Classic IP Restriction

[nicky10013]

Hi,

I just got my nook today and I'm from north of the border. I did a ton of research and came to conclusion that this was the best one. I read multiple forum posts saying that all you need is a US shipping and billing address and you wouldn't have problems with the "only ships to the US" problem with the online B&N store. I read a few entries by a few different people (on other sites as well as this one) saying that their nooks were working perfectly. Well, I've run into this blasted IP restriction which despite the couple months of research I've done, I haven't seen anything about. Out of 20-30 PD free books I've been messing around with, only 2 have worked.

I've also seen people swear by a fix using a proxy server. That if you add books to your library using the proxy server and update your library through the nook, that the content will work on the nook. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for me. Using the server, I can download books to my PC whereas without one I couldn't, yet when I go to update the nook, it still prompts me to download the material and then I get the caution saying that the product is currently unavailable. When I attempt to load the physical book file onto the nook, it still prompts me to download and it won't.

Does anyone know of a fix that works or am I screwed until Barnes and Noble gets it's international copyright problems in order?

Thanks for all the help in advance!
Nick

[geertm]

Originally Posted by nicky10013

Hi,

I just got my nook today and I'm from north of the border. I did a ton of research and came to conclusion that this was the best one. I read multiple forum posts saying that all you need is a US shipping and billing address and you wouldn't have problems with the "only ships to the US" problem with the online B&N store. I read a few entries by a few different people (on other sites as well as this one) saying that their nooks were working perfectly. Well, I've run into this blasted IP restriction which despite the couple months of research I've done, I haven't seen anything about. Out of 20-30 PD free books I've been messing around with, only 2 have worked.

I've also seen people swear by a fix using a proxy server. That if you add books to your library using the proxy server and update your library through the nook, that the content will work on the nook. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for me. Using the server, I can download books to my PC whereas without one I couldn't, yet when I go to update the nook, it still prompts me to download the material and then I get the caution saying that the product is currently unavailable. When I attempt to load the physical book file onto the nook, it still prompts me to download and it won't.

Does anyone know of a fix that works or am I screwed until Barnes and Noble gets it's international copyright problems in order?

Thanks for all the help in advance!
Nick

If I understand correctly than you have succeeded at buying the books from B&N and you can download the books from your B&N library to your PC, but using "check for new B&N contect" on the Nook you do not see to books on the Nook.
You only need a VPN like Hotspot Shield or Alwaysvpn to buy books.
There are no IP restrictions on downloading books that have been bought. They can be downloaded anywhere in the world. So something else is wrong.
Please check the following things:
1. Did you register your Nook? You only can sync you B&N library with the Nook when the Nook is registered.
2. Is you Wifi connection working correctly? Can you lookup webpages on the Nook browser?
3. Have you made your credit card the default credit card of your B&N account? The B&N DRM needs a default credit card to encrypt the books and to be able to download them.

You can also use the USB connection to copy the books you downloaded to your PC to the My Documents folder on the Nook That way you can at least start reading the books.

[nicky10013]

Originally Posted by geertm

If I understand correctly than you have succeeded at buying the books from B&N and you can download the books from your B&N library to your PC, but using "check for new B&N contect" on the Nook you do not see to books on the Nook.
You only need a VPN like Hotspot Shield or Alwaysvpn to buy books.
There are no IP restrictions on downloading books that have been bought. They can be downloaded anywhere in the world. So something else is wrong.
Please check the following things:
1. Did you register your Nook? You only can sync you B&N library with the Nook when the Nook is registered.
2. Is you Wifi connection working correctly? Can you lookup webpages on the Nook browser?
3. Have you made your credit card the default credit card of your B&N account? The B&N DRM needs a default credit card to encrypt the books and to be able to download them.

You can also use the USB connection to copy the books you downloaded to your PC to the My Documents folder on the Nook That way you can at least start reading the books.

The nook is registered, the wifi is working as I can look at websites and I have a default credit card with a US address.

