13 ms·

Now that my ISP bundles Netflix subscription into their internet plans, access to netflix and fast.com now practically saturate the fiber link, while before it

Now that my ISP bundles Netflix subscription into their internet plans, access to netflix and fast.com now practically saturate the fiber link, while before it was outright blocked. Hooray for no net neutrality I guess. Another fun part: when netflix IPs was blocked by this ISP, it's pretty much impossible to use netflix because the only way to get around the block was to use VPN, but netflix itself blocks VPN access.

solarpunk 4y ago
I'm curious where you live and what provider does this weird Netflix reselling practice.
- neurostimulant 4y ago
  Streaming services do this all the time in Asia. Instead of paying with credit card, you pay via your carrier/ISP, sometimes at discounted pricing. I paid Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime and Zoom this way.
- callahad 4y ago
  Common in America (e.g. https://www.t-mobile.com/tv-streaming/netflix-on-us https://www.t-mobile.com/tv-streaming/netflix-on-us) and the UK (e.g. https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/virgin-media-o2-revamps-top-bundles-to-include-netflix/ https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/virgin-media-o2-revamps-top...)
happymellon 4y ago
> Hooray for no net neutrality I guess Surely it would essentially saturate your fibre if there was net neutrality, unless you don't pay for full fibre speeds?
- tpxl 4y ago
  Parent was being facetious.
bee_rider 4y ago
What is the internet anyway? Are there truth in advertising issues around selling internet access with excessive filtering?
patmcc 4y ago
Your ISP entirely blocked netflix? That's incredible shitty.
- dhosek 4y ago
  Early in the pandemic, I spent a while without wired internet using a wireless hotspot from the library which would not connect to Netflix but any other streaming video service was fine. I forget who the wireless vendor behind the hotspot was—I think it might have been Verizon.
  - kerkeslager 4y ago
    So there's a bit of a weird fact about public libraries, which is that it probably wasn't on the normal internet (Internet1) but was in fact on Internet2 (see [1]). Internet2 is used by hospitals, among other things, and as such has higher robustness requirements than Internet1. The pandemic created much higher demand for bandwidth from hospitals, forcing Internet2 providers to scramble to keep up in areas. As such, blocking high-bandwidth sites which are clearly lower priority than medical traffic might have actually been a reasonable move. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - riceart 4y ago
      Not quite sure I understand - what do hospitals need a ton of bandwidth for? Why would those bandwidth requirements rise significantly during the pandemic. Sure there were a bunch of people on vents in the MICU, but pretty much every elective procedural service plummeted.
      - uni_rule 4y ago
        I'd imagine telehealth played a fairly large roll. White crispy video calls are not that demanding individually 10s to 100s of them at scale per location (and an exponential increase of calls in general) might be something more of a problem for that sort of infrastructure.
dspillett 4y ago
> Now that my ISP bundles Netflix subscription into their internet plans, access to netflix and fast.com now practically saturate the fiber link They may have an ISP-local netflix cache, from Netflix themselves not some home-grown hack, so they can achieve that with some reliability without it costing as much as it otherwise would for bandwidth peering.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- tiedieconderoga 4y ago
  Netflix distributes "red boxes" to ISPs which are exactly that: edge content caches. (PDF): https://openconnect.netflix.com/Open-Connect-Briefing-Paper.pdf https://openconnect.netflix.com/Open-Connect-Briefing-Paper....
noobcoder 4y ago
Mine did the same and charged for bundles of HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+ Until recently they reverted it after bunch of complains and tonnes of people changing their ISP
pratnala 4y ago
Netflix blocks datacenter VPNs but you can use residential VPNs (which tbf are more expensive) to circumvent this.
postdb 4y ago
hmmm, IMHO, traffic for video and everything else ought to separated into 2 classes. Video obvious takes much much more bandwidth than other stuff. It would be good to allow none video, smaller assets that are needed to to make a website function to have priority over video files.
postdb 4y ago
BTW, AT&T has terrible records for dropping customer's traffic and also email without warning or notices to their customers. Why such terrible company is around amazing how corporation don't really survive by merit in our current world.

solarpunk 4y ago

I'm curious where you live and what provider does this weird Netflix reselling practice.

neurostimulant 4y ago
Streaming services do this all the time in Asia. Instead of paying with credit card, you pay via your carrier/ISP, sometimes at discounted pricing. I paid Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime and Zoom this way.
callahad 4y ago
Common in America (e.g. https://www.t-mobile.com/tv-streaming/netflix-on-us https://www.t-mobile.com/tv-streaming/netflix-on-us) and the UK (e.g. https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/virgin-media-o2-revamps-top-bundles-to-include-netflix/ https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/virgin-media-o2-revamps-top...)

happymellon 4y ago

> Hooray for no net neutrality I guess Surely it would essentially saturate your fibre if there was net neutrality, unless you don't pay for full fibre speeds?

tpxl 4y ago
Parent was being facetious.

bee_rider 4y ago

What is the internet anyway? Are there truth in advertising issues around selling internet access with excessive filtering?

patmcc 4y ago

Your ISP entirely blocked netflix? That's incredible shitty.

dhosek 4y ago
Early in the pandemic, I spent a while without wired internet using a wireless hotspot from the library which would not connect to Netflix but any other streaming video service was fine. I forget who the wireless vendor behind the hotspot was—I think it might have been Verizon.
- kerkeslager 4y ago
  So there's a bit of a weird fact about public libraries, which is that it probably wasn't on the normal internet (Internet1) but was in fact on Internet2 (see [1]). Internet2 is used by hospitals, among other things, and as such has higher robustness requirements than Internet1. The pandemic created much higher demand for bandwidth from hospitals, forcing Internet2 providers to scramble to keep up in areas. As such, blocking high-bandwidth sites which are clearly lower priority than medical traffic might have actually been a reasonable move. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - riceart 4y ago
    Not quite sure I understand - what do hospitals need a ton of bandwidth for? Why would those bandwidth requirements rise significantly during the pandemic. Sure there were a bunch of people on vents in the MICU, but pretty much every elective procedural service plummeted.
    - uni_rule 4y ago
      I'd imagine telehealth played a fairly large roll. White crispy video calls are not that demanding individually 10s to 100s of them at scale per location (and an exponential increase of calls in general) might be something more of a problem for that sort of infrastructure.

dspillett 4y ago

> Now that my ISP bundles Netflix subscription into their internet plans, access to netflix and fast.com now practically saturate the fiber link They may have an ISP-local netflix cache, from Netflix themselves not some home-grown hack, so they can achieve that with some reliability without it costing as much as it otherwise would for bandwidth peering.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tiedieconderoga 4y ago
Netflix distributes "red boxes" to ISPs which are exactly that: edge content caches. (PDF): https://openconnect.netflix.com/Open-Connect-Briefing-Paper.pdf https://openconnect.netflix.com/Open-Connect-Briefing-Paper....

noobcoder 4y ago

Mine did the same and charged for bundles of HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+ Until recently they reverted it after bunch of complains and tonnes of people changing their ISP

pratnala 4y ago

Netflix blocks datacenter VPNs but you can use residential VPNs (which tbf are more expensive) to circumvent this.

postdb 4y ago

hmmm, IMHO, traffic for video and everything else ought to separated into 2 classes. Video obvious takes much much more bandwidth than other stuff. It would be good to allow none video, smaller assets that are needed to to make a website function to have priority over video files.

postdb 4y ago

BTW, AT&T has terrible records for dropping customer's traffic and also email without warning or notices to their customers. Why such terrible company is around amazing how corporation don't really survive by merit in our current world.