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Sure. One example is that someone doing a speedtest will have accessed fast.com before starting a download of video streams. This can be detected despite the th
by jsnell 10y ago
Sure. One example is that someone doing a speedtest will have accessed fast.com before starting a download of video streams. This can be detected despite the the encryption, e.g. via looking at the SNI of the requests. It doesn't matter what the video stream looks like, since those separate TCP flows can be cross-correlated.
- jonknee 10y agoThe same functionality can surely be built into Netflix apps.
- kbenson 10y agoSo in that case Netflix just decides to have their streaming clients occasionally access fast.com before regular streaming to get any traffic shaping eased? I agree, that in this case, where a separate domain was used, ISPs can use that to detect a speed test is likely. That said, I would like to note that every solution an ISP has to implement is much more expensive to any mitigation put forth by Netflix, as long as they want to hide what they are doing. If they aren't hiding it, well that's one of the reasons netflix is doing this, to inform customers what they are actually getting from their ISP, and let them make choice whether they like the current product they are using from their ISP (if they have a credible choice).
- brazzledazzle 10y agoNetflix could load something from fast.com on each Netflix navigation right? Ultimately if they're playing cat to Netflix's mouse how much does each mitigation strategy cost them relative to Netflix? I wonder if it's more cost effective to process that much traffic through shapers than it is to increase bandwidth between peers or allow Netflix to drop their boxes within their networks.