get the channel to start buffering though

[KARDINAL]

Why do you still need a proxy? Channels work fine to me!

[fergyc]

getting channels but sports channels arent buffering but getting sum other ones

[gu8lal8]

Why do you still need a proxy? Channels work fine to me!
to get the sports channels to start buffering

I've tried the 10 most popular sports channels and they don't start buffering, I get the troubleshooting window everytime.
Channels won't start buffering unless I use chinese proxy

[kolobok]

i dont understand what to do ?

[marine]

Marine , you are the man!!! Your method works fine as a bitch for me.
How the hell this chinese came with the idea of fake Ip's?
Well, in this case the developers of pplive are not smart enough. They just can ban the non-chinese Ip's like afreeca dudes are doing instead of using this bullshit dns faking.
I just cannot understand why pplive are trying to restrict foreigners of watching some of the channels? Maybe because of legal rights? Well, I don't think watching cabel channels on pplive is legal even in cCina. It cannot be because there servers are overloading because it's p2p tech, so more people better conection.
Anyway, thanks for the tips.
Well, you have to understand that these P2P streaming websites are under pressures from Television stations. So they HAVE to come up with some schemes to show that they are aware of Copyright issues and "engaged" to Copyright protections.

Actually we should be happy enough already. By the way all these P2P programs are applying the restriction, they still leave doors for oversea viewers to get in (a bit inconvenient though). Trust me, they are NOT stupid. They are just using some restriction that seem convincing for the TV stations BUT could still be worked around. If they REALLY want to ban foreign users completely, they can just do this IP-filtering thing you mentioned. There is another commonly used P2P streaming software, QQLive, in China but nobody abroad is using it. WHY? Because that software detects user's local IP and sends it back to the server, then the server decides if it is a CHINESE ip. If it is not, the server rejects your connection. In that way no foreign user would be allowed. So you see? If PPLive, PPS, or etc really want to BAN foreign viewers, it is just a piece of cake for them.

[marine]

i dont understand what to do ?
Well, to make it short:

1. open the file I mentioned
2. add two lines in the end
3. see if you get the sports channels in the list and/or get the sports channels really buffering. If yes, congratulations. If no, restore the file you just edited, and resort to other approaches.

[KARDINAL]

marine , about the legal rights of broadcasting cable tv over internet. How by putting restrictions for foreign viewers they are not violating the copyright issues?
Ok, they will show tv statoins that the channels they broadcast can be viewed only by chinese people. But this is still illegal, at least in countries outside asia. But i doubt it that the asian branches of companies like espn, mtv, hbo etc are cool with someone retransmiting their signal for free.
About QQLive. Noone outside China used not to use it because it was almost immposible to register due to the security code that was in chinese characters. The previous versions of qqlive was combination of "qqlive tv" and "qqchat". It was only one application integrating both of them. I think the qq chat was the one that they were protecting more not the tv channels. In the latest versions the qqlive tv is separete from the chat application and it's more easily to use.
I cannot remember if I was able to play the channels, I have to check if they have some Ip restrictions but if they do it's not a problem, You know what I mean:) Moreover, they don't have some exclusive channels that cannot be found on other p2ptv's so that's another reason noone is paying attention to it.
Peace


PS. By the way I check the Ip for list.pplive.com in some websites for DNS lookup and it shows me 60.209.6.21. And I am not using chinese DNS. Depends on the checking mechanism because some tools show the fake Ip.

[kolobok]

i dont understand what to do ?
Well, to make it short:

1. open the file I mentioned
2. add two lines in the end
3. see if you get the sports channels in the list and/or get the sports channels really buffering. If yes, congratulations. If no, restore the file you just edited, and resort to other approaches.
thats exactly what i was doing does not work :(

[marine]

marine , about the legal rights of broadcasting cable tv over internet. How by putting restrictions for foreign viewers they are not violating the copyright issues?
Ok, they will show tv statoins that the channels they broadcast can be viewed only by chinese people. But this is still illegal, at least in countries outside asia. But i doubt it that the asian branches of companies like espn, mtv, hbo etc are cool with someone retransmiting their signal for free.