When I update the BN content on the nook, the book shows up. However, when selecting it, instead of seeing the "read" option on the touch screen, there's a "download" option. Selecting that results in "product not currently available." That's even with adding the book to my BN library with hotspot shield turned on.

I've only tried this with free books, so as far as I know, with paid books it could be different. However, at this point, I don't really want to be purchasing books I can't really read.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by nicky10013

The nook is registered, the wifi is working as I can look at websites and I have a default credit card with a US address.

When I update the BN content on the nook, the book shows up. However, when selecting it, instead of seeing the "read" option on the touch screen, there's a "download" option. Selecting that results in "product not currently available." That's even with adding the book to my BN library with hotspot shield turned on.

I've only tried this with free books, so as far as I know, with paid books it could be different. However, at this point, I don't really want to be purchasing books I can't really read.

Just to make sure, because this an error a lot of people make.
If you have registered a credit card in your B&N account this does not make it your default credit card automatically. You have to choose a credit card, using manage credit cards, as your default credit card.
Look at the "Payment settings" in the top right corner of your account information (underneath the "become a member" box).
Underneath the "Default payment" header your credit card should be mentioned. If this is not the case choose "manage credit cards" to choose a default credit card.

Without a valid default credit card the B&N DRM cannot encrypt a book when downloading. Download problems like you describe are usually caused by the deault credit card.

There are a lot of international Nook owners (I am one of them) that are buying and downloading B&N books this way without a problem, so it should work you also. Do not give up, we are here to help you

[nicky10013]

I'll go back and check but I'm 99% sure I made my credit card a default card. Thanks for the help!

[nicky10013]

Weird, I first logged onto my page and I saw that I didn't have a default card. I clicked on manage cards and the card I had made my default card was there in all it's glory. I backtracked to the page where it said I didn't have one, low and behold it's there where it wasn't before. So, there definitely is a default card on my account.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by nicky10013

Weird, I first logged onto my page and I saw that I didn't have a default card. I clicked on manage cards and the card I had made my default card was there in all it's glory. I backtracked to the page where it said I didn't have one, low and behold it's there where it wasn't before. So, there definitely is a default card on my account.

Have you tried to download a book on the Nook after this?

[nicky10013]

Yeah, I just tried. A couple books worked and I thought I was out of the woods until I got to one which I again had to press download and wasn't available. Not all are geo-restricted, so I suppose I got lucky the first two times around.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by nicky10013

Yeah, I just tried. A couple books worked and I thought I was out of the woods until I got to one which I again had to press download and wasn't available. Not all are geo-restricted, so I suppose I got lucky the first two times around.

This has nothing to do with geo-restrictions, there a no geo-restrictions when downloading books, only when you buy them.
Perhaps the books that you can download have no DRM (not all free e-books seem to have DRM).

If you look at the books that you cannot download in your B&N library on the B&N website, do they have an active download button (green, not grey/ghosted)? If they do, can you download the books to your PC using the download button?

[nicky10013]

I can with the hotspot shield. I can add them to my library with or without the shield. Without the shield, I can't download them to my PC due to geo restrictions. It says specifically that when I do attempt to download them. I press the green download button and a little warning pops up saying: "Geographical Constraint. Cannot download file in your location."

[geertm]

Originally Posted by nicky10013

I can with the hotspot shield. I can add them to my library with or without the shield. Without the shield, I can't download them to my PC due to geo restrictions. It says specifically that when I do attempt to download them. I press the green download button and a little warning pops up saying: "Geographical Constraint. Cannot download file in your location."

Your problems are caused by the books you bought without Hotspot Shield.
If you buy a book (even a free book is bought) without using Hotspot shield you will receive an e-mail from B&N that your order was cancelled, but the books will appear in your B&N library for some time (these cancelled books are automatically deleted after a while) but cannot be downloaded because the order was not completed.

If you look at the order overview at the top of you account page you will probably see some orders with the status "cancelled". That will be the books that you cannot download.

