VPN info

[djh3]

So I'm thinking pretty seriously about dumping my high dollar cable. I was on 200mb service and good channel selection, but I was on a "deal" for 191 a month. It ran out and the bill was going to be close to $225. So I cut speed and channels and got it down to a manageable $150ish. My son has messed with firestick some and got us one a few months back, but I haven't worked with it much. Beel looking at streaming services as you really can get much for channels "free" on the sticks, you have to use some kind of service be it Hulu, You Tube TV or something like that.

I am looking at a service called GearsTVHD. Great channel selection for stuff we like to watch and @ 20 a month its a way cheaper option. But the recommended like all the stream services I have checked to run a VPN. So I know some of you all are running stream for TV are you running a VPN and if so do you have any recommendations? Droping the TV part of cable and keeping 100mb internet would be like $80 month, and $20 for the stream service and the VPN runs about 8 or 10 depending on who ya go with. But the plan is to split the cost of the service and VPN with my son as we can have like 5 connected devices. Any help or info would be helpful.

[t_hole]

IMHO...that GearsHDTV sounds like they pirate broadcasts and redistribute them across their own servers. That's probably why they're requiring you to have a VPN for their service, so that they don't get caught for violating FTC regulations on unauthorized rebroadcasting. There are plenty of other affordable options for streaming that don't involve the encouragement of pirating. If you have Amazon prime you already have access to their Prime Video streaming service included. Also, since you're already planning on splitting the cost with your son, services like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube TV, etc allow for multiple connections per account which could also help mitigate the cost of those legitimate service providers. Just my $0.02...

[bpate4home]

I dumped dish and went with Roku. We already had Netflix and Amazon Prime video. I added sling but I am finding I just don't watch all the channels and Sling is now owned by Dish. I am thinking about Dripping that too. My son's both do Disney + so I just added multiple account support to my Netflix and they added me to their Disney+. If you watch a lot of local TV you can add something like LoCast or just get an HD Antennae. We only have 75mbs internet connection and I'm lucky if I see 10 at night. and that's $80 but I need that for work. When it was all said and done (at least at the moment) I cut all my TV side of the costs from about $140 to $89. If I decide to term sling I will get that down to somewhere around $30 - $40. You will find that you just don't watch that many different channels. You can also add HBO and the like at ~$6 a month.

[CaseyJ955]

I agree with T_hole, you should not need a VPN and it sounds very shady.

 

I fired DirectTV years ago and not looked back. Cable should be 100% free considering all the ads they collect money on by forcing you to watch. Even if you can fast forward through them it's still an annoyance. I've completely eliminated advertisement and brought my price down to around $60/mo for streaming content and internet connection. The whole concept of packaging channels is long in the tooth too, the cable industry I'm sure knows it's drawing it's last breath as streaming has just gotten so much better, cheaper and user friendly.

 

Stand alone DSL internet after taxes and all should be under $40/mo, mine is 36.xx month

Netflix is 13/mo

Hulu + (package w/no ads) is my sons, not sure of cost but it's minimal. I just log on to his account and watch.

 

All you need is a steaming device like a smart TV or ROKU. Stand alone internet and an account with Netflix and/or other streaming services which usually come as apps already installed on any streaming device to make it easier. Thats it and all you really need to get back on with viewing ad-free content and viewing what you want when you want sure sounds better than paying a high price to be pounded into tears by relentless advertising and appointment viewing.

 

Another word on cost, you dont need any fancy ultra-fast internet to stream or play games, usually the slowest/most basic DSL speed is plenty ample to do both with no issues, but ISP (internet service providers) love to up-sell expensive packages and add-ons, none of which are necessary to do what you want to do. I stream with an internet speed of only 1.5/sec, limited by my rural location. No HD at that speed by my AVR upscales and looks pretty darn good. If your in a city then you should be golden even with the cheapest slowest speed you can get and stream all day in HD.

 

I'm big on privacy so I use a Pi-Hole DNS level adblocker that works works on a Respberry-Pi mini-computer. It cost me about $50 and an afternoon to setup and make my DNS server and now I can see (and block) network traffic to any device. Plug it right into the LAN and set it up. There is a way to put a VPN and KODI streaming software on the same device, I'm ordering a backup to experiment with keeping my adblocker, streaming software and VPN on one small device that plugs right into the LAN.

