I’m using Podcast Addict on Samsung Android 13 up to date. I’m unable to download latest Tech Break episodes: Google AI Search and Zelda. Should I email Podcast Addict about this? Anyone else having troubles downloading Tech Break podcast episodes? Know how to fix or troubleshoot this? Thanks.
@Leo may need to remind us, after Spotify bought up a bunch of the tools they used to use if they’re still using 3rd party tools for download tracking and ad insertion. If they are, is it possible you have some sort of blocker in your system or network that might be blocking the 3rd parties that TWiT might use? (Megaphone for ad insertion, for example.) You can search hear for “Megaphone” (or others in the link I’m about to link to) to see posts about issues in the past that have affected others.
Problem solved. My Android VPN app (NordVPN) apparently causes ClubTwit to block my download of Tech Break podcasts. Weird. No other podcast feeds are effected. I turned off NordVPN and the Tech Break episodes downloaded fine.
Does ClubTwit block podcast downloads thru known VPN connections? If yes, why?
I’m not using any ad blockers on my mobile.
I’m guessing NordVPN is blocking many of the tracking websites at the DNS level (see the quote of my answer elsewhere in @PHolder 's post above), as it is about surfing in private, without being tracked.
Edit: try this NordVPN blog post:
We recommend trying out NordVPN. Its Threat Protection feature blocks third-party trackers so you can browse the internet without them following you around.
@big_D OK, that’s likely what’s going on. Thanks. So looks like NordVPN is acting like a mini-Pihole…? Not bad. I’ve got Pihole installed on my Ubuntu laptop and it’s great.
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We no longer use Chartable but are investigating replacements like Podscribe and Magellan. So, if you’re listening to our ad supported shows, for now whitelist:
twit.tv (TWiT)
cachefly.net (Cachefly)
pdst.fm (Podsights)
megaphone.fm (Megaphone)
mgln.ai (Magellan)
libsyn.com (Libsyn)
pscrb.fm (Podscribe)
Podsights, Podscribe, and Magellan are trackers that match listeners to advertisers to give advertisers some idea of how well their campaigns are working. These systems never share listener IPs with the advertisers, just the percentage of our IPs that match the IPs of people visiting the advertiser’s site.
Libsyn and Megaphone do Direct Ad Insertion - so they host the shows and insert ads into unsold slots. They probably are collecting your IP address.
We are not using all of these, but we’re testing with old shows to see how they work. Eventually we’ll narrow it down to one or two.
NOTE: Subscribers to Club TWiT hear no ads which means those feeds have no trackers and you needn’t add these URLs to your whitelist.
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