So here's a strange issue. I've been using wifi tether to surf without issue until a couple of days ago when I noticed on sites where they embed youtube videos there's just a black box instead of a screen cap for the video with a play button. I can still actually go to youtube and watch the video, but can't use the embed player. I've tried different browsers, and using different programs, and confirmed it also occurs on the phone itself using Chrome.
But it doesn't occur when I switch to a different internet connection. When I take my laptop elsewhere, I can see the videos fine. It just appears to be occurring when I'm tethering off my Boost data connection, and it occurs whether I'm connected to 4g Wimax or EvDo.
I've tried googling around but can't seem to find any solution. After troubleshooting it myself I've narrowed down the culprit to the Boost data connection, so the question is this: is Boost blocking the embed player for Youtube and, if so, what can I do about it?
Edited to add: Okay so I did some more snooping and what I eventually found out is that Boost is blocking embed youtube videos so long as the user agent on your browser is set to desktop. If you change the user agent to mobile, embed videos work fine. The reason they were coming up blocked on my phone is because I was using Chrome mobile which I guess has Chrome desktop as its user agent.
Anyway, when I changed the user agent in my desktop browser to Android 2.3 and reloaded the page, the embed videos ran just like they were supposed to.
If you're having this issue, on Chrome open the developer tools (Ctrl+Shift+I), click the gear in the lower right corner, click override user agent and select android 2.3. Note that the user agent is only overridden so long as that window is open, when you close it you go back to regular Chrome.
So I guess this is a new feature implemented by boost though I don't know if it's across the board or just for people who aren't coughing up the cash to do hotspot tethering. Either way, it's an easy enough fix.
But it doesn't occur when I switch to a different internet connection. When I take my laptop elsewhere, I can see the videos fine. It just appears to be occurring when I'm tethering off my Boost data connection, and it occurs whether I'm connected to 4g Wimax or EvDo.
I've tried googling around but can't seem to find any solution. After troubleshooting it myself I've narrowed down the culprit to the Boost data connection, so the question is this: is Boost blocking the embed player for Youtube and, if so, what can I do about it?
Edited to add: Okay so I did some more snooping and what I eventually found out is that Boost is blocking embed youtube videos so long as the user agent on your browser is set to desktop. If you change the user agent to mobile, embed videos work fine. The reason they were coming up blocked on my phone is because I was using Chrome mobile which I guess has Chrome desktop as its user agent.
Anyway, when I changed the user agent in my desktop browser to Android 2.3 and reloaded the page, the embed videos ran just like they were supposed to.
If you're having this issue, on Chrome open the developer tools (Ctrl+Shift+I), click the gear in the lower right corner, click override user agent and select android 2.3. Note that the user agent is only overridden so long as that window is open, when you close it you go back to regular Chrome.
So I guess this is a new feature implemented by boost though I don't know if it's across the board or just for people who aren't coughing up the cash to do hotspot tethering. Either way, it's an easy enough fix.
