uefa.tv live stream not working

[stevefowell]

uefa.tv live stream (of u-21 euros matches) just shows a continuous spinning wheel, both on the website on my laptop and on the app on Android 11 phone. Other uefa.tv videos (such as match highlights) stream ok. I have a Sagemcom 5364 router. 

I have tried other wifi, such as from a hotspot from another mobile and using my son's router (which isn't TalkTalk). Both these streamed the live action with no problems.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Steve

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Thanks for the update and I'm glad to hear that you've been able to resolve this.

Thanks

[stevefowell]

Hi Chris

I followed your network engineer's advice and checked the network connections. The majority of connections were from akamaized.net which is the content delivery network Akamai. So I added this to the list of allowed sites in Kids Safe. This however didn't change anything. So I looked a bit further and noticed that there were occasional connections to imggaming.com. I think that this is related to the IMG Arena sports data company. So I added imggaming.com to the list of allowed sites and this has fixed the problem. Although I can see why Kids Safe objects to such a domain I have no idea why such nomenclature is being used on the site since there appears to be no gaming or gambling related content shown to the user. Incidentally, I am disappointed (but not surprised) that uefa.tv support hadn't picked up on this and told me about it. I would add that I wouldn't be surprised if there were other live sports streams that use IMG's services and that there is a potential for Kids Safe to block those streams as well.

So, all's well that ends well. Please thank your network engineer on my behalf for pointing me in the right direction.

Regards
Steve

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Steve,

I've received an update, dicelaboratory.com is flagged in the games and gambling categories.

They've said - If you are trying to keep these categories on and view the streams you would need to identify the other domains this is making use of and whitelist those as well. In a similar way to using inspect, you can open the developer tools and select the Network tab which shows the connections the webpage makes when it is connecting to the stream. 

They go on to say, there isn't a fault here, HomeSafe is working as it should do

Hope this helps 

Chris

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Thanks Steve, I've passed your comments on, I'll let you know when I receive an update

Chris

[stevefowell]

Hi Chris

Ok, with "Gambling" and "Games" not blocked I played the live stream on my Chromebook. The URL at the top of the page is still uefa.tv. However, I did an "inspect" on the page and it looks like the stream is possibly being played with a video player called Dice Video Player. Also the image that is displayed prior to the video looks like it comes from the domain dicelaboratory.com.

So, I blocked "Gambling" and "Games" again and allowed dicelaboratory.com. This resulted in the image now being displayed (instead of nothing before) but the video still did not play.

Can your network engineer do what I have done and see if he/she concurs? The suspicion is of course that the word "dice" here is causing the problem. But I can't allow Dice Video Player to see if that fixes it. How would I do that? But if that is the culprit presumably other sites on the internet that use the same player will be affected.

Thanks

Steve

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Sorry, I don't know how you would see it in the app. If you can't find the domain, uefa.tv support team may be able to help

Chris

[stevefowell]

Hi Chris,

Yes, my thoughts too. I will check to see if I can see a domain name on my Chromebook when the matches start tonight. But how would I check a domain name if viewing in the app?

Regards

Steve

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Steve,

One of our network engineers has had a look at this, he's confirmed that uefa.tv isn't in any blocking category which makes sense as you can access the website. He says that the live stream may be hosted on a different domain name and if you could let us know which domain name it's hosted on he can check if that is being blocked

Chris

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks Steve. (sorry, no there's no reference number)

Chris

[stevefowell]

Thanks Chris, but please remember it can only be replicated when there is a live match on. There are still some u-21 matches left and there are some u-19 matches coming up. Also, a reminder that, even with uefa.tv on the allowed list, the issue still exists.

Will I get a reference number for the escalation?

