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Ask HN: Does anyone work at Xfinity? The Apple TV app has been broken since Jan

36 points by LeoPanthera 3y ago

Since at least January, and probably longer, the Xfinity Stream app for Apple TV has been unable to remember your login. You have to login fresh every single time you launch the app. There are a lot of unhappy users in this thread on the Xfinity forums: https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/xfinity-stream-website/xfinity-streaming-service-requires-login-everytime-i-use-it-apple-tv/63ccba40d9aa6753d37a826f I'm hoping that complaining about it here might catch the attention of some Xfinity devs who can help fix it.

hedora 3y ago
My apple tv has a similar issue. There’s a red dot in front of the user settings menu item, and it logs me out every few weeks. The problem started at about the same time. (Edit: I’m talking about the AppleTV hardware device, and my iCloud account.)
bl4kers 3y ago
Wouldn't surprise me if these type of apps were maintained on a per-contract basis. Godspeed though
- op00to 3y ago
  Comcast has a 60 story skyscraper in Philadelphia (tallest in the nation not in Chicago or Manhattan) dedicated to technology. I'd be surprised if there's not a team of people working on the iOS and TVOS apps.
  - footlose_3815 3y ago
    Most of that skyscraper is rented out to others
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - dexwiz 3y ago
    There are a few towers in Houston, LA, and SF that are taller.
    - op00to 3y ago
      No, the Comcast Technology Center is taller than any building in Texas or California at 342m.
      - olyjohn 3y ago
        Why is it so tall? Rainier Square in Seattle is 58 stories and only 260m. Columbia Tower is 76 stories and 284m. Also according to Wikipedia the Comcast Center is only 297m and is the 31st tallest building in the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Center EDIT: I see that Comcast Center and Comcast Technology Center are 2 different buildings. Not confusing at all... guess that's typical for Comcast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Technology_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Technology_Center Also looking at it, those top floors are... well tiny as fuck.
        sen 3y ago
        > Also looking at it, those top floors are... well tiny as fuck. Executives with 360 degree views?
        op00to 3y ago
        The top is a hotel, I think. For rich people, so yes.
        aaron695 3y ago
        [dead]
        dexwiz 3y ago
        Oh yeah I think I was looking at the other building also.
  - pkulak 3y ago
    You’d be surprised at what a company will contract out that you’d think should be a core competency.
  - egorfine 3y ago
    Exactly. A whole team of people dedicated to managing a single subcontractor working on the iOS and tvOS apps.
  - alex_lav 3y ago
    The comments on this topic are sub-reddit quality. You're right, they have multiple dev teams for everything you'd think they would. It's a real shame how far the quality of posts have gone on this site.
chevman 3y ago
Do you have a pi-hole, ad blocker, or other such network wide filter in action on your network? I've found Comcast/Xfinity has all kinds of odd telemetry end points going on (assuming some is ads, some is for in-product observability) that gets blocked on many DNS blocklists and causes all kinds of weird glitches when using their services. Might be something to double-check.
- NoPicklez 3y ago
  Looking at their post history they might do. Posted about a Smart TV blocklist. I know that when I've noticed anything strange with accessing anything or authenticating I temporarily switch off Pi-Hole to test.
  - water-your-self 3y ago
    Antagonism is WAI
- mistyvales 3y ago
  I was getting weird errors on Hulu from certain shows and figured out it was pi-hole. I have to disable it for 30 seconds, press play and hope it works, then it gets enabled again. Have to do it for the next episode. Not all shows require that though.
DoesntMatter22 3y ago
I've worked on the backend systems at Comcast that control this. If you ever want to see a massive microservice dumpster fire well... join Comcast. My favorite thing I saw is that they score you as a customer. If you call a lot they devalue you so when you go to quit they let you go rather than keep you
- tomcam 3y ago
  My service is bad. I’m in a technicallybrural community, less than 7 miles from Microsoft HQ. Is there a way to tell objectively whether it’s caused by my modem, my router, my repeaters, or oversubscription?
  - DoesntMatter22 3y ago
    There are probably few people at comcast themselves who could tell you that. There are so many systems and few people have access to enough of them to know what the issue is. Certainly not the customer service people. So, no probably not.
    - tomcam 3y ago
      Sigh. Thanks.
- seattle_spring 3y ago
  Haha. No wonder they stopped offering me deals when I called to quit.
- pkulak 3y ago
  That just sounds like good business.
- tibbydudeza 3y ago
  Reminds me of that South Park episode where the kids try and cancel the useless programs on their packages - the technician then says "Tell me how it makes you feel" along with some NSW action involving his nipples.
flufferstutter 3y ago
Heh. Even having a direct line to Comcast may not help. I’ve been having problems with the Prime Video AppleTV app having issues with taking a really long time to log in, throwing up some error messages before finally connecting. And working for AWS I was able to find the correct chat room and talk directly to one of the developers. They had me try a few things and gave up. And as another commenter here mentioned, my first thought was maybe some of my network filtering. But Prime Video works fine on my computers, phone, and console.

