Tor not working with ITV plugin

Hello tong2shot and other devs

Specifics:
OS: Windows Vista SP2 en-US x86,
fully updated (including July's 2016 MS updates)
JRE: 7u111 32bit, released on 20/07/2016 (latest 7)
FRD: 0.9u4 (semi-portable mode, uses -p switch)
GeoIP plugin: 1.0.0
Tor plugin: 1.0.2
ITV plugin: 1.3.0
Location: non-UK

After many months since my previous ITVhub download,
today I tried to fetch:
Tom Daley: Diving For Gold

On this very laptop, I recall in early
spring that after a wait of some seconds
(20-30), the RTMP download would start
at great speeds, so all was fine - different
MS updates and JRE version back then,
of course...

Today, the download would stall forever at
the "GETTING" stage
I exited FRD, then went into the "config"
directory and saw that a "tor-gb" folder
wasn't present there
After consulting the debug app.log, it dawned
on me that I had to also re-install the
JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files 7
that were inadvertently deleted
during some different JRE versions tests...

After those were properly installed
(inside "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\lib\security\"),
now when I retry the posted ITVhub link
I do get a "config\tor-gb" folder created,
but the download quickly fails with an
"ERROR - File is not available anymore" message
Debug app.log has been attached!

The thing is the file IS available!
It can be viewed on the ITVhub site
(a UK HTTP Proxy/VPN and a user account
are both needed), but, what's more important,
it can also be downloaded with FRD
if it is configured to use a UK HTTP Proxy
(not blacklisted by ITV).

I'd prefer to have the Tor plugin working instead,
so any tips/advice are most welcome!
Do I need to do something else with
my Java installation? Is this issue ITV related?

I verified the Tor plugin works correctly with
BBC iPlayer URLs (albeit with many attempts)
in that I do get the subtitles (.srt files) of TV shows,
while of course no actual FLV video files
(all RTMP CDNs have been geo-blocked long ago
and require currently a non-blacklisted
UK VPN or UK SOCKS proxy).

Hoping there's still a fix for Tor+ITV

Best regards

I can reproduce this issue. I change the exception type in my local repo, and I get more meaningful error message: "This video is not available in your region". This and the fact that Tor plugin works fine (able to get BBC iplayer subtitle), indicate that ITV blocks UK Tor exit nodes.

I also test UK Tor exit nodes via Tor Browser, and use the SOCK proxy in FRD, I get the same error message.

To set specific country in Tor Browser: [www.wikihow.com]
To use Tor as socks proxy: [www.deepdotweb.com]

The "Failed to remove cryptography restrictions" is odd and should not occur – seems like something has changed in the JRE. Is this version (7u111) publicly available? If not, it might not be worth fixing because there are not many users.

I can't reproduce the "Failed to remove cryptography restrictions" on 1.8.0_101.

Yeah, I guess it was only changed in the non-public releases of Java 7.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2016 01:59PM by ntoskrnl.

tong2shot wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can reproduce this issue. I change the exception type in my local repo
> and I get more meaningful error message:
> "This video is not available in your region"
> (snip)
> indicate that ITV blocks UK Tor exit nodes.

Hi tong2shot and many apologies for not getting back to you sooner
Real life problems, you see...

Many thanks for testing this, it confounded my fears
ITV had something to do with it...

HOWEVER, I did some further tests on my own,
so please do read on...

> I also test UK Tor exit nodes via Tor Browser,

Thanks for that - it was you that made me remember
I had a copy of the FirefoxESR-based Tor Browser
in a portable format inside one of my external HDDs.
Once I located it, I first had to enable Flash NPAPI plugin
in Tor Browser (which is a big no-no, because it leaks your IP,
among other private identifiable data... );
I already had a (bogus) account with ITV, so I then began
my own tests: Let me just say that they don't blacklist
all UK exit nodes in a blanket fashion!

The very first time I tried, my GB exit node was "163.172.211.135";
that specific one was BL, hence see attachment "TorBrowserITVFailure.jpg"
Once I exited and then relaunched, I got me another GB exit node,
"37.130.227.133", that was WL! The video in question started to play,
see attachment "TorBrowserITVSuccess.jpg"
On another later relaunch of the Tor Browser I was again lucky
with exit node "37.139.64.123", see attachment "TorBrowserITVSuccess2.jpg"

Having my hopes rekindled after the Tor Browser results,
I went back to FRD: After a nerve-wracking situation of maybe more
than ten consecutive cycles of "Cancel & Resume", I was finally able
to initiate the ITVhub download, see attachment "FRD_ITV_Success.jpg"
So it is plausible that, after many repeated attempts,
you'll get a WL GB Tor exit node and hence succeed!

