View Full Version : ABC Full Episode Player Dies; Won't Work
zeldar
01-13-2008, 12:33 AM
I have been using the Untangle appliance for about 8 months now with very good results. Tonight, at home, however, I was unable to play any episodes available on ABC's web site when the traffic was passing through the Untangle appliance. If I bypass Untangle, the player works fine. In looking at the Untangle Client, it appears the Spyware Blocker is causing the problem. I don't seem to be able to tune the Spyware Blocker to allow the traffic through without scanning it. When I start using the player, the Scan bar goes all the way to the right and the player freezes after a few seconds. Consequently, the only way I can use this player is to completely bypass the Untangle appliance. I am not using the router, firewall or VPN devices. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Zeldar
Evil_Bert
01-13-2008, 02:52 AM
Are you sure it's the Spyware Blocker? What video format is it? It's possible that the format used by ABC has just changed and is now triggering a block event (e.g. a mis-recognized protocol).
With every other net application disabled on your client machine, try to play ABC videos and go through each of your Untangle rack event logs to see what is being blocked. There should only be one Untangle rack application and one protocol/event that is being blocked that corresponds with the timestamp of your video-playing attempt.
BTW, is that ABC America or ABC Australia?
zeldar
01-13-2008, 09:10 AM
Are you sure it's the Spyware Blocker? I think so. I tried powering off the Spyware Blocker and it seems to work better. It was blocking on hitbox cookies and also on the hitbox IP range, but I think the biggest problem is that is slows down the stream too much and it just won't play (i.e. 'craps out')
What video format is it? Dunno. It uses a player that downloads the first time you access the Episode site.
It's possible that the format used by ABC has just changed and is now triggering a block event (e.g. a mis-recognized protocol). I don't know as I just started using it last night.
With every other net application disabled on your client machine, try to play ABC videos and go through each of your Untangle rack event logs to see what is being blocked. There should only be one Untangle rack application and one protocol/event that is being blocked that corresponds with the timestamp of your video-playing attempt. I got it to the point where there were no blocks (by looking at the log and allowing everything it was blocking, but it still wouldn't play. The Spyware Blocker bar chart shows it is working very hard to scan the traffic.
BTW, is that ABC America or ABC Australia? America, Mate.
Thanks for your help! Zeldar
zeldar
01-13-2008, 12:21 PM
In further testing, I tried powering off all of the virtual rack devices one at a time and it worked better with each one I took out. It works fine if the only devices running are Anti-Phish, Attack Blocker and the Spam Blocker and it works mostly OK if I just take out the Spyware blocker. Since I am running this Untangle appliance under VMWare as a VM, I think the throughput is just too slow for the ABC player to work right. I suspect if it doesn't receive packets fast enough in real-time, it seems to just stop playing the show.
Funny, though, other stuff like YouTube and Google Video seem to have no problem. I have noticed some glitches in Internet radio, but I always figured the cause was the Cable Internet service. I'll have to test that one with the virtual devices powered off.
Sorry for the false alarm. Thanks to Evil Bert.:cheers:
Silver Bullet
01-13-2008, 12:48 PM
If you trust the abc content enough then you could create a "no rack" policy for this. The no rack policy will bypass all of the service modules above the router.
zeldar
01-13-2008, 01:09 PM
That sounds like a good way to solve the problem. Is it available if you don't use the firewall or router modules? I don't see where to configure such a policy on my appliance. Thanks.
Silver Bullet
01-13-2008, 02:31 PM
At the top of your rack you have a drop down menu. Select it and then choose "show policy manager". From there, click on the "Custom Policies" tab. Then click on the green + to add a new rule and a dialog box will open. Set all of your rule options there and at the bottom of that window under "Rack", click the drop down menu and choose "no rack".
ronnikat
01-14-2008, 12:40 PM
There was a similiar problem with NBC videos - Spyware
http://bugzilla.untangle.com/show_bug.cgi?id=3261
You need to unblock the SPYWARE AD companies that are tagging into the video stream with cookies.
Silver Bullet
01-14-2008, 12:53 PM
There was a similiar problem with NBC videos - Spyware
http://bugzilla.untangle.com/show_bug.cgi?id=3261
You need to unblock the SPYWARE AD companies that are tagging into the video stream with cookies.
You are exactly right.... I played with it for a little while but soon as I would unblock one, another would show up. Hitbox is listed in both the URL and Subnet list and then a couple others. I decided I wasn't going to play cat and mouse with it all day. :D
ronnikat
01-16-2008, 01:50 PM
Ya, its starting to really bug me how they are finding ways around the spyware blockers.
Its their advertisers who are doing this. They want to 'track you'...
My personal beef grows every day how on one hand everyone (the big 5 and the Internet Big 5) know that Internet ADs do this, and some of them are really not on the up and up (Remember the doubleclick virus?), and turn around on one hand say 'OH WE VALUE YOU, we don't do spyware, want to protect you' and then put an AD in your face that does just that.........
*grrrrr* (sorry, my I dislike Internet Ads period)
Silver Bullet
01-16-2008, 02:05 PM
Ya, its starting to really bug me how they are finding ways around the spyware blockers.
Its their advertisers who are doing this. They want to 'track you'...
My personal beef grows every day how on one hand everyone (the big 5 and the Internet Big 5) know that Internet ADs do this, and some of them are really not on the up and up (Remember the doubleclick virus?), and turn around on one hand say 'OH WE VALUE YOU, we don't do spyware, want to protect you' and then put an AD in your face that does just that.........