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by nicky10013

I've run into this blasted IP restriction which despite the couple months of research I've done, I haven't seen anything about. Out of 20-30 PD free books I've been messing around with, only 2 have worked.

I think the squirrel's up in this other tree, not the one everyone's barking at.

You're saying you're having trouble with PD e-books, by which I assume you mean Google Books. So here's the thing: a lot of Google Books aren't available in OCRed EPUB, only in raw-scan PDF. It seems (and I stress that, because it hasn't been really tested) that B&N erroneously offers the PDF-only e-books "for sale" (free). Unfortunately, B&N's servers are incapable of delivering PDFs, and will give you a bogus "Geographic constraint" error message when you try to download.

Since you live in an area where a Geographic Constraint error is plausible, you had no reason to suspect that it's bogus.

If this is indeed the case, then basically you can't get those e-books through B&N. Not because you're in Canada; nobody can get them through B&N because B&N can't deliver PDFs. You'll need to go straight to Google Books, download the PDFs, and sideload them onto your NOOK. And it's no offense (or is that offence up there?) to your being in Canada.

Bear in mind, however, that PDFs generally come out pretty sad on a small-screen e-reader. You might be better off seeing if you can find those titles at Feedbooks, Manybooks, BeBooks, Project Gutenberg, etc., where they proofread and clean up the scans. (By the way, BeBooks does theirs in PDF, but their PDFs are specifically designed for small-screen e-readers.) If you're willing to spend a couple of bucks, the "B&N Classics" series of cleaned-up PD e-books has an excellent reputation, too.

[nicky10013]

Originally Posted by geertm

Your problems are caused by the books you bought without Hotspot Shield.
If you buy a book (even a free book is bought) without using Hotspot shield you will receive an e-mail from B&N that your order was cancelled, but the books will appear in your B&N library for some time (these cancelled books are automatically deleted after a while) but cannot be downloaded because the order was not completed.

If you look at the order overview at the top of you account page you will probably see some orders with the status "cancelled". That will be the books that you cannot download.

Nope. None have been cancelled and I've done quite a few using and not using hot spot shield. Like I said, even with hot spot shield, it absolutely will not download straight to the nook. I can only side load them.

[nicky10013]

Originally Posted by Doug Pardee

I think the squirrel's up in this other tree, not the one everyone's barking at.

You're saying you're having trouble with PD e-books, by which I assume you mean Google Books. So here's the thing: a lot of Google Books aren't available in OCRed EPUB, only in raw-scan PDF. It seems (and I stress that, because it hasn't been really tested) that B&N erroneously offers the PDF-only e-books "for sale" (free). Unfortunately, B&N's servers are incapable of delivering PDFs, and will give you a bogus "Geographic constraint" error message when you try to download.

Since you live in an area where a Geographic Constraint error is plausible, you had no reason to suspect that it's bogus.

If this is indeed the case, then basically you can't get those e-books through B&N. Not because you're in Canada; nobody can get them through B&N because B&N can't deliver PDFs. You'll need to go straight to Google Books, download the PDFs, and sideload them onto your NOOK. And it's no offense (or is that offence up there?) to your being in Canada.

Bear in mind, however, that PDFs generally come out pretty sad on a small-screen e-reader. You might be better off seeing if you can find those titles at Feedbooks, Manybooks, BeBooks, Project Gutenberg, etc., where they proofread and clean up the scans. (By the way, BeBooks does theirs in PDF, but their PDFs are specifically designed for small-screen e-readers.) If you're willing to spend a couple of bucks, the "B&N Classics" series of cleaned-up PD e-books has an excellent reputation, too.

I think that's an interesting theory. However, I can download the books straight to my PC right from the B&N website which seems to nullify the theory that B&Ns servers can't send PDFs unless of course you were talking about PDFs being downloaded straight to the nook. In that case, I don't understand the necessity of going to google books.

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by nicky10013

I can download the books straight to my PC right from the B&N website

What format do you get when you do that? EPUB? PDB? PDF?