Viewing 2009 S14 Games

[mark_s]

As a non foxtel subscriber with two young kids, it very difficult for me to watch the S14 games that are played outside of Sydney. I was pleasantly suprised to receive the following from my internet provider today. I think its the same service that foxsports offered last year (at a cost), but will be free to me as I never go anywhere near my monthly download limit anyway.

(Not trying to push my internet provider - just thought I would let people know in case there are other/better options).

We've got some great news for all rugby fans out there! Our good friends from FOX SPORTS have teamed up with us again and we're showcasing their coverage of a number of Investec Super 14 matches from the iiNet Freezone.

All iiNet broadband customers will be able to view 46 On Demand matches throughout the 2009 season. All matches will feature an Australian team and will be made available about 8 hours after the final siren, with the season kicking off on Friday 13 February 09.

We're also offering email alerts, so you'll never miss a match again (we're good like that). Simply check out the "be first to know" once the games are available to register for this feature. In the meantime, here are the games we have in store for round one of the season:

Friday 13 February: Highlanders vs Brumbies
Friday 13 February: Western Force vs Blues
Saturday 14 February: Hurricanes vs Waratahs
Sunday 15 February: Bulls vs Reds
All matches will be made available through the iiNet Freezone and won't count towards your monthly quota (note to Mac users*). Click here for more information and to get a taste of the action.

And the good news doesn't stop there for rugby lovers! The South African ABSA Currie Cup and New Zealand Provincial Championship will make their way into the Freezone over the next few months. Stay tuned, more information on these codes coming shortly.

 

[Lee Grant]

It's very thoughtful of others to provide that mate.

Heads up.

 

[Scarfman]

Can some techie help a bit with this?

The problem with MediaZone is that you can't access the files if your IP is in Australia. Otherwise, it's a pretty attractive way of watching games.

but how about this, from the SMH:

Another trick for bypassing filters is to dig a tunnel to the United States. I don't mean go out in the backyard with a shovel, I mean create an encrypted tunnel that runs out through your ISP and pops out in the US. It sounds complicated, but it's free and ridiculously easy to do.

What's were talking about is a Virtual Private Network, the kind of technology used by businessfolk to make a secure connection to the computers at work. VPNs are particularly useful when you're connecting your computer to an insecure wifi hotspot, because they encrypt everything you're doing to stop people snooping on you. Not even your ISP can see what you're up to.

Rather than create a VPN from your computer to your workplace, you can create an encrypted tunnel through your ISP to the United States. Now when you surf the internet, it looks like your computer is in the US rather than Australia. This means you can access US-only content from sites such as Rhapsody, Pandora, YouTube and Hulu. It also means you're bypassing any content filtering performed by your Australian ISP, and there's nothing they can do about it.

VPNs were once expensive and complicated beasts, but now there are several sites that offer them for free. Two popular free VPN applications are HotSpot Shield (Mac and Windows) and AlwaysVPN (Mac, Windows, Linux). You don't need to know anything about networking and there's no messy configuration, you run the installer and they just work.

These tools aren't illegal and they're not designed specifically to bypassing filtering, they designed to protect your privacy when you're using an insecure wifi hotspot. Both HotSpot Shield and AlwaysVPN put an advertising banner at the top of your browser, although you can close it. Remember you don't need to run the software all the time, just when you want to protect your privacy or look at something that some fundamentalist git has decided you shouldn't be allowed to see. One button click and you've bypass the lot.

I assume that a normal anonymous proxy wouldn't work. But this might? Opinions? Is Jonnosan out there?

 

[Scarfman]

And by the way, I switched from iiNet to another provider about 6 months ago. [slaps head hard]

 

[rugbywhisperer]

And ---- do any of these enable us (Qld viewers) watch the English tests LIVE which we can't currently do as the FTA imbeciles reckon that just because we live 1 hour behind civilisation we are incapable of watching live rugby as well.

 

[fatprop]

we live 1 hour behind civilisation

I thought it was about 20 years

 

[Lee Grant]

Not to the point of this thread but Foxtel subscribers can pay an additional amount to get the Setanta channel and they have the 6N live. Sorry - don't now how much it costs.

My son has it and is recording the games for me.

They also have a fair whack of Magners League, Guiness Premiership and European Challenge Cup games on live too, plus the GAA and hurling.

 

[Novocastrian]

Can some techie help a bit with this?

The problem with MediaZone is that you can't access the files if your IP is in Australia. Otherwise, it's a pretty attractive way of watching games.

but how about this, from the SMH:
.....

A VPN looks like it will work Scarfman, last night I was able to sign in to Mediazone (from Newcastle) when running a free VPN program called hotspotShield (to MZ I'm loggin in from Freemont California).

I purchased a 'day package', which gave me access to the Brumbies/Highlanders, Force/Blues and Lions/Cheetahs games. I couldn't get the video working on the live streams, it appears they had network issues, but the download/'on demand' options work (I'm actually watching the SA game though Mediazone at the moment). I'm going to give it another shot with the 4 games on today and will let you know how it goes.

Aside from the live streams not working (which doesn't look to be related to the VPN) the only issues are the advertising and a bit of a slowdown in speeds with the hotspot Shield program. There's a window at the top of each screen that has ads in it and every couple of times you change pages you have to click on a link before it'll load the page you want. Speedwise I only seem to be getting ~300kBps on my ADSL2+ connection that I normally get close to 1MBps on, but it doesn't affect the 'on demand' streaming, just web browsing seems a little sluggish.

 

[Pfitzy]

I bought the MediaZone package through Foxtel last year and it was pretty good - well in part because our dollar was quite strong. Could download games which was my preferred method as Firefox didn't work well with their site. They were available approx 6 hours after the final whistle so I'd get up early, kick off the download and generally have the game before midday. Got the package for all S14 games as well as CC and ANZC but didn't get to watch much of the latter two. Tests included too I think.

Was good if you wanted to go back and look at older games from the S14 season.

I'm off that now though because of the alternative method. Good on iiNet though - that is about half the games and most of the Aussie ones by the looks.