PS. By the way I check the Ip for list.pplive.com in some websites for DNS lookup and it shows me 60.209.6.21. And I am not using chinese DNS. Depends on the checking mechanism because some tools show the fake Ip.
Basically, what they try to restrict is not exactly what we understand about "normal" copyright. They are trying to protect the "copyright" of the championships tv rights sold in "China" as a whole.

The Chinese cable thing works differently from the ones in North America and Europe. The cable users in NA and EU, as I know, have to pay basic cable fee plus viewing fee for the special channel(s) they might want, which constitutes quite a portion of the broadcasters' income. In China, cable users, depending on the provinces of course, usually just need to pay the "basic" fee for ALL available cable channels. Moreover, the fee is relatively LOW. As a result, those sports cable/satelitte stations don't really make profit from users subscription. I don't have exact figures but I am kinda sure more than 95%of the income is from commercials. So they don't really care their broadcasting would be streamed over Internet. To some extend they are even happy to see that because it enlarges their viewer coverage.

However, when it comes to foreign viewers, it is a different story. The stations like CCTV5, SH sports, GD sports, and etc, bought the tv rights of the championships, such as EPL, Serie A, La Liga, and etc, based on the geographical "Chinese" region, whose cost is also relatively low because of the economic ability of average Chinese people. And the tv rights in other countries would be sold seperately on different prices. Now, if foreign viewers can easily watch sports matchs over Internet, which they are supposed to pay to do so in their own countries, the tv rights sales in these countries would be severely jeopadized. In turn, these Chinese stations would have big trouble to extend their contracts with those Championships. This is WHAT they REALLY care about, and thus WHY these P2P apps make such a big deal to block foreign users, or at least they have to show those stations they do. Otherwise, they would be in big trouble. All Chinese TV stations are run or governed by the gov, and they can really have their say in gov's actions (especially those big stations) So, if they really want, they can easily ask the gov to shutdown those p2p websites (They don't even to go through formal lawsuit thing). So...

Ah, here is something off topic. Why CCTV5, SH and GD sports could be easily found on p2p? Because they are one of the "basic" cable/satellite channels and can be easily received. Thus sharers are easy to be found. Why CCTV soccer is damn difficult to be found? Because it is a REAL cable channel in China, say, viewers have to pay extra fee for it like NA and EU. As a result, few people subscribe to it, not to mention willing to bother sharing it.

Maybe somebody has konwn that EPL has sold their tv rights in China, 3 years from next season, to a cable company, called TianSheng, who also transmits its programs as a REAL cable channel. As a result, there will be no EPL matchs whatsoever on SH/GD sports channels from next season, and it is highly unlikely that people can find TianSheng's program on ANY p2p programs, just like CCTV soccer nowadays.

As for QQLive, it is already a seperate program from QQ chat. yes, it requires a QQ account, which is extremely difficult for non-Chinese to get one because of the Chinese-verification-code upon registration. But even for Chinese people who already had one, you can't watch sports channels there( they also have SH/GD sports, UCL live, and etc) if you are not in China. And it is really difficult to work around its restriction, because what it does is that the client checks your local IP. So using the likes of proxifiers won't help (It can't fake your local IP). The only way I came up is to connect to a Chinese VPN server, so that your machine "has" a Chinese IP, which is of course not for general practice.

Why I mentioned QQLive? Because people here might notice PPStream has UCL live, which is sponsored by ESPN from the beginning of this season. Initially ESPN sponsors PPLive, PPStream and QQLive. But, after the group stage, ESPN cancelled the sponsorship for PPL and PPS, the reason of which is about the foreign viewers(I have no idea how PPS got to continue). while QQlive alone is fine. Why? Because it has least oversea viewer coverage. This is another proof about what these sports channels really care about the P2P apps.

[algi]

Good post marine and an interesting one!Thx.
And keep going when kardinal (bye mate:) ) shall answer.

