Bitdefender VPN Can't Connect To HBO Max. Any Advice?

Angela Bishop · November 2022

Hi I just got VPN. I still can't get on HBO Max? Any advice? Do I use the same web browser?

Flexx · November 2022

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/94116/connect-to-hbo-max

@Alexandru_BD or @Mike_BD can get this checked with relevant department and get an update at earliest.

Additionally, you can contact bitdefender support team by dropping them an email at bitsy@bitdefender.com

The support team will reply back to your query within next 24-48 hours excluding weekends.

Regards

Gjoksi · November 2022

Hello.

Check out these articles:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/13353/

or

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/30765/

and see if the steps in the articles will help you.

Regards.

Alexandru_BD · November 2022

Hello @Angela Bishop,

Kindly follow the steps described by @Gjoksi above and let us know if they work for you. Your feedback would prove very useful to our product teams, because this way they can investigate further, if necessary, to find out if there are indeed any blockers when it comes to HBO Max.

Regards

skyfly25 · January 2023

Hi, I am also not able to get HBO Max to work with Bitdefender VPN and tried also the split vpn and the suggestions of @Gjoksi . Any other ideas if this working? I also read that HBO max (and others) are filtering out shared IPs? Is this the case? Is there any solution from Bitdefender side?

Alexandru_BD · January 2023

Hello @skyfly25,

As far as I know, HBO Max could be successfully accessed using a VPN connection following our intervention in November-December last year.

However, considering your findings, we'll ask the VPN engineering unit to conduct a new investigation to see if any recent developments could block the connection.

Thank you for your patience and for sharing your feedback with us.

Regards

stevie73 · January 2023

Any update on this yet? :)

Alexandru_BD · February 2023

Hi @stevie73,

In the next couple of days we should get news on this matter from our VPN unit. Please stand by.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards

DanielDHG · January 14

I am having the same issue. I tried using split tunneling for hbomax.com but that does not really help. What was the conclusion with the VPN team? It never was shared @Alexandru_BD

Alexandru_BD · January 15

Hello @DanielDHG,

Based on my findings, you should be able to access content from hbomax.com, but without using the Split Tunneling feature. Split Tunneling allows you to route any website outside the VPN connection, to access the Internet directly. So, if hbomax practices geo-blocking as a way of limiting access based on the user’s geographical location, it may restrict access to certain libraries, if you are outside the country and don't connect with an US IP.

You can try different cities, one by one, to see which one works for you. For example Charlotte or Denver. These are good. Or Portland, Orlando. It has to be US servers, otherwise the connection may not be possible.

Regards,

Alex

DanielDHG · January 15

Hello @Alexandru_BD,

Thank you for answering. I am trying to connect from Denmark where we actually have HBO available. I also tried connecting from Charlotte and Denver but in all cases I received the message " Sorry, HBO Max isn't available in your region yet". If I completely disable the VPN then is when I can stream content.

Alexandru_BD · January 16

Hi @DanielDHG and thanks for getting back.

So, if the website can be accessed with the VPN disabled, and if you are not trying to access content that would be otherwise geo-restricted, you can use the Split Tunneling feature to whitelist hbomax.com. This way, you won't have to disable the VPN whenever you wish to access the site, because it will access the internet directly, avoiding any VPN block from their side, while keeping the encrypted tunnel active for other pages you may navigate.

Regards,

Alex

DanielDHG · January 18

Hi @Alexandru_BD,

The problem is that it does not seems to work neither with the split tunneling. For once, the domain of HBO in the nordic countries is play.hbomax.com but when I try to add it to the list on split tunneling hbomax.com is added instead. I imagine that this should not be a problem because "play.hbomax.com" it is just a subdomain of "hbomax.com" but I wanted to mention it just in case.

If I try to access to HBO using VPN from Denmark I get the message below after login

If I enable the split tunneling as described before I am redirected to "max.com" as in the image below

I am not able to connect to max with my credentials. Either it prom with the message that my email or password are not correct or tells me that max is not available on my region.

So, although I know that you do not know the practicalities of HBO it looks like the split tunneling is not working like it should. Any ideas here?

Thank you very much in advance.

Alexandru_BD · January 19

Hello @DanielDHG,

Searching the internet for information about this, or similar reports, I came across the following article. I don't know if it helps, but it provides more context regarding possible causes and remediation steps:

https://cybernews.com/how-to-use-vpn/hbo-max-not-working-with-a-vpn/t

While the link does contain some competitor product placement, if the solutions provided there are useful, disregard that.

DanielDHG · January 19

Hello @Alexandru_BD,

Thank you for the link. I tried to do as indicated in the page but nothing worked. I think HBO is seriously blocking VPNs, which would be fine if split tunneling would be working, as we have HBO on the country I am living. HBO seems to still be able to detect that I am connected to a VPN when enabling split tunneling. Which make me thing that the split tunneling is not working properly or I am not setting it up correctly.

Alexandru_BD · January 23

@DanielDHG I'm sorry to hear that article didn't help..

If you are accessing the hbo website, then the url should be added for split tunneling. If you are using the app, you need to add it in the dedicated tab. Then they will bypass the VPN and access the internet directly, as per the description below:

If this is not helping, I'm running out of options here.. maybe try a different device?

Regards,

Alex

dagamara · April 22

Hi I just got VPN. I still can't get on HBO Max from different country? Any advice?

Bitdefender VPN Can't Connect To HBO Max. Any Advice?

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