# Expat shield



## ljwood_99

Recently heard about the expat shield, supposedly enabling us to watch BBC iplayer. Sounded too good to be true but thought I'd give it a go anyway. Installed correctly but can't open the page. Following message appears: 



* El sitio podría estar no disponible temporalmente o
demasiado ocupado. Vuelva a intentarlo en unos momentos.

* Si no puede cargar ninguna página, compruebe la conexión
de red de su equipo.

* Si su equipo o red están protegidos por un cortafuegos
o proxy, asegúrese de que Firefox tiene permiso para
acceder a la web.
Any ideas what I can do to solve it???


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## xicoalc

ljwood_99 said:


> Recently heard about the expat shield, supposedly enabling us to watch BBC iplayer. Sounded too good to be true but thought I'd give it a go anyway. Installed correctly but can't open the page. Following message appears:
> 
> 
> 
> * El sitio podría estar no disponible temporalmente o
> demasiado ocupado. Vuelva a intentarlo en unos momentos.
> 
> * Si no puede cargar ninguna página, compruebe la conexión
> de red de su equipo.
> 
> * Si su equipo o red están protegidos por un cortafuegos
> o proxy, asegúrese de que Firefox tiene permiso para
> acceder a la web.
> Any ideas what I can do to solve it???


I have expatshield but its not tat reliable, often throws me out halfway through corrie! Many ads but obviously it´s free so cant complain. I use anothe paid service now to ensure reliability.

As for your message, when does that appear? when you log on or when you try to browse after logging on? I mean are you actually managing to log into the expatshield?


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## xabiaxica

ljwood_99 said:


> Recently heard about the expat shield, supposedly enabling us to watch BBC iplayer. Sounded too good to be true but thought I'd give it a go anyway. Installed correctly but can't open the page. Following message appears:
> 
> 
> 
> * El sitio podría estar no disponible temporalmente o
> demasiado ocupado. Vuelva a intentarlo en unos momentos.
> 
> * Si no puede cargar ninguna página, compruebe la conexión
> de red de su equipo.
> 
> * Si su equipo o red están protegidos por un cortafuegos
> o proxy, asegúrese de que Firefox tiene permiso para
> acceder a la web.
> Any ideas what I can do to solve it???


no idea

what you are getting is this



> * The site could be temporarily unavailable or
> too busy. Try again in a few moments.
> 
> * If you can not load any pages, check the connection
> your computer network.
> 
> * If your computer or network is protected by a firewall
> or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to
> access the web.


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## Beachcomber

Expat Shield seems to be a bit hit and miss. Have you tried turning off your firewall during installation? Check out their Facebook page:

Expat Shield | Facebook


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## thrax

These bits of software, as I understand it, hide your IP address so that BBCi player doesn't realise you are not in the UK. They are at best unrelaiable and can fail at any time. If you pay for one they are better but I've heard folk say they too can collapse. Until we got a large sat dish installed, I used UKNova where you can download, completely legally, a large number of UK TV programmes usually the day after they were broadcast. It is restricted to a global membership of 35,000 and it is currently full, however, new membership slots appear every now and then as people either leave or get kicked off for breaking the rules. It was a godsend for us at the beginning of our stay here since as we moved into winter and hadn't at that time made any friends, TV was all we had in the evening (as well as books and our own converstation before I hear you shout at me) and Spanish TV isn't know for it's scintillating programming. Now we have Sky and all the usual terrestrial channels etc but hardly watch it at all now the weather has improved and the outdoor lifestyle beckons!


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## JoCatalunya

I have a sky box, my dish is a 90cm one, up until recently (after I had to buy the freeview card from Sky that is) I had no probs, (unless the weather was bad) but now, I lose channels at the drop of a hat, for no reason. I have been told a larger dish might help, but cannot understand why I can receive 'more 4' during the day but lose it at night. Surely if it were a dish problem I would not get it at all no matter what time of day it is?


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## xicoalc

JoCatalunya said:


> I have a sky box, my dish is a 90cm one, up until recently (after I had to buy the freeview card from Sky that is) I had no probs, (unless the weather was bad) but now, I lose channels at the drop of a hat, for no reason. I have been told a larger dish might help, but cannot understand why I can receive 'more 4' during the day but lose it at night. Surely if it were a dish problem I would not get it at all no matter what time of day it is?


When I had sky I had a 2.4m dish and it was perfect but we lost one channel (bbc2 i think) at night. Everything else was fine. In the last few months of having it we started to loose BBC1 as well and had a few problems. Im not sure why. I don´t use it now.. prefer to stick to Spanish TV!

I am sure Sat will come on soon and tell you whats going on!