[zuk]

dont work for me :(

[algi]

Hi marine!It doesn't work for me as well! :(
You'd try with this:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/
and be back here with any results?
Thx.

[KARDINAL]

Daamn Marine, that was hell of a good, full answer. I did not know there is a channel called CCTV soccer, is that the name of it or is CCTV and soem nuber after it?
I understand you about the copyright issue. It's seems it works different from the one in Europe. I guess the cable channels there are aware of fact that p2p are using there signal and don't mind. I have always tought that's good for the tv companies because the more viewers they have the more comerisals will be seen from more people. But how about HBO for example. It's comrsials free so the only income they have is from subscriptions(or it come with the basic cable in Asia?)
You are right about the special rights about broadcasting some events like sport, concerts etc.. It works the same way all over the world - tv channels are supposed to broadcast them only for native views not for foreigners. That's why if you catch a satellite signal from some tv channel that broadcast the champion league for example it will be encoded so you have to pay extra but if you wach it locally on your cable tv it will be free.
I cannot understand what do you mean by telling that QQLIVE is checking your real IP. I bet Proxifier or Proxycap can help in this situation. If they help in Afreeca case which also is checking your real Ip they will work in qqlive too.
I will install it again and tell you if I am able to watch by using chinese proxy.

Algi, what results are you expecting from http://www.dnsstuff.com/? What do you want to proove?

PS Marine, any idea why editing the host file does not work for some people?

[KARDINAL]

Marine,

I've just downloaded QQLive3.5.1. It installs 2 applications - QQLive 3.5 and QQLive Player 1.0. You don't need to login if you want to use the player.
Basically QQLive 3.5 includes the player, the chat and some other features. It seems the standalone player and qqlive3.5 have the same channels but the one in qqlive3.5 have some logoes in front of the channels names so you can easier guess what they really are.
Some of the channels in the standalone player plays but it's seems that there is really some Ip ban. As for as you know are only the sport channels banned?
I have noticed that if you want to play channels straight from QQlive website it opens the QQLive 3.5 not the standalone player. And here you need a QQ number.
I have just made mine!!! If you dont know how to read and wite chinese letters, here is the solution:
Go to this page: http://freeqq2.qq.com/step1.shtml , where the security code is in English:)
Make sure you write down the answers of the secret questions, because in step 2 it will ask you to put them again . The answers can be anything, i put "rtetretewrywreyrwytryrey" blah blah blah....
The first time i did not know and when it asked me I did not have them and had to start again.Then it keep giving me error the the system is busy and I could not not continue in step2 .After I used chinese proxy in my explorer I did it from the first time. Maybe I was lucky, maybe it's not because of the proxy. But I am 100% sure that after keep trying you can register. I used this proxy 222.216.110.155:3128 form this site :http://www.haozs.net/proxyip/index.php?coun=China&type=&port=

Well, I have the qqnumber now I will start digging the Ip ban problem. I just wonder if there is such restriction why qqlive have toe option to be used tru proxies. I will play a little bit with or try some other methods.
Post my results later

[algi]

This(if it will open!:) )just as an example,
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=www.pplive.com
There is always a choking point or a barreer.
Try it's interesting in any case! :))

[algi]

This is threal,main pplive IP address:61.153.180.186
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/tracert.ch?ip=61.153.180.186

[marine]

Here is what I got on dusstuff:

www.pplive.com:

Domain Type Class TTL Answer
www.pplive.com.fastcdn.com. A IN 600 58.211.136.101
www.pplive.com.fastcdn.com. A IN 600 58.211.136.107


list.pplive.com

www.pplive.chinacache.net. A IN 120 58.211.136.107
www.pplive.chinacache.net. A IN 120 58.211.136.101

NOTE: One or more CNAMEs were encountered. list.pplive.com is really www.pplive.chinacache.net.