Regards

Steve

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Ok thanks, we'll look into it, I'll let you know when we have an update

Chris

[ferguson]

My bad. So just switch it off when you want to watch uefa.tv? Maybe try the FileSharing site setting also? It might be that because their sponsors are laden with booze and betting companies that this is why it is being screened out. It is a fairly blunt tool when all is said and done and may have unintended consequences accordingly. It is not compulsory, you do have a choice. 

[stevefowell]

Hello ferguson

All that has been done, please read all the posts.

Steve

[ferguson]

OK, I don't use any of the HomeSafe solutions myself, but is it not possible to add the streaming site in question to the exception list? Alternatively, try switching KidSafe off temporarily and see if it works then. 

[stevefowell]

Hi Chris and Michelle,

Ok, I did some further tests during a live match which uefa.tv was streaming tonight.

I have found out that when either of the categories "Gambling" or "Games" is selected to be blocked the live match cannot be streamed. So the live stream must be being erroneously considered to be related to gambling or gaming.

I also tested this with the same result on a Linux machine so I have the same problem on three different devices.

Are you able to escalate this for me or should I raise a complaint to TalkTalk?

Regards

Steve

[stevefowell]

Hi Chris

Surely, to give more of an insight as to whether this issue is unique to me, it would be worthwhile trying to replicate it (that being so easy to try). I don't think that, because no one else has reported this issue, that you should assume that the fault lies with my devices. I have a Chromebook with up-to-date software and an Android 11 mobile which is also up-to-date. I have no other internet issues and have had no problems streaming football from BT Sport and Sky Sports. Why would my devices be responsible for stopping a stream with Kids Safe on but play the stream with Kids Safe off? That would, in any case, imply that Kids Safe is interacting with my devices.

With Kids Safe on, when I try and stream the u-21 matches on my Chromebook, nothing happens; I just get a blank window. When I try in the app on my mobile I just get a spinning wheel. There is no video coming through at all. I get no error messages.

I can also try and stream the matches on Linux and on Windows 10. I will do that on Saturday although I can't see that it would make any difference. But I am open to being amazed.

My personal hunch is that Kids Safe is picking up on something within the stream supplied by the content distribution network used by uefa.tv and is erroneously blocking the stream based on that data.

But let's see if I can narrow this down to a particular category when the matches are streamed on Saturday.

Regards
Steve

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Steve,

If there's a general problem with uefa.tv then we would expect other customers to be reporting the same issue so the information about the categories will be useful

Could I just ask, do you experience the same issue on more than one device when connected to your TalkTalk router?

Do you get an error message when you can't stream?

Chris

[stevefowell]

Hi Chris and Michelle

Yes, I will report my findings back to you.

Surely, however, the first step for TalkTalk is to replicate the issue. uefa.tv will also be showing live matches from the u-19 competition up until July 16th so there will be time to replicate in the next couple of weeks.

Regards

Steve

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the information. Yes it would be useful to find out if a specific category is causing the issue so if you could let us know how you got on, on Monday, that would be great

Chris

[stevefowell]

Hi Michelle

Yes, that's correct, but only the live streaming from the site; I don't have any problems with the rest of the site.

Other than the live streams of matches I can access everything on the uefa.tv site, including on-demand video, whether or not Kids Safe is switched on and whether or not uefa.tv is added to the inclusion list. Basically, other than the live streams of matches, all of the uefa.tv site (and the uefa.tv app) work completely fine irrespective of the Kids Safe settings, 

As I found out yesterday, if Kids Safe is switched off I can also access the live streams of matches.

But when Kids Safe is switched on (with the settings I had) I cannot access the live streams of matches. The live stream doesn't start at all. On my phone it just displays a whirling circle; on my laptop nothing happens at all. If Kids Safe is then switched off the live matches are shown straight away.

It follows that Kids Safe is blocking a live football match!

On Saturday (when the next live matches are shown) I will try and ascertain if a single particular blocked website category is responsible. 

I am sure that this issue will be easy to replicate but please bear in mind there are not many matches left in the current uefa tournament.

Regards

Steve