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Stream initialization failed

Xander

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This error happens when using Express VPN with the N provider. and it happens alot
I realise its probably not top priority as its most likely a VPN issue. but it dont happen at all with the D provider, Also if i switch over to Nord vpn then it does not happen on the N provider eather.
 

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This error happens when using Express VPN with the N provider. and it happens alot
I realise its probably not top priority as its most likely a VPN issue. but it dont happen at all with the D provider, Also if i switch over to Nord vpn then it does not happen on the N provider eather.
It is my personal view, and I know that others will not agree with me even others here on staff, that VPNs will cause issues down the line that anystream will not be able to fix. Please keep in mind that this is just my opinion not the developers nor the staff nor anybody else. I honestly hope that they can fix it. I don’t know that express VPN does anything different than Nord VPN or any other VPN, and yes I realize that people travel and the providers should not block any VPNs because people login from different countries. I really don’t want to go on and on about this, but I want Anystream to be around a very long time and I believe VPNs are a danger to your access to your provider. I also think this is the reason people are having network problems. Like I said I hope I am not right. Enough said about this.
 
It is my personal view, and I know that others will not agree with me even others here on staff, that VPNs will cause issues down the line that anystream will not be able to fix. Please keep in mind that this is just my opinion not the developers nor the staff nor anybody else. I honestly hope that they can fix it. I don’t know that express VPN does anything different than Nord VPN or any other VPN, and yes I realize that people travel and the providers should not block any VPNs because people login from different countries. I really don’t want to go on and on about this, but I want Anystream to be around a very long time and I believe VPNs are a danger to your access to your provider. I also think this is the reason people are having network problems. Like I said I hope I am not right. Enough said about this.

I have just started to experiment with using VPN for AS. I did not really need it but I thought it would be fun to play around with. Now with that said (I am still testing this) it seems different VPN providers handle DNS differently and some allow you to configure it. I think what might often happen (and this is speculation) is your DNS queries will run local and not in the tunnel so if you are in the USA connected through a UK IP and AS does a query for CDN, you are given an USA IP and when your UK VPN IP tries to connect to it it gets the finger for one reason or another.

IF, this is going on then the solution would be to always try to make sure your DNS queries are going through the VPN tunnel utilizing your VPN IP.
 
And how many people do you think even understand what you said. People that use VPNs just want to pick a country or place and connect to it. Sweet and simple. They do not want to get into configurations that they don’t understand. We are getting in to off-topic conversation here( my fault). I really want people to concentrate on Xander‘s post. Thank you. I apologize Xander.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Xander,
I see this snippet from the log you supplied:
[Error] [Pump:video:netflix] Download channel init failed: Connection refused
which I assume is the Netflix side of the communication refusing the connection. Now the vendors typically don't publish why they refuse a connection attempt as that is a security violation but the DNS theory from DarkQuark is certainly possible to my mind. Some detail behind that, the Netflix authentication servers have OKed your login credentials
[Debug] [vendor:netflix] logged in
but the actual download would happen from a different part of the Netflix network and so could be refused by their content servers. We know for instance that with a browser and an active VPN doing geolocation that you can sometimes authenticate successfully into Netflix and look at listings but only when you click an entry to actually stream does Netflix refuse and kick you out. Which sounds like what we see in the logs.
Questions:
1. Are you always able to use a browser to connect to Netflix over the VPN and subsequently stream films?
2. Having had AnyStream refuse a connection have you immediately tried a browser on the same VPN session?
This will help eliminate Anystream if its the DNS (or any other leakage) is triggering Netflix.

Another idea. ExpressVPN has an interesting feature (that may not be applicable to Xander) of installing an Express VPN app onto their router. This would cut down on any data leakage (including DNS) from the PC running Anystream so that might be worth a read to lower the risk of attracting the attention of Netflix. Also some VPN vendors e.g. NordVPN have their own DNS servers to eliminate the specific DNS risk.

Redfox 1,
I certainly agree with your point about VPN complexity however I note all the major VPN vendors typically have a section "How to view Netflix from abroad using our product" with step by step guides and so I guess if folks are really motivated to plough through the geek terms maybe that's a way forward. They also talk about it being a constant arms race as Netflix blocks any VPN addresses they find.

Anyway, all just educated guesses but might be some food for thought.
 
Xander,
I see this snippet from the log you supplied:
[Error] [Pump:video:netflix] Download channel init failed: Connection refused
which I assume is the Netflix side of the communication refusing the connection. Now the vendors typically don't publish why they refuse a connection attempt as that is a security violation but the DNS theory from DarkQuark is certainly possible to my mind. Some detail behind that, the Netflix authentication servers have OKed your login credentials
[Debug] [vendor:netflix] logged in
but the actual download would happen from a different part of the Netflix network and so could be refused by their content servers. We know for instance that with a browser and an active VPN doing geolocation that you can sometimes authenticate successfully into Netflix and look at listings but only when you click an entry to actually stream does Netflix refuse and kick you out. Which sounds like what we see in the logs.
Questions:
1. Are you always able to use a browser to connect to Netflix over the VPN and subsequently stream films?
2. Having had AnyStream refuse a connection have you immediately tried a browser on the same VPN session?
This will help eliminate Anystream if its the DNS (or any other leakage) is triggering Netflix.

Another idea. ExpressVPN has an interesting feature (that may not be applicable to Xander) of installing an Express VPN app onto their router. This would cut down on any data leakage (including DNS) from the PC running Anystream so that might be worth a read to lower the risk of attracting the attention of Netflix. Also some VPN vendors e.g. NordVPN have their own DNS servers to eliminate the specific DNS risk.

