A Real Head Scratcher

[BlueOvalFitter]

In my living room/den area is my WIFI setup. I have an HP laptop in there as well. In my bedroom I have an ACER CB. I like to watch PLUTO TV on both.
But, here's where it gets weird. I can catch every channel of PTV on my CB. On my HP I can catch every channel except for 1. Now, it gets even weirder. On the 1 channel that I can't catch on my HP, I can get the commercials! WTH? I have tried it on AOL, GOOGLE, and Microsoft Edge. Still, commercials only, no shows. I have rebooted, unplugged my modem and router, tried standing on my head, all to no avail.
What am I missing here?

 

[JeffKeryk]

I hate computers.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

I hate computers.

 

[Trav]

Unplug laptop, close lid, open window, throw the POS out and close the window. Sleep well.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

Unplug laptop, close lid, open window, throw the POS out and close the window. Sleep well.

Um, yeah, BUT, NO!
My HP is my favorite laptop. That thing does everything except to catch 1 channel.

 

[oldhp]

They're using that one channel to watch you. They will not be deprived.

 

[Passport1]

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that"

 

[Passport1]

delete

 

[BISCUT]

Wayne, enough already! Just pay the Russian hackers the ransom!!

 

[JC1]

In my living room/den area is my WIFI setup. I have an HP laptop in there as well. In my bedroom I have an ACER CB. I like to watch PLUTO TV on both.
But, here's where it gets weird. I can catch every channel of PTV on my CB. On my HP I can catch every channel except for 1. Now, it gets even weirder. On the 1 channel that I can't catch on my HP, I can get the commercials! WTH? I have tried it on AOL, GOOGLE, and Microsoft Edge. Still, commercials only, no shows. I have rebooted, unplugged my modem and router, tried standing on my head, all to no avail.
What am I missing here?

If you move the acer to the other part of the house does that still happen? Is Pluto tv and app or website? If it's an app try uninstalling and reinstalling.

Maybe clean-up the PC with a utility program and do any Windows updates as well.

 

[Trav]

Um, yeah, BUT, NO!
My HP is my favorite laptop. That thing does everything except to catch 1 channel.

JK. I like my HP Probook too.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

They're using that one channel to watch you. They will not be deprived.

I heard rumors about how "THEY" can watch you thru your webcam. So, I put a piece of black tape on both of mine.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

Wayne, enough already! Just pay the Russian hackers the ransom!!

They want my ammo for a ransom payment. Of course, I told them I would think about it.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

If you move the acer to the other part of the house does that still happen? Is Pluto tv and app or website? If it's an app try uninstalling and reinstalling.

Maybe clean-up the PC with a utility program and do any Windows updates as well.

I tried that earlier and the ACER still gets the channel. I tried the HP in my bedroom and it still doesn't receive the channel.

 

[PandaBear]

Are you on VPN in the laptop? or is your browser too old? or behind some firewall nonsense? etc?

 

[spackard]

I'm guessing the commercial stream is cached on the PC.
IMO these guys care the most about delivering the commercials, full sized clips and without stuttering. Programming: not so much.

Guessing that either an antivirus (one of those total protection ones) is filtering out some URLs, or, cable company's DNS isn't resolving some URLs.
For DNS issue - try hard-configuring 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as IPs for DNS.
For antivirus issue: uninstall it, reboot, and launch Pluto again.

 

[Brons2]

- try hard-configuring 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as IPs for DNS.

Funk Google DNS. Doing this allows Google to create a map of your network and users. I like and use Google devices, but I'm not going to hand over my DNS queries to them to let them enhance my/our advertising ID.

For anyone who does this, you'll notice that searches made on one computer or device will show up as ads on a different computer or device. Example: I'm using Google DNS. I search on my device for hotels in Podunk, WA. Later that same day my wife will get an ad for "find an AirBnB in Podunk, WA!" on her device.

Use OpenDNS or Cloudflare instead. Or use a browser like Firefox that allows for 100% encrypted DNS requests.

 

[ZeeOSix]

For anyone who does this, you'll notice that searches made on one computer or device will show up as ads on a different computer or device. Example: I'm using Google DNS. I search on my device for hotels in Podunk, WA. Later that same day my wife will get an ad for "find an AirBnB in Podunk, WA!" on her device.

That happens on the devices on my network, and I'm not using Google DNS addresses.

 

[Rand]

I tried that earlier and the ACER still gets the channel. I tried the HP in my bedroom and it still doesn't receive the channel.

so this channel is actually a data stream that is being blocked for some reason.

antivirus, spam filter, bad dns lookup whatever..

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

so this channel is actually a data stream that is being blocked for some reason.

antivirus, spam filter, bad dns lookup whatever..

Yeah, it's the ONLY channel of over 260 on PLUTO TV that I can't receive on my HP. The weird thing is, I can receive the commercials.
BTW, on my HP, I have MalwareBytes, MacAfee, and some kind of HP antivirus.