Channel4 4OD YouTube Solved

I recently posted here on a problem I was having using the Channel4 4OD service. The fix to that problem was to remove or comment out an entry in the hosts file the effect of which was to disable access. Well now I find that a similar problem exists with the 4OD YouTube channel. Same general sympton which is a hang and no video as shown in this screenshot.

 

The solution to this 4OD via YouTube problem is to remove or comment out this entry…

                127.0.0.1  s0.2mdn.net 

….from the hosts file on your computer.

I’m not exactly sure what this url is required for but it’s likely to be something to do with advertising and, clearly, a valid response from it is required by YouTube before it will deliver the desired video stream. The downside, for us, is that advertising is delivered too. It might be an interesting excercise to “spoof” the site just enough to be able to receive the content but minus the adverts.

This site regularly publishes a replacement hosts file containing and redirecting thousands of not just known malicious sites but also many ad related sites. It is a useful tool for reducing the overall threat and the lower “noise” level from all those suddenly blocked doubleclick.com ads is very welcome. However it appears that, at least in the case of 4OD, a side effect of ad blocking is to block the primary content as well.

If you are unable to access 4OD via YouTube try checking your hosts file for the above entry.