----------------------------------

And for the previous questions:

Why HBO and etc don't mind being transmited over Internet? Because they DON'T know. Actually HBO and the likes are NOT broadcasted in China. Those channels being shared over p2p network are obtained by sharers who use personal satellite receivers, which as well is ILLEGAL in China...

And why modifying the HOSTS file does not work for some people? Honestly, I don't know. The only explanation I could come up is that, like what I have said, their broadband ISP's networks just can't reach the PPLive server directly, even provided the IP, which is also normal for Internet.

As for QQLive, I have tried the proxifier thing, and failed. I guess it's source IP detection is somewhat different from the one used by Afreeca. Afreeca probably detects the source of connection request by the incoming route. As a result, if you use Korean proxies, it considers the requests as from Korea. But QQLive detects the IPs of local machines on which it runs, and sends them back to the server alongside the request. Thus transrouting via a proxy does not help because the server still gets the IP where the QQLive client actually runs. The only possibly way to "cheat" the client and server is to "fake" a Chinese IP for your local machine! That is why I said only VPN would work.

[KARDINAL]

Hbo is not boroadcasted in China but it is in the Phillippinies, right?
Anyway, marine, tell me which channels are banned from QQLIVE? Only the sport ones? I want to try them but still it's pretty hard to find what is what with this chinese characters. The one that doesnot work for me is ESPN but I dont know because of some ban or because it was not working at all. Still there were people in the channel chat which means that probably it works for chinese users.
By the way how did you get QQ nember?
I will disagree with you about the proxy thing. If you use proxifier with chinese proxy there is no way they can detect your local IP. I mean that's the purpose of proxifier - it can proxify every connection, service, application etc.. It masks your IP 100%. But as a result the ban is still there. I am sure it can be tricked..
What kind of mechanism the can use to obtain your real Ip?
Screw them, we have to find a way to crack it!!!

[algi]

Kardinal!Is'nt it slowing too much proxifier?
[It's a question not a statement.:) ]

[KARDINAL]

well, that's what I am trying to figure it out - which port and ip to proxify so you can use your real connection and the proxy just to help for the ban thing. Just like in afreeca!

[algi]

Right!Thx.
(By the way:greetings from ...alma :rolleyes: )

[KARDINAL]

Alma, new nickname?:) Grettings to you too!
Well, I don't know if ESPN is banned for foreigners in QQLIVE but I watch it!!!
I use proxifier v2.5(may work with v2 also, have not tried), chinese http proxy(can be found easily), proxify all the connection but here is the trick:
MAKE SURE "NAME RESOLUTION IS ENABLE". I cannot figure out what this function really does. Maybe MARINE can explain me in details as he always does.
After I made this and start ESPN after a little bit of buffering it starts. Plays smooth to me. All the channels I've tried can be played, but I dont see anything special. I have not tried them all because I hate this chinese symbols.
I was trying to proxify only specific ports and Ip's so the conenction is not slowed down by the proxy but the DNS option does not work good with it. It's improved in Proxifier 2.6 but I dont have crack for it yet. But even with chinese proxy channels runs with no buffering to me
That's all for now!

PS The link for Proxifier v.2.5 is in "other" section

[algi]

Well!You two are so exhaustive that I can't say more.In case I'll post it.
By for now.Take care.:)

[kolobok]

How come i can play all Pplive channels with direct links fast bufferings etc.. only thing they are not in my list, i dont need no dns change nothing i dont understand.

[KARDINAL]

kolobok , if you have the direct addresses of course you can watch. You need the DNS trick just to see them in pplive player. They don't have restriction to be played.

[gu8lal8]

For me the sports channels now appear without any DNS trick, it's strange.

And the strangest thing is they only start buffering when I use Proxifier(chinese proxy), then after it starts buffering I have to uncheck the proxy to get the speed up (not as before with my method (http://myp2p.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4231) where I could leave the proxy checked)

Just posting this maybe it can help someone out.

[KARDINAL]

So you don't use the DNS trick but you do need Proxifier to play the channels? If so, you still use some kind of chinese proxy that helps you to watch.