Why does DirectTV stream use full IP address to verify location?

Hi @MB_user1. DIRECTV STREAM customers can enjoy Unlimited In-Home concurrent streaming. Your home network will be based on your IP address, and what's possibly happening is that your ISP has a dynamic IP address, leading to the system detecting a change. We advise manually setting up the IP address to be static or contacting your Internet Service Provider to do so.  Check https://www.directv.com/support/article/000093659 for more info. Thanks for choosing DIRECTV!

Carryl, DIRECTV Community Specialist

This does not help at all.  I can't manually change my setting to static and my ISP (and 90% of all US based residential ISPs) only allow residential customers to use dynamic IP address assigned by their router and not static.  The article you posted tells me nothing about how to fix the issue.  If DTV stream wasn't included in my HOA,  I would find another provider but for me that is not an option.  Reading the comments in this community, this is a known issue and has been going on for 5+ years if not more.    There has to be a better way to verify location.

Sadly, that's just the way they do it. Doubt they'll change it anytime soon. 

Actually, the procedure has been this way since the conception of the service. I would not expect the procedure to change.

try to get a static ip address from your internet provider. They might do this for an extra charge, many do allow this.

I asked my ISP and their policy is they only provide static ip to business customers and it would be significantly more expensive.  The fact that it has been this way since the conception of service doesn’t mean it is the right way to do it.  It clearly creates problems and I would even argue leaves the company open to deceptive marketing claims since they market that you can change address 4 times a year when that is clearly not compatible with the majority of ISP provider policies of dynamic IP and DTV is clearly aware based on the number of posts in this forum alone about it.  

Every ISP is different. I have a dynamic ip from Mediacom but my ip address only changes once every 10-12 months

I have ATT and my IP in theory is not fixed but it has been the same for at least three years.

I get it.  Some ISPs don’t change IP as often while others do.  It still seems like an issue that DirecTV would want to address as it affects a decent percentage of their customers. It isn’t technically that difficult to do.  At the very least they should clarify the home based  restriction is based on IP address which changes based on ISP.  They won’t do that though because it would result in many less people signing up for the service.  It will likely take a (edited per community guidelines) to get them to address the issue. 

Who is your ISP?

Optimum/Altice is my ISP

Using the IP address doesn't seem to be the BEST way to locate you but it was probably the easiest and cheapest way so I understand why they do it.

But I agree they should have another option.

We use Xfinity and our IP address has not changed in 5 years.  We keep the cable modem on 24x7.  And even when we were without power for days, we got the same IP address.  So I'm wondering you could use another ISP?

Does anyone know if a VPN service could fix this issue?

How about Starlink, can you get a static IP address with them?

Bill

This may not be the answer but it might be worth exploring.

MikroTik makes great commercial grade routers.  One of their features is the router supports WireGuard.  WireGuard allows the router to make a VPN tunnel. 

I think you might be able to use something like TailScale and the WireGuard to provide a static IP address to DirecTV.

Something to consider.

Using a VPN to conceal your true location would be a violation of the DirecTV Stream service agreement. I don't think it's actually illegal, but DirecTV Stream will terminate your service if they detect a VPN.