 

Good luck with whatever you choose to do, leaving cable is a very short learning curve with great rewards, I'm sure you will be quite happy with it.

[videoarizona]

I too ditched the cable. Went with an outside TV antenna (The old Radio Shack kind) put it on the roof...and it gets all the local TV channels just fine. And I'm 46 miles away from the stations! Picture quality is far better than cable was....no where near the compression issues that cable had. I can actually see blades of grass during golf with a close up of the ball/tee. And I had top of the line cable!

 

Kept my Cox internet for $80/month.

 

I went with Roku. Bought the Ultra. Cheap. Gets tons of internet TV stuff. Only premium channel I bought was Disney+. Everything else I like to watch is free: YouTube, etc..

 

I don't miss anything else I used to have with cable. In fact, my biggest complaint with cable (besides the price) was there was to much to watch.

 

So go local with an antenna and keep a good internet. Start slowly, picking your channels you want. Won't take long to see the best stuff is free with maybe only 1 premium channel for those "hug the wife, grab the popcorn" watch movie nights! (grab the wife and hug the popcorn?)

 

BNTW, don't go for the BS about needing an HD antenna. Any of the old style antennas work perfectly for VHF/UHF channels. They pick up digital HD just fine!

[cowpuc]

Not to long ago,, during ancient times before our club collected these $1 a month dues for us to be able to come on here and ,, I had Dial Up and used AOL.. Wowzy wow wow wow,, remember those days? That was not long after I had completed my non-traditional shot at returning to College and completing my Bachelor's degree which, at the time, included modern day (for then) computer classes with programming in DOS/Basic and COBOL,,, sheesh,, been a while,,, our word processing was all "Word Star" = like I said, ancient..

Anyway,, during those days,, my monthly internet fee was 10 bucks for the, compared to todays club environment,, we were all professional slow riders IMHO.. We lived in the sticks back then,, 5 miles of gravel roads,, several thousand acres of State/Federal land right out the back door to play on and we were fortunate to even to be able to access the internet at all.. Then we moved, got modern,, got DSL.. When we moved to our new home near the Lake Shore we also moved into more costs for phone and internet.. We ended up with Verizon at 70 a month for our land line and 20 a month for DSL over the old phone lines.. I checked into "Satellite" service with one of those little dishes on the roof.. That was 145 a month.. No way was I going there.. Our Verizon was ok some times BUT,, being they were still using (and still are) the old buried "twisted pair" routine with the wires totally suseptible to going crazy every time it rained,,, it was a non-winnable disaster..

Then one day a few years ago a couple "Comcast" managers showed up at my door.. They looked at our situation,, suggested I look into one of Comcasts internet specials and then explained how the "maintaining low fees" thing worked with Comcast.. They said I needed to get ahold of "Customer Retention" every year the month before my 12 month internet special pricing ran out.. After paying over 100 bucks a month for our land line w/ DSL two twisted pair internet that washed out everytime it rained I figured what da heck,, may as well try.. Jumped online,, found the "Comcast/Xfinity" net special those guys were talking about,, 20 bucks + 10 bucks rental for their equipment,, signed up but did not accept their equipment rental.. Bought my own router and that other thing needed to make it work.. Even talked to local Comcast people about which type of equipment to buy. Got it all for less then 100 bucks,, figured the savings of one year usage would pay for it by not renting.. Worked great.. Noticed the fine print said that at the end of the 12 month special, the rate would jump to 80 bucks a month,, made mental note to absolutely do the "customer retention" thing as playing on the internet is not worth 80 bucks a month.. Year later, contacted internet Comcast on one of those chat things at their web site,, total rediculous failure.. Got big idea to go to local Comcast business hub here in town.. WOWZY did that work out!! Customer Retention Manager there treated me like gold,, set us up for 20 bucks extention for next 12 months and told me to come back every year and they would do what they could to hold the rate there if I did.. Been doing for several years now and,, knock on wood,, still holding at 20 bucks a month for cable Internet with no more old wet two twisted wire interference.. And,, get this,, the speeds while slow compared to most,, seem to be hanging around "25" instead of "2.5" which has been fully adequate for all the streaming we can eat from more than one computer streaming at once too..

