Can't listen to BBC on my home network

[Vonplatz]

I have a Roberts Istream Revival 1 and used to use it to listen to BBC stations from Spain. In Febuary, the radio stopped receiving BBC live radio without me having changed any settings. I can listen to BBC podcasts and world service. Other stations work fine.
I have a very fast internet connection (fibre optic) and not too many devices connected (5).
I use a service that masks my IP making it seem like it's a UK address (I can watch bbc iplayer on TV).
I tried the radio at work last week and BBC radio 4 worked fine, leading me to believe that the problem must be somewhere on my network.
I have tried disabling the firewall on the router, no difference.
I have tried disabling the security protocol on the router (I use WPA2 normally), again nothing.
Does anyone know what's going on?

 

[General Lighting]

Assuming "work" and "home" are both in Spain; the most likely source is your home ISP has detected the IP spoofing proxy as "dodgy" and blocked it (they don't know if its a grown adult simply trying to listen to their home country's national radio service, or a kid in a family house accessing "non family friendly sites").

Business grade ISPs (anywhere in Europe) often have less (or none) of these filters, assuming that the end customer is going to have IT staff who will deploy their own security procedures as and when required to protect the companies reputation.

Try shutting off the proxy and see if the set then works (at least for radio, possibly only the World Service); also use other devices (i.e "normal" computers and see what happens then).

The EU and EBU's agreement on public service broadcasting (PSB's) as each nation has the right to protect its intellectual property (especially with music stations). there is at least an informal agreement a domestic station that normally transmits on VHF should not usually cross borders (though impossible to stop with traditional radio). [I get sent their tech magazine every quarter].

Some nations (mostly Northern European) have agreements that if you subscribe to certain cable services (usually those once provided by the PTT) you often get the BBC TV and radio channels; a proportion of the cable subscription being paid to the EBU which then filters back to London as a "license fee" (the same happens with other countries PSB's, its how a lot of nature and science documentaries and news are funded). This has gone on for some years; its what Eurovision is all about (its a bit more than just a contest of cheesy pop music!). In those countries the BBC actually set up large server banks to deliver their content.

I think Auntie did change round a bunch of stuff in February to stop illegal copying/access; probably due to the current government lobbying. There are also all sorts of behind the scenes disp-utes over bandwidth costs / copyright issues which lead to big broadcasters being blocked in this manner and/or being sued, hence why they often just concentrate on their licensed terrestrial services.

If the reason you wish to listen to the BBC is due to language barriers; I have seen a few stations advertised on here that cater for the English speaking expat community in Spain. Some many also have small Band II transmitters on the community radio frequencies (105 to 108 MHz as well).

 

[Vonplatz]

Thanks for informative reply! If my ISP were blocking the IP disguise for wont of a better name, wouldn't that then stop me from watching bbc iplayer on my tv? I watch bbc stuff all the time.

I'll give it a try anyway

Thanks

 

[General Lighting]

its possible that the radio and TV streams come from different places anyway (also worth specifying which BBC channels you are trying to listen to); also is the radio actually connecting via the same link that allows you to watch the TV on (presumably) a computer?

If not may be still advertising a foreign IP to the BBC servers; though it makes less sense that radio should be blocked rather than TV, unless its a "youth music" service and record labels have made a fuss over copyright.

There is also the chance that your home ISP has misconfigured some piece of equipment at the Telephone Exchange or blocked the ports to prevent people using the service for broadcasting (this sort of practice is unfortunately more common in Southern Europe). There may be ways round it but they are yet more complex.

At least with that set you can still monitor on Band II (the link below is useful; when you get more pretty colours above your country that means that stations from other countries or longer distances can be received).

Tropospheric Ducting Forecast for VHF & UHF Radio & TV

 

[Vonplatz]

Thanks a lot.

Diabled the masking service and got it working again.