> and I get more meaningful error message:

Perhaps the ITV.com plugin could be patched so as to
print something other than the false
"ERROR - File is not available anymore" it gives currently; maybe:

ERROR - UK Tor Exit Node blocked; try again via "Cancel & Resume"

Just a thought
Many thanks for maintaining the ITV plugin in the first place

Best wishes

ntoskrnl wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is this version (7u111) publicly available?
> If not, it might not be worth fixing
> because there are not many users.

Many greetings, ntoskrnl!

I get my non-publicly released versions of JRE 7
through a friend in the University, where they have
paid Oracle Support; this is because I am using
an older payware (no longer supported/developed)
that doesn't run well with JRE 8; it appears JRE 7
is the highest it can work with as expected

But a thorough google search does reveal
there exist people generous enough that are
willing to share

> The "Failed to remove cryptography restrictions" is odd and should not occur
> – seems like something has changed in the JRE.

Unfortunately, I know nothing about Java,
so can't assess the importance of that message

I have currently 3 installers of JRE7 on disk:
1. jre-7u80-windows-i586.exe (EOL'd last public release)
2. jre-7u101-windows-i586.exe (previous non-public release)
3. jre-7u111-windows-i586.exe (latest non-public release)

I did some tests and here are my results:

1. With jre-7u80 and jre-7u101, for Tor plugin to work at all
(creation of ".config/tor-gb" subdirectory) I don't have to install
the UnlimitedJCEPolicyJDK7 files; my ITV logs don't contain
the offending "Failed to remove cryptography restrictions" line!

2. On the contrary, with latest jre-7u111 I do have to install
the UnlimitedJCEPolicyJDK7 files for creation of
".config/tor-gb" subdirectory. As you were able to see in my
original post, my ITV logs do contain the line you quoted!

I hope you get some more sense from all that than me...

tong2shot wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can't reproduce the "Failed to remove cryptography restrictions" on 1.8.0_101.

I am sorry tong, not the case on my system
I downloaded and installed latest JRE 8u102
(jre-8u102-windows-i586.exe) from [www.oracle.com]

As I already wrote about JRE 7u111, in order for the Tor plugin
to work on my system (creation of ".config/tor-gb" subdirectory),
I, too, had to install the UnlimitedJCEPolicyJDK8 files from
JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files 8
After that, the Tor plugin works, but the
"offending" line does appear inside my ITV logs (see attachment).
As long as that line isn't fatal with my ITV downloads,
are you of the opinion it can just be ignored?

Many regards

TVjunkie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Perhaps the ITV.com plugin could be patched so as
> to
> print something other than the false
> "ERROR - File is not available anymore" it gives
> currently; maybe:
>
> ERROR - UK Tor Exit Node blocked; try again via
> "Cancel & Resume"

Patch applied in plugin v1.3.1, thanks.


> I am sorry tong, not the case on my system
> I downloaded and installed latest JRE 8u102
> (jre-8u102-windows-i586.exe) from
> [www.oracle.com]
> loads/jre8-downloads-2133155.html
>
> As I already wrote about JRE 7u111, in order for
> the Tor plugin
> to work on my system (creation of ".config/tor-gb"
> subdirectory),
> I, too, had to install the UnlimitedJCEPolicyJDK8
> files from
> JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files
> 8
> After that, the Tor plugin works, but the
> "offending" line does appear inside my ITV logs
> (see attachment).
> As long as that line isn't fatal with my ITV
> downloads,
> are you of the opinion it can just be ignored?

I forgot to mention that I also have UnlimitedJCEJDK8 (auto) installed. Whether the error message can just be ignored, maybe ntoskrnl can answer that.

If you have the unlimited policy files installed, then yes, the line can be ignored.

Sadly, most users are not capable of installing the policy files, so we ought to take a look at what has changed and rectify the issue in FRD.

When using FRD on ITV, with the same proxy that still can get bbc iplayer video and subtitles down, FRD says :
error: UK Tor Exit Node blocked; try again via "Cancel and Resume"