*grrrrr* (sorry, my I dislike Internet Ads period)
I'm with ya... I tried blocking google's pagead2 servers in the subnet llist but got tired of continually adding the the IP's from google. Ended up just adding the pagead2.googlesyndication.com to the block list in the web filter and no more google ads. :D Needless to say, they rank high on the list in the reports as a violation.
kelso78
04-25-2008, 08:24 AM
I'm wondering if anyone knows any other work arounds for this. I don't want to create a no rack policy because I don't trust ANYONE that much. I don't want to unblock the spyware ad companies because then they will always be allowed no matter what sites are visited.
There may not be any other way but I just wanted to be sure. I'd like to allow people to view ABC video but I don't want to open a vulnerability to my network.
If you like the bad guys here but don't like them there, you've got a dilemma. Maybe start posting on well-read forums that ABC uses spyware?!? Kinda kidding, but kinda not. They only think it serves their advertising purpose. Everytime I logged into USA Today and they threw their demographic form at me, I was a different age and lived in a different zip code. I wish (in that case) there were more choices for "Sex" than M or F.
I think you're stuck on this one, Kevin.
ronnikat
04-25-2008, 11:28 AM
For all those that are having this issue, (NBC, CBS and ABC - Flash Ad Videos) please feel free to add your comment to the following bug and VOTE ON IT to get it fixed :) http://bugzilla.untangle.com/show_bug.cgi?id=3261
kelso78
04-25-2008, 01:28 PM
I think you're stuck on this one, Kevin.
No kidding. I think the only other option is to turn it off when someone wants to view ABC and turn it back on afterwards... that's just an administrator's nightmare.
I guess they aren't watching ABC during business hours...they'll have to go home and watch it.
bratsadtar
04-26-2008, 12:01 AM
Or..... you could just very easily add NBC.COM, CBS.COM, ABC.COM, FOX.COM (whatever video broadcaster you are trying to watch) into the spyware blocker pass list, manually reboot the UNTANGLE box, and enjoy watching full videos again :)
ronnikat
04-27-2008, 04:19 AM
Or..... you could just very easily add NBC.COM, CBS.COM, ABC.COM, FOX.COM (whatever video broadcaster you are trying to watch) into the spyware blocker pass list, manually reboot the UNTANGLE box, and enjoy watching full videos again :)
Not to stop this solution, it has been tried, and unfortunately the first doubleclick beacon, ford beacon, the video stops.
I understand you got it to work - but how many videos did you play? How many ads did you see?
After a bit, the video will stop because the beacons are updated.
What the bug has demonstrated from the reports and testing at the lab have shown, is that there needs to be a better solution than to have the Admin constantly update the list to approve/pass what happens playing FLASH embedded cookied movies/videos/sprites
Ronni QA Manager.
ronnikat
04-27-2008, 11:24 AM
Btw, not all the episodes of their shows and news and video articles have Flash Embedded tags and beacons. Some of them you can actually stream cleanly.
They try to randomize it because - they too know that folks are blocking (*not just untangle, ANY SPYWARE product, and sometimes even the Phish/Webcontent control products will interact with it as well)
bratsadtar
04-27-2008, 01:22 PM
Not to stop this solution, it has been tried, and unfortunately the first doubleclick beacon, ford beacon, the video stops.
I understand you got it to work - but how many videos did you play? How many ads did you see?
After a bit, the video will stop because the beacons are updated.
What the bug has demonstrated from the reports and testing at the lab have shown, is that there needs to be a better solution than to have the Admin constantly update the list to approve/pass what happens playing FLASH embedded cookied movies/videos/sprites
Ronni QA Manager.
So far, I have ran over 20 different programs from cbs, abc, and nbc, just let them run. Wasn't looking for ads, just looked at the videos streaming without stopping. And, have not seen any problems. Prior to the above, I was completely unable to view any.
bratsadtar
04-27-2008, 01:26 PM
If you know of a specific one, I will be happy to look at it:)
ronnikat
04-27-2008, 02:00 PM
If you know of a specific one, I will be happy to look at it:)
Maybe These companies have changed how they were doing things (the bug is over 6 months old)
I will take a look at it in the lab at Untangle on Monday and post the results to the board.
I doubt they have removed their flash ads, but I believe they may have done something to get around the Spyware.
etrigan63
10-21-2008, 07:05 PM
I can safely report that in October 2008 this is still happening.
ozinga1
11-01-2008, 09:39 AM
I have added the sites that were being blocked (for ABC) to the pass list, however the ABC player still does not work (Nothing is blocked). Turning off the racks is not fun, so if someone has bypass filter settings that work please post them. If the racks would work that would be the best options but for now I will settle with the bypass settings.
Catul
11-04-2008, 12:10 PM
This is definitely a problem; we cannot watch videos on CNBC.com right now, because the Spyware Blocker is blocking access to various ad/tracking companies that are embedded in the flash stream. My logs show URL's in quantserve.com, 2mdn.net, atdmt.com, tacoda.net etc. being blocked. Adding cnbc.com to the Pass list doesn't help of course.
Looks like there are several of us affected by this, and short of just removing Spyware Blocker from the rack (too extreme), I can't find a solution :(
Add all the other ones you listed to the pass list in Web Filter. This issue will become worse over time as more web content providers try to milk you for advertising dollars.
wharfratjoe
01-04-2009, 01:50 PM
Just in case anyone else had a problem with streaming online programming.
In version 6.0.1, abc.com was not able to stream online HD programming (let me tell you that if this was not fixed i would never hear the end of this from my wife...lol). Anyway, I unchecked "Disable HTTP Resume" in Virus Blocker and bingo everything started to work.
However, cbs.com and nbc.com are still having trouble and its most likely the spyware blocker. I will post any more findings on this.
*** Edit ***
It is the Spyware blocker for sure. I stopped the service and videos started to work cbs.com and nbc.com
I can post what I had to send to the pass list in spyware blocker so cbs.com and nbc.com started to work
Happy New Year!