Unable to Stream DirecTV Live TV on Windows PCs

I have been trying for weeks to stream DirecTV live TV on three Windows 10 computers, with no success. Is it even possible to view live TV from Windows any more? 

There is no DirecTV streaming app for Windows. I can stream live TV just fine from the DirecTV App on an iPhone and iPad. Supposedly, all you need to do on Windows is log in to your AT&T account in a supported browser.  Before proceeding, bring up the browser site-specific settings and enable Adobe Flash. With Chrome and most current browsers if it necessary to change this setting every time you start the browser, because Flash is an old and fairly unsupported technology and it carries security risks. Next, make a selection to stream live TV, either from the Guide tab or elsewhere. The first time you try to stream, a popup will prompt you to install the DirecTV Player. Then, supposedly, you can watch live TV. 

In reality, none of that works well, if at all. First off, the DirecTV Player will not install. Viewing the web console in Chrome, I could see that the player download was blocked because there is a secure SSL connection to the DirecTV web page but the URL to the player .exe is not secure. I manually got around that by downloading the .EXE manually outside the browser and running the installation, hoping that my anti-virus would save the day if the software had been hacked. I have no idea if installing the player software outside of the browser actually registers the player for Chrome. The player does not show up in the Chrome extensions list - but is supposed to? Not sure. Whatever the case, I no longer got the popup prompting me to install the player. Instead, I try to watch live TV and the following message appears:  'To tune to this show, your Computer must be joined to the same Wi-Fi network as your receiver.' Well, we have only one WiFi network in the home. I can check the WiFi connection properties from my computers and from the DirecTV receiver and see that they are exactly the same.

Lots of people are reporting this problem on forums. I have tried all sorts of things suggested. Clearing the DNS cache on the computers, clearing the browser cache and cookies, closing all tabs in the browser except for the DirecTV page, and trying other browsers (Edge and Internet Explorer.) I also added a route mapping to the windows HOSTS file to map the domain of the player to local IP address 127.0.0.1. 

I called into DirecTV technical support and worked for almost an hour trying the standard remediation steps. Latest updates are installed for the Windows 10 OS and for the browser, and I have tried dropping and restoring the WiFi connections. My case had to be escalated and I am waiting for the call back. The wait currently can be as much as two weeks. (Wow.)

Assuming that anyone out there is able to stream live TV on a Windows 10 computer, there must be a magic trick somewhere. If so, it must be a closely guarded secret.