CBS.com and Adware Blocker Error - Huh !

[PowerFalcon]

I can't watch any shows from CBS.com without the error; The video you have requested is either unavailable or is being blocked by an ad blocker installed in your browser. I have done my research, and cleaned all of FireFox cache and IE Cookies, disabled all Adware blockers in FireFox, there were none installed for IE 10. I even disabled my anti-virus program, yet I continue get the same error, when I visit CBS.com to watch anything, arghhh. This is non sense, it was working (3) days ago, without any problems.

[ZoWillie]

One reason might be if your internet provider is time warner or one of its sub companies, anything CBS is blocked from being accessed and vice-versa as CBS & Time Warner couldn't agree on a $$$ figure for the next contract. ie. Time Warner refused to pay CBS what CBS values their property at so TW turned off access to CBS content and in retailiation CBS is blocking all TW subscribers until TW pays the contract. Lovely huh? You should get a splash page when you try to log into any CBS domain explaining this and if your talking about videos you viewed from either/or thinking they were on your system, they turned access off to them. If your not a TW customer then this may not be your problem.

[jagabo]

I can watch videos from cbs.com with Internet Explorer. But I get the same "ad blocker" error with FireFox.

If I disable AdBlock Plus in FireFox I can watch videos there now.

Enable this URL in AdBlock Plus and you can watch videos at cbs.com:

http://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/plugins/ima3/Advertisement.swf

[PowerFalcon]

ZoWillie - I'm not a TW customer Jagabo - As I mentioned, I have tried and disabled AdBlocker from FireFox, I still get the same error.

[jman98]

CBS.com may have in the past 3 days made a change to block Canadians from watching videos on their sites. I am guessing here. I found one article via a search from months ago that said that Canadians were supposed to be blocked by CBS.com anyway so you probably just got lucky that it worked as long as it did. TV rights are very restrictive and it's not unusual for TV content providers to block viewers outside of specific countries from watching via streaming. The BBC does this. CBS refuses to join Hulu, so they have their own streaming service and their own rules on who can see it and who can't.

It's very difficult to get good information on this, but the real issue may be that there was a contract that allowed Canadian customers of Netflix to stream CBS.com stuff and that deal may have expired very recently. I am unsure of this as the exact details are hard to uncover. This is along the lines of what ZoWillie points out that maybe in your case you were able to do so but there are no current deals in place to allow this any more. This kind of thing happens all the time. For example, Netflix streaming is under constant flux with shows going on and off the streaming service depending on whatever deals Netflix can negotiate and which deal expire and aren't renewed.

[PowerFalcon]

jman98 - That is what I was leaning towards, I was hoping that it wasn't true. I'd still like to know if there is a way around this, if possible !

[jman98]

jman98 - That is what I was leaning towards, I was hoping that it wasn't true. I'd still like to know if there is a way around this, if possible !

That is the right question to ask. There should be. I'll explain.


You'll need to use a VPN that can give you a US IP address. Then to CBS.com you will look like an American internet user and should not be restricted. Now here's the question that I don't have an answer to - are there free VPN services you can use that can do that? I know of commercial services that can do this. I use Golden Frog as it comes free with my service package from Giganews.

[PowerFalcon]

I was using SpotFlux. I assume, CBS.com caught onto this wonderful program. I have to hunt down another VPN service Any recommendations ?

[hech54]

I used Tunnel Bear for watching Wimbledon online from here in Germany. It never failed.

[ZoWillie]

Awesome info here, thanks everyone! I use TOR when I surf, but check their rules, Im not positive if they have enabled the streaming yet as they were at one time short on bandwidth as the flood of users going VPN has been non-stop. I have also paid for one once that seemed ok, but towards the end of subscription I had a hard time to get a "secure" port. The service escapes my memory right now, but do a search for Secure surfing and how to verify that your are secure and you'll get good info. I know everyone loves google but it is the most unsecured search engine that censors what you see and also the most unsecured email client to use and yes I know the irony cause I use gmail, but I just found this out about its email service, I been using NON mainstream search engines that can be verified for security. I just stopped using dogpile recently as they jumped on the band wagon, ahhh, the search continues.

[olyteddy]

jman98 - That is what I was leaning towards, I was hoping that it wasn't true. I'd still like to know if there is a way around this, if possible !

If that's what you wanted to know, why didn't you say so at the git-go? Do you expect forum members to be psychic?

[PowerFalcon]

jman98 - That is what I was leaning towards, I was hoping that it wasn't true. I'd still like to know if there is a way around this, if possible !

If that's what you wanted to know, why didn't you say so at the git-go? Do you expect forum members to be psychic?

That was, what I was implying.

[drjtech]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2013/08/21/proxies-illegal/1

A US court has ruled that simply changing one's IP address is enough to fall foul of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, if done to circumvent a deliberate block on accessing a site or service.

Just FYI. Being in Canada may not protect you from the ever longer arms of U.S. law enforcement. It's clear that you are deliberately being blocked from accessing the CBS site.

[PowerFalcon]

Others have bypassed via a Proxy. The problem is paying $50-$80 a yr for a proxy, isn't worth it in my case.