Shortly after getting the Comcast deal I completely got away from our home "land line" w/ Verizon cause they still wanted 80 bucks a month just for phone service and it only worked when it didnt rain.. I grabbed a Trac Phone to replace.. Worked awesome.. Little flip phone became my friend.. Was dirt cheap,, about 1/10th of what our home phone service cost and could take anywhere.. Then my son stuck us on his "Grand Plan" which cost him nothing cause he gets mulitple add ons for free.. Dropped the Trac Phone... Now our only phone/internet/tv bill per month is 20 bucks:178:..

We used Roku for long time to access Youtube for streaming TV/News/bike stuff/girly stuff for wife and on and on.. I seriously still dont know how anyone could ever need anything more than Youtube streaming.. There is wayyyyyyy more stuff to watch on just youtube, way I figure it,, if I run out of stuff to watch on youtube I am probably watching more TV than I need to watch and should probably get out of the house more ..

Now I am using a Fire Stick as a replacement for the much Roku but only cause I got it for a Christmas present from one of the kids.. The fire stick works great IMHO.. The only thing I can say about it is if I use it alot,, sayyyyy,, to watch a couple Youtube movies back to back and then try to scroll down during a news broad cast to make a comment about why the new people got it wrong I have to go into the fire stick applications and clean the caches and then reboot the stick.. I am assuming this is only because of the limited "Ram" in the stick.. Maybe the newer Fire Sticks dont have this problem,, mine is old,, not as old as me but still old:backinmyday:..

I actually have a 40 foot tower with rotator that I intended to install in my back yard to do exactly what @videoarizona mentions.. I know for a fact that what he says is spot on!! I know we could get all the local stations,, for free,, with a set up like that.. Issue is though,, I still have not ran out of things to watch on just Youtube so there the tower lays.. I will probably just give it to some neighbor who needs to watch more tv than I like to watch..

The End

[djh3]

Thanks for some info. I bought an indoor antenna that is supposed to get out 80 miles. I am about 60 or 70 as crow flys from Tampa area so should be good eh? Not so much. But I do get like 3 or 4 decent stations should interweb go out, like during a hurricane. That was kind of my object I get an ABC, MeTV and couple more like that. Oh yea and some spanish speaking ones that do me no good. I checked into the You Tube TV and cant get channels I would like. One of the channels I really would like is MavTV, they have lots of auto racing stuff from short tracks around the US. Hard to find any package that has that one. We are not Netflix watch a series kind of folks. Just dont do the binge thing. We do watch mostly network stuff and HGTV and Food network. I grew to like Smithsonian until Crumcast jacked the rates up. One thing about VPN is keeps your cable company from being in your bussiness and knowing what your doing. Also helps from hackers getting into your stuff. I have read some articles where folks were streaming and their provider slowed their service down or some other sneaky pete stuff. They know your using data but not what your using it for. Dont have a prime account anymore. So it's still up in air what we will do. My son is researching some options too.

Puc lived over in the Thumb for a few years in my teens with my older brother. Little bitty place, Sandusky Mi not the other one. So we were miles from any big town. Antenna and a rotary and a booster. We had channels from Detroit, Windsor, Flint, Saginaw. Use to have pieces of tape on dial to remind ya where what was. LOL

[RandyR]

I decided to subscribe to Amazon prime for a trial about 6 months ago. So far I thinks its worth the monthly fee. I get discounts or faster shipping on many items purchased on Amazon including free shipping and small discount on Pantry (food) orders over $35 and a big variety of free movies and entertainment. Between that and Youtube I don't miss TV at all. There are numerous TV stations that stream the news and weather and local programming for free, either directly or via Youtube. Occasionally there are video streams on Twitch that are of interest. There is a very limited amount of professional sports available for free however, but there are internet streaming services for an additional fee. I'm using a 14mb dsl line btw