36 points by LeoPanthera 3y ago

hedora 3y ago

My apple tv has a similar issue. There’s a red dot in front of the user settings menu item, and it logs me out every few weeks. The problem started at about the same time. (Edit: I’m talking about the AppleTV hardware device, and my iCloud account.)

bl4kers 3y ago

Wouldn't surprise me if these type of apps were maintained on a per-contract basis. Godspeed though

op00to 3y ago
Comcast has a 60 story skyscraper in Philadelphia (tallest in the nation not in Chicago or Manhattan) dedicated to technology. I'd be surprised if there's not a team of people working on the iOS and TVOS apps.
- footlose_3815 3y ago
  Most of that skyscraper is rented out to others
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- dexwiz 3y ago
  There are a few towers in Houston, LA, and SF that are taller.
  - op00to 3y ago
    No, the Comcast Technology Center is taller than any building in Texas or California at 342m.
    - olyjohn 3y ago
      Why is it so tall? Rainier Square in Seattle is 58 stories and only 260m. Columbia Tower is 76 stories and 284m. Also according to Wikipedia the Comcast Center is only 297m and is the 31st tallest building in the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Center EDIT: I see that Comcast Center and Comcast Technology Center are 2 different buildings. Not confusing at all... guess that's typical for Comcast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Technology_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Technology_Center Also looking at it, those top floors are... well tiny as fuck.
      - sen 3y ago
        > Also looking at it, those top floors are... well tiny as fuck. Executives with 360 degree views?
        op00to 3y ago
        The top is a hotel, I think. For rich people, so yes.
      - aaron695 3y ago
        [dead]
      - dexwiz 3y ago
        Oh yeah I think I was looking at the other building also.
- pkulak 3y ago
  You’d be surprised at what a company will contract out that you’d think should be a core competency.
- egorfine 3y ago
  Exactly. A whole team of people dedicated to managing a single subcontractor working on the iOS and tvOS apps.
- alex_lav 3y ago
  The comments on this topic are sub-reddit quality. You're right, they have multiple dev teams for everything you'd think they would. It's a real shame how far the quality of posts have gone on this site.

chevman 3y ago

Do you have a pi-hole, ad blocker, or other such network wide filter in action on your network? I've found Comcast/Xfinity has all kinds of odd telemetry end points going on (assuming some is ads, some is for in-product observability) that gets blocked on many DNS blocklists and causes all kinds of weird glitches when using their services. Might be something to double-check.

NoPicklez 3y ago
Looking at their post history they might do. Posted about a Smart TV blocklist. I know that when I've noticed anything strange with accessing anything or authenticating I temporarily switch off Pi-Hole to test.
- water-your-self 3y ago
  Antagonism is WAI
mistyvales 3y ago
I was getting weird errors on Hulu from certain shows and figured out it was pi-hole. I have to disable it for 30 seconds, press play and hope it works, then it gets enabled again. Have to do it for the next episode. Not all shows require that though.

DoesntMatter22 3y ago

I've worked on the backend systems at Comcast that control this. If you ever want to see a massive microservice dumpster fire well... join Comcast. My favorite thing I saw is that they score you as a customer. If you call a lot they devalue you so when you go to quit they let you go rather than keep you

tomcam 3y ago
My service is bad. I’m in a technicallybrural community, less than 7 miles from Microsoft HQ. Is there a way to tell objectively whether it’s caused by my modem, my router, my repeaters, or oversubscription?
- DoesntMatter22 3y ago
  There are probably few people at comcast themselves who could tell you that. There are so many systems and few people have access to enough of them to know what the issue is. Certainly not the customer service people. So, no probably not.
  - tomcam 3y ago
    Sigh. Thanks.
seattle_spring 3y ago
Haha. No wonder they stopped offering me deals when I called to quit.
pkulak 3y ago
That just sounds like good business.
tibbydudeza 3y ago
Reminds me of that South Park episode where the kids try and cancel the useless programs on their packages - the technician then says "Tell me how it makes you feel" along with some NSW action involving his nipples.

flufferstutter 3y ago

Heh. Even having a direct line to Comcast may not help. I’ve been having problems with the Prime Video AppleTV app having issues with taking a really long time to log in, throwing up some error messages before finally connecting. And working for AWS I was able to find the correct chat room and talk directly to one of the developers. They had me try a few things and gave up. And as another commenter here mentioned, my first thought was maybe some of my network filtering. But Prime Video works fine on my computers, phone, and console.