Ice Network & Commentators

[Kitten23]

Since we pay to watch skating on Ice Network, why are we subjected to the annoying commentators?  I'd pay $5.00 more just to hear the music WITHOUT any comments. 

Am I alone on this?

[littlerain]

Lol I completely agree!

[icedancer]

Who is doing the commentary?

[Kitten23]

Since I'm supposed to be studying for a class tomorrow morning, I have the volume down.  It doesn't matter who's commentating; I want them to be quiet.  For the amount of money we pay to belong to Ice Network, I think we have the right to demand just music and no comments.  Apparently anyone who is willing to pay for the service knows enough about figure skating to identify the jumps and spins.  I don't need to know that yesterday skater "ABC" ate waffles and had a manicure.   Color commentary makes me want to scream regardless of who or what sport.  I turn down the volume on baseball games (I'm a Mets fan, so it's best if I don't hear the commentary ). 

I'm writing to Ice Network tomorrow asking that subscribers not have to listen to the commentary.

[Kitten23]

One commentator, I believe is Michael Weiss.

[sarahspins]

Charlie was especially talkative during the short dance (I like his commentary, but I think less would be much better), and I agree that there should be a feed option WITHOUT comments. Watching all of the other events without them was wonderful.

Not to mention the audio gets really glitchy for me when there is commentary - last night during the ladies short it had constant static.

[Loops]

I don't bother with IceNetwork simply because I don't want to risk paying money to have the "not available in your area" message (stupid international distribution laws).

But, last year, I watched most of the Olympics without commentary, and it was wonderful!!!!!!  I don't mind it when they keep it to a minimum, but all the chatter to fill supposedly dead air drives me bonkers.  I don't mind watching the warmups or waiting for the scores in silence.  I agree, I don't need to know what the skater's ate or whether or not they had their nails done etc etc etc.

[karne]

I don't bother with IceNetwork simply because I don't want to risk paying money to have the "not available in your area" message (stupid international distribution laws).

*coughholacough*

US Nats is not geoblocked.

Weiss is an awful commentator.

[Loops]

Thanks Karne, will investigate!

[Kitten23]

And while I'm on my rant about Ice Network, how is it possible that they can post the Medal Ceremony and still NOT have all of Sr. Ladies or Sr. Men?  Isn't that backwards?

My mildly tolerating/hate relationship with Ice Network.  Such a good idea gone so incredibly wrong...

[TreSk8sAZ]

And while I'm on my rant about Ice Network, how is it possible that they can post the Medal Ceremony and still NOT have all of Sr. Ladies or Sr. Men?  Isn't that backwards?

My mildly tolerating/hate relationship with Ice Network.  Such a good idea gone so incredibly wrong...

Because NBC isn't letting them post the coverage of the final groups until Tuesday at noon. It says it somewhere on the website, I just don't remember where.

[Kitten23]

Because NBC isn't letting them post the coverage of the final groups until Tuesday at noon. It says it somewhere on the website, I just don't remember where.

I always knew I disliked NBC, ever since they cancelled "Crossing Jordan" in the middle of a cliff-hanger...

[Query]

I don't bother with IceNetwork simply because I don't want to risk paying money to have the "not available in your area" message

I think that when NBC Universal Sports did the Olympics through their own website it was better. (Though I was annoyed that the website told you who won before letting you view the video.)

Partly because they made it free.  Or at least it was at the time of the Olympics.

I was puzzled that they used different commentators on NBC vs NBC Universal Sports.

I tried Ice Network in one of their first years, and sometimes got the "You are outside the U.S." message (I don't remember the exact working), when I visited upstate New York state (which is in the U.S., BTW). I contacted tech support, and they couldn't help me.

I speculated that it might have something to do with the IP address the router assigned the router "gateway", nameserver and computer I was using. In particular, it didn't work in the case where we were assigned default (192.168.1.*) addresses. If you want to test that theory - see if you can figure out how to reconfigure your router to change your IP address to be within the U.S. - pick the addresses of any U.S. company that you don't need access to, but make the gateway end in ".1". But DON'T try this if you don't understand how to configure your router, as you can mess it up, and your Internet connection would stop working. And it might not work - maybe Ice Network looks at more than your IP addresses. On top of that - Icenetwork, AFAIK, provides no way to test whether it would work - you have to pay for a year before you find out if it was wasted.

[littlerain]

I know my fiancé has changed his IP address before, but I forget what the technical term for all of this is called. (The bbc site also blocks viewers in the us from viewing most of their content)

I did a quick google search and it appears there are programs you can buy/download to do so... Although who knows the validity of those!

Food for thought, anyway, in case anyone gets desperate! Haha

[Query]

You don't need a program to remap your IP address. It is nearly certain, if you are in the U.S., that the IP address that your Internet provider provides to you already corresponds to a legit U.S. IP address. For example, if your computer connected directly to the internet without a router in between, your address might be 104.68.132.153.  (That IP address really belongs to IBM, but this was just an example.) If you connected directly to the Internet, without a router, I hypothesize that Ice Network would recognize that you are in the U.S., and will let you see those broadcasts (like most ISU events) that they only allowed to broadcast to U.S. IP addresses - and there would be no problem.