Redfox 1,
I certainly agree with your point about VPN complexity however I note all the major VPN vendors typically have a section "How to view Netflix from abroad using our product" with step by step guides and so I guess if folks are really motivated to plough through the geek terms maybe that's a way forward. They also talk about it being a constant arms race as Netflix blocks any VPN addresses they find.

Anyway, all just educated guesses but might be some food for thought.
Reading the log files is not something you want to do. Only the developers will understand them, they would not put information in there to make it public. So like I said, what you read is not what is actually happening.
 
Reading the log files is not something you want to do. Only the developers will understand them, they would not put information in there to make it public. So like I said, what you read is not what is actually happening.
This is not completely true. What he wrote there was a simple copy and paste of something you can see directly within AS or the txt file inside the log. So they are not "secret" since you don't even have to create a log to see it.
But there are indeed informations inside the logfile that the devs wants to be public so they are in a different format and maybe encryptet.
 
This is not completely true. What he wrote there was a simple copy and paste of something you can see directly within AS or the txt file inside the log. So they are not "secret" since you don't even have to create a log to see it.
But there are indeed informations inside the logfile that the devs wants to be public so they are in a different format and maybe encryptet.
I did not say they were secret, I said there is more to it than you can read, you will not understand them unless you know what to look for. Where did I say they were secret? What I said was what you read is not always what it means. You can certainly guess what it means, but you may be very wrong.
 
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And how many people do you think even understand what you said. People that use VPNs just want to pick a country or place and connect to it. Sweet and simple. They do not want to get into configurations that they don’t understand. We are getting in to off-topic conversation here( my fault). I really want people to concentrate on Xander‘s post. Thank you. I apologize Xander.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

My apologies for being off topic. I was just trying to be helpful. Yes I got into the weeds I guess but the idea was it could be a complex issue and I know I see a lot of posts similar to this. Just thought maybe if we understood the root cause we could head such issues off at the pass with the VPN stuff.
 
My apologies for being off topic. I was just trying to be helpful. Yes I got into the weeds I guess but the idea was it could be a complex issue and I know I see a lot of posts similar to this. Just thought maybe if we understood the root cause we could head such issues off at the pass with the VPN stuff.
Its all good, I just didn't want people to forget about the OPs issue.
 
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What I said was what you read is not always what it means. You can certainly guess what it means, but you may be very wrong.
I agree.

they would not put information in there to make it public
You never said it is secret, but "not to make it public" made me think in this direction. And since the information is not really hidden, it is not "not public" for me. But I understand what you want to say.
 
It's my opinion, that the more people try and get more out of AnyStream than it was coded for the more issues they will have. There is nothing in AnyStreams features or specifications that speak of VPNs. People are having network connection issues here, I cant think of a better reason to have network connection issues than using a VPN, I am sure maybe even the developers may disagree with me but that's what I think. I am never using a VPN and I am fine.
 
It's my opinion, that the more people try and get more out of AnyStream than it was coded for the more issues they will have. There is nothing in AnyStreams features or specifications that speak of VPNs. People are having network connection issues here, I cant think of a better reason to have network connection issues than using a VPN, I am sure maybe even the developers may disagree with me but that's what I think. I am never using a VPN and I am fine.
I used VPN the first time with AS and I think it is slower.
I only used it for some episodes, so I have not much experience. But I never had connection issues.
In addition it seems to be a bit faster now, but I cannot say if this is during an update of AS, the VPN Software or something else.
I agree that a VPN can cause network issues, but at the end the reason can be everything. The internet provider, the computer and so on. So yes, a VPN can cause the issues, but you never know if it is only the VPN.
 
I used VPN the first time with AS and I think it is slower.
I only used it for some episodes, so I have not much experience. But I never had connection issues.
In addition it seems to be a bit faster now, but I cannot say if this is during an update of AS, the VPN Software or something else.
I agree that a VPN can cause network issues, but at the end the reason can be everything. The internet provider, the computer and so on. So yes, a VPN can cause the issues, but you never know if it is only the VPN.
I couldn't have said it better myself. I agree 100%.
 
I used VPN the first time with AS and I think it is slower.
I only used it for some episodes, so I have not much experience. But I never had connection issues.
In addition it seems to be a bit faster now, but I cannot say if this is during an update of AS, the VPN Software or something else.
I agree that a VPN can cause network issues, but at the end the reason can be everything. The internet provider, the computer and so on. So yes, a VPN can cause the issues, but you never know if it is only the VPN.
VPN will almost always be slower by definition because its encrypted. It takes extra processing to encrypt and decrypt the data, especially software VPNs which have no hardware acceleration. Plus you're almost always being routed thru an IP which is physically farther away with more hops than without it.
 
VPN will almost always be slower by definition because its encrypted. It takes extra processing to encrypt and decrypt the data, especially software VPNs which have no hardware acceleration. Plus you're almost always being routed thru an IP which is physically farther away with more hops than without it.

Yup and that's not even getting into the additional overhead and MTU/MSS issues which likes the break stuff left and right :p

Any additional layer of security comes at some cost even if it is just convenience. There is always a trade-off.
 
Hello I just bought this software and I'm getting this error as well. I don't have a VPN running.
Can somebody help please?

many thanks
 
It seems to struggle to load the artwork for Sports replays, so if hit the green download button then I get the error 'stream initialization failed'
If I try to download a TV showed the artwork loads. Is this normal?
 
Hello I just bought this software and I'm getting this error as well. I don't have a VPN running.
Can somebody help please?

many thanks
You have to create a log file, look at the GUI in the upper left-hand corner you will see FILE, press it, you will see create a log file, create it, upload to the forum, please.
 
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