Netflix Not Working On Your Home Device
If you find Netflix not working on your device – be it a PS3, PS4, Smart TV, Apple TV, Xbox, iPad, Android and so on then you may find the following will help! This experience was with BT as a broadband provider but may well be applicable to others – Talktalk, Virgin, EE etc. – if they offer some type of parental controls.
Symptoms:
Your internet is connected and everything else is working, Netflix is the only problem. If you have delved into the logs you may find something like:
- netflix server 1 connected
- netflix server 2 and 3 not connected
- internet connected
You have probably tried one or more of the following:
- a factory reset of your TV
- a reboot of your router
- changed your connection to wired in case it’s the wifi connection which is problematic
- even changed to a different router (!)
- rung Netflix who have advised you to ring your ISP
- rung your ISP only to be told to ring Netflix
Cause:
If you have BT’s “Parental Controls” enabled then you will not be able to resolve addresses unless you (i.e. your router) are using BT’s DNS servers – change your DNS server on your router to something else and your connections will die very quickly.
It would also appear that Netflix is not the only service to be broken by these controls.
Solution:
Turn off BT Parental Controls – preferably permanently if you can. Should you just disable them temporarily then they may come back and bite you in the future – every time BT updates their controls they seem to be turned on again by default.
Turning off BT Parental Controls temporarily
Should you wish to turn off your BT Parental Controls at any time there’s a simple way to do this whilst keeping your settings, should you wish to reactivate Parental Controls. Here’s how:
- Log in to My BT with your BT ID
- Scroll down to the ‘My Extras’ section and click Manage in the ‘Parental Controls’ panel
- Slide the button to ‘Off’ and your BT Parental Controls will be switched off
- To turn them back on slide the button to ‘On’. It’s that simple and any settings you have saved will be restored
- It may take up to 10 minutes for filters to be applied to an active browser session.
Turning off BT Parental Controls permanently
If you still want to delete BT Parental Controls completely, first turn them off temporarily by following the steps above.
- Now select Delete BT Parental Controls underneath the slider
- You then receive a final confirmation screen. Select Yes, De-activate now
- It can take up to two hours for BT Parental Controls to be completely deactivated but we find that if you delete these and reboot your router then the effects are pretty much instantaneous.
Hope this helps! Let us know if you have found a different solution which works for you ..