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## thrax

We had the same problem with a smaller dish but a reliable source said it has something to do with the way channels use the satellite and the beam method they use. Wide beam big dish no probs. Narrow beam, most dishes, big problem. Some channels, at certain times, switch from wide beam to narrow, focussed beam at around 4 - 5 pm which is when we get the issues down in the south. Having said that, since we got the bigger dish and reconnected our Sky box we've had no probs at all. So in the end who knows?


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## sat

The UK TV comes from 4 satellites.
These 4 satellite have 7 beams
Each beam has different reception characteristics.
Astra 2a and Astra 2b have North and South Beams.
(one of these actually has a beam for Nigeria area also!)
Astra 2d has a "Narrow Beam"
Eurobird 1 has a wide beam and "Spot" beam.

All UK TV channels via satellite are spread across all 90plus frequencies on these satellites. As the footprints vary you get characteristics that mean you can get Sky News on a 60cm dish, but even with a 2.4m dish not all channels (like C4 England) will be available all day.

There are 2 versions of More4.
The England M4 on Sky 138, is on the Astra 2D satellite which requires the dig dish - and no card.
The Irish M4 requires a sky subscription card (not a freesatfromsky card) and should be available all day. - its on freq 12480 - a different satellite to where the free to air England version is.

Similarly, there are 2 versions of C4.
The England version is normally on 104, and is free to air but can still go off even on 3.1m dishes.
Yet the Irish C4 is on frequency 12480, and can be viewed in many areas 24/7 on an 80cm dish, but you need a skyc ard for that (either a freesatfrom sky or subscription)

Astra 2a and 2b "north beams" are weakest at around 5pm. Thats why you cannot get some of the Sky movie channels, Eurosport 2, Sky Sports 4 or News around 5pm. (Yet Eurosport 1 and SSports1,2,3 are on a differnet "south beam" and should be there 24/7 even on an 60/80cmdish!)

Astra 2d channels, where BBCs and ITVs, and C4s (the main free to air (no sky crd required) channels) is weakest at 12 midnight. Which is why you can start to lose these channels late evening. 

Various reasons have been touted for this drop at night for 2D...the movement of the satellite in its 100km cubed box, the fact the satellite is in the earths shadow so it is not operating on full solar power, are just two.

Generally the sudden loss of channel is down to dish alignment or LNB issues (even wasps or other natsies in the LNB!). Recently I have been to many dishes that have been suddenly losing BBC channels earlier than normal, and after some realignment all was back to normal. Some say that there has been a drop in satellite power, and so misaligned dishes swould see this more and drop chanels earlier. I dont buy reports of the "supermoon" causing issues. However, in some areas I have been to, the dishes installed are just not the correct size for the area, installing 1.8m dishes where 2.4m are required!

Of course receptin does depend on your area, and dish size. Signals vary so much along the east cost of Spain - barcelona an 80cm dish gets all channels 24/7, in Alicante even a 3.1m dish stuggles to get all 24/7, then CDS area its a 1.2/1.4m dish.

Thrax:
I know of no channels that "at certain times, switch from wide beam to narrow, focussed beam at around 4 - 5 pm". What would be the point of that? Boxes would be continually having to rescan the frequencies everytime this happened!

"at around 4 - 5 pm which is when we get the issues down in the south" - thats to do with the Astra 2a and 2b north beams becoming weak and unavailable in your area. Nothing you can do abut that apart from move north! Even some 2.4m dishes in my area can struggle with these "north" beams at around that time!

"Wide beam big dish no probs" - wide beam - small dish (60cm / 80cm) no probs! Sky News and BBC News are on a "wide beam".
"Narrow beam, most dishes, big problem" - correcto. Its the narrow / spot beam of Astra 2d which is why the big dishes are required.

JoCatalunya: 
If you are losing "channels at the drop of a hat, for no reason", then you need your system checking out. It could be dish alignment, or LNB troubles, or even receiver troubles. I would have thought that an 90cm dish in Cat should be OK for M4...but I really do not know. But as mentioned above, frequencies have different characteristics and their strengths and reception varies during the day, which is why you can get M4 some of the day but can lose it at night,. as that frequency that carries M4 and E4 and C4+1 is weakest at 12midnight.

steve_in_spain: in october the BBC moved some regions of BBC1 and BBC2 around, in a generaly reorganisation, to make some space for BBC1HD. This meant that BBC1Channel Islands, regarded as the strongest BBC1 region, is now the weakest. Onthe plus side, BBC2 Wales and BBC2 NI (Sky 991 and 992) are available a lot long, longer than BBC2 England.

Hope that helps....or confuses!


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