I'm not certain you want to read the rest of this. It is long and complicated, and may be wrong, because I am hypothesizing many things about the way Ice Network determines your location.

--------------------------

Most people connect their computers through a "router" inside their house - the purpose of which is to break a single external internet connection up into many internal connections. (Some routers are separate devices, some are built into the "modem" that you Internet provider gave you.) A router effectively lets you connect many computers inside your house to the Internet. The router probably also contains a Firewall, which provides some protection against hackers - though not all that much; you still need security software.  If it is a "Wireless Router" it also lets you connect to the Internet without cables, another reason to use a router, though it introduces a security issues I won't discuss.

Routers usually remap the IP address that it assigns your computer, in the internal house network that it creates - which is exactly the problem. If it kept your address the same, or assigned it another U.S. address which has the first 3 numbers the same, I hypothesize the problem wouldn't happen. Instead, by default routers typically remap itself and the computers that connect to it to have addresses like 192.68.1.*, where * is something from 0 to 255. That doesn't correspond to the U.S., so Ice Network, having a rather badly configured server, might think you aren't in the U.S. either. In particular, Ice network's web site might hypothetically command your computer to send that address (and possibly the address of the Gateway or Router it connects through, which might be 104.68.132.1 - same first few numbers, but others at the end) back to ice network in a data packet. Then Ice Network won't let you see broadcasts that they have only acquired U.S. distribution rights for.   


You can set what addresses a router uses for internal (house) network addresses. By default, as I said, most routers use 192.168.1.*, where * is a number from 0 to 255, and is different for every device in the house that connects to the router. But "192." does not correspond to the U.S.

If you understand how to configure your router, you can tell it to put your address in the Internal network to be anything you please - e.g., that all internal addresses inside your internal network are of form 104.68.132.*, which are in the U.S. (Caution - if you do use 104.68.132.*, you may be unable to access IBM servers like www.ibm.com.)

I assume your computer is a PC running Microsoft Windows, so you bring up a Command prompt window (on Windows 7 and earlier Windows, this is done by

  Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt

Then you type

  ipconfig

and hit enter. You will see several fields, such as

   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.68.1.11
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.68.1.2

The first of those would tell you that your computer's internal network address is "192.68.1.11".
The next tells you that the router's internal network address is 192.68.1.2.

So if you open your browser and specify "http://192.68.1.2" (or whatever your Gateway was listed as) on the address bar, you will probably be able to configure your router.

HOWEVER, if you make a mistake, as I said, you may mess everything up, and be unable to access the Internet. So you need to read the manual for your router first. Expect it to be very, very complicated. If you don't understand networking, it just isn't worth it. Find a bright 12 year old, and they may know how to do it.

[Willowway]

I just wanted to say how much I appreciated Ice Network this year. I have finally retired and this year I actually had time to watch competitors below the senior level and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Technology has some along very far, very fast. Using my large screen laptop and getting the service through my Verizon Fios router my coverage was almost glitch-free and better than that, the resolution of the full-screen picture was excellent. Seeing the younger competitors and getting a better feel for who is coming along was really terrific.

[littlerain]

that's great willowway!

I make no claims to know how to change ips but I think whatever my fiancé did doesn't actually change your ip, it just makes the website think you have a different ip located in a different country (etc). I have no idea what though.

At any rate,  if I had more time I would totally consider an ice network subscription! Even with commentary hehe. I'm so sad they hardly air skating on TV in the us these days!

[Query]

I make no claims to know how to change ips but I think whatever my fiancé did doesn't actually change your ip, it just makes the website think you have a different ip located in a different country (etc). I have no idea what though.

He may have done what I just talked about.

And BTW, it may not be safe to use the same IP address range on your computer or other Internet devices that the Internet provider provides - they can use the IP address to break into the computers and other Internet devices on your internal network. That's why you want to use the address of a U.S. company. It should be a company physically near you, that has the same first number in its IP address (which you find using

  ping websitename

) so the "trace-route" that shows the entire route the packets have taken looks right too. But it should be a company you would never need to use, because you won't be able to access it's website.

The alternative is that there are also servers in many countries that you can port your web site downloads through to make it look like you are abroad, commonly used legitimately by website developers to test website access in various countries. It's of questionable legality, if you are using it to skirt the law, and I presume governments and others monitor their use quite carefully. (In fact any attempt to mask where you are coming from is likely to raise warning bells for government and private Internet monitors, so please don't try to access Ice Network from abroad in this or any other way.) In addition, I think they all cost money, and might slow down your Internet video streaming.

[karne]

I know my fiancé has changed his IP address before, but I forget what the technical term for all of this is called. (The bbc site also blocks viewers in the us from viewing most of their content)

I did a quick google search and it appears there are programs you can buy/download to do so... Although who knows the validity of those!

Food for thought, anyway, in case anyone gets desperate! Haha

Hola Unblocker is free, and completely legal, works with IceNetwork, and doesn't require a ton of tech know-how or risky playing with your router to work. It's my friend.

[riley876]

At the risk of derailing this zombie thread: 

I couldn't help but think of ice skating commentary when I saw this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzXoVo16pTg