Friday, October 13, 2023

Spectrum internet TV interaction with VPN



I just posted this on Facebook, but I'm going to post it here as well:

Here's something I just learned: As somebody who sometimes watches TV on the computer because Spectrum doesn't carry e.g. the Science Channel or the Weather Channel here, I every so often look at Spectrum's online TV guide. Yesterday I noticed that some of the channels were kinda grayed out, saying I'd have to connect to Spectrum Internet to see those (Spectrum is my Internet provider, so I am on Spectrum Internet).
As one of my jobs requires a VPN, which I only got to work yesterday (or maybe the day before), that is what apparently causes this to happen - as Spectrum can't see through the VPN and doesn't know anymore that you're on Spectrum Internet.
I found this out from a very nice (and obviously VPN knowledgeable) Spectrum tech support person on the phone.
I don't have the same grayed out TV channels on my Chromebook where I don't have a VPN - but I don't remember whether they were grayed out there too when the VPN was running on my Windows notebook, but to get those back on my Windows notebook I'll have to reboot it.
I'm not going to restart the VPN at this point because I don't want to have to call Spectrum again if it takes those channels away on my Chromebook.
I'm glad one of the channels I watch quite a bit, Story Channel (338), that is grayed out with the VPN, is available on TV here (I take binge watching things I'm interested in over waiting a week for the next episode just about any time)