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Comments on news posted 2014-02-12 14:29:24: While a lot of the focus lately has been on the dismal Netflix streaming performance on Verizon, Comcast users would apparently like you to know that their Netflix streaming experience lately has been equally abysmal. ..

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ExoticFish
join:2008-08-31
Zebulon, NC

4 edits

ExoticFish

Member

Not me

I haven't noticed any streaming issues. Shrugs

Just tested again and was streaming at 3000kbps on my computer, after buffering. My Apple TV played @ 3000kbps instantly.

Edit: Just realized my Apple TV was only 720p. Went out and bought the newer 1080 model and get 5800kbps instantly. So still, no issues for me.

YukonHawk
join:2001-01-07
Patterson, NY

YukonHawk

Member

Re: Not me

I had problems the other night while streaming Breaking Bad during the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. I figured there were so many people watching it that it was slowing down the network in the neighbor. The picture was freezing up but the voices were still going. First time in 2 years that's ever happened. Anyway, I'll see what happens tonight.

Ytsejamer1
join:2008-01-18
Somersworth, NH

Ytsejamer1 to ExoticFish

Member

to ExoticFish
I've not had a problem with Netflix streaming either...to my tablets, mediaPC, or my Oppo BluRay player... All look fine. Maybe once in great while do I see the quality reduce, but it's momentary.

kdwycha
join:2003-01-30
Ruskin, FL

4 recommendations

kdwycha

Member

Well...

I blame it on Netflix. I have poor performance using Netflix on Brighthouse (Piggybacks TWC Roadrunner for internet) and also did when I lived with mum who had Verizon FiOS.

Also had crap Netflix resolution with Bresnan Cable (now Charter) in Wyoming when I lived there a short time before I realized the perpetual winter sucked and moved back to Florida.

Amazon on the other hand provides 1080p streaming quality every time, did have a Prime account for the free trial period and never renewed since i'm not rich. I did pay for the last season of Breaking Bad om Amazon since Netflix didn't have it yet and every episode played with better audio and video quality then the Netflix episodes.

tom1
@170.99.2.x

tom1

Anon

Re: Well...

I wouldn't blame netflix. At home on my Verizon FIOS I get 235kbps all day every day, at work just a few miles down the road I get 3000kbps all day every day.

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207 to kdwycha

Premium Member

to kdwycha
Yes, all the information and resources I have read about seem to suggest that this issue is predominantly the fault of Netflix just being cheapskates. Fix the peering crap and I would be happy to triple my subscription service payment. How about a little honesty, Netflix? The ridiculous performance list is annoyingly offensive.

NOCMan
MadMacHatter
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Colorado Springs, CO

NOCMan to kdwycha

Premium Member

to kdwycha
You do realize both Amazon and Netflix use the same AWS Datacenters right. So if one works the other should as well.

Contents
Contents
join:2003-04-10
Circle Pines, MN

Contents

Member

Canceled Netflix

I live in Minnesota and Netflix is sooooo very bad, that I gave up and went with Amazon. I've had Netflix since the first Roku, and it worked great. But these last few months have been just terrible. It would not matter which device, router or no router, and even testing at another location... Picture quality = crap. Once the constant buffering starting happening I canceled Netflix.

Sorry I had to leave it, I really did like it. Amazon and Hulu look fantastic.

Trimline
Premium Member
join:2004-10-24
Windermere, FL

Trimline

Premium Member

Re: Canceled Netflix

You sound like me. That's exactly what I did.
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN

Chubbysumo to Contents

Member

to Contents
I live across the border in WI, and netflix is perfect here, most of the time.
kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL

kaila to Contents

Member

to Contents
It's beyond Netflix, thirteen other ISP's are above Comcast on that list- Frontier is above them for crying out loud...

I know these are not simple problems to solve, but unless someone can explain it better, it seems either their peering partners are letting Comcast down, or Comcast is doing a crummy job managing traffic flows across their own network or from said partners.

James
@comcast.net

James

Anon

Tech support

Lets start by resetting your modem, sir. Do you have a router hooked up?

uhhhggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Mr Guy
@charter.com

Mr Guy

Anon

Re: Tech support

said by James :

Lets start by resetting your modem, sir. Do you have a router hooked up?

uhhhggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

You do realize the vast majority of the time computer, internet problems etc are in fact the fault of the user or his equipment andnot the fault of the company the conspiracy theorists want to blame.

nottrue
@cgocable.net

nottrue

Anon

Re: Tech support

said by Mr Guy :

You do realize the vast majority of the time computer, internet problems etc are in fact the fault of the user or his equipment andnot the fault of the company the conspiracy theorists want to blame.

Please, that is not even close to being true.
rocafellanrd
join:2009-05-04

rocafellanrd

Member

Re: Tech support

Actually Guy is right. At least 78-84 percent of the time, the end user is at fault because they don't know what the f*** they are doing, they assume
that their customer premise equipment is configured properly, when it is not, or they come up with
bulls**** theories about how the ISP is causing their equipment to screw up. I know, because I work in IT support. That claim is easy to back up. People are stupid and extremely uneducated about how things work, yet they thank god each time I fix their computer. And unfortunately most of them use
the internet. They range from 35 to 95, are arrogant, and lack any respect.

But in this situation, Comcast takes the cake. The people in these markets are screwed if this goes through. No more promotions, higher switching costs of they do compete with another company, expensive 3G/4G, high upfront handset prices, with a soft economy mean problems.

fg8578
join:2009-04-26
San Antonio, TX

fg8578 to Mr Guy

Member

to Mr Guy
said by Mr Guy :

You do realize the vast majority of the time computer, internet problems etc are in fact the fault of the user or his equipment andnot the fault of the company the conspiracy theorists want to blame.

Understood. I just wish the drones in first tier customer support would stop reading from their script long enough to actually LISTEN to your problem.

I can't tell you how many times I've rebooted a router or cleared my cache when neither had ANYTHING to do with my problem.

But it's on the script and they won't listen to anything other than "OK I've done that -- what next"?

Geot
@verizon.net

Geot

Anon

Netflix dwarfs other streaming services

"While Verizon has so far blamed either Internet bogeymen or vaguely implied Netflix is at fault,"

I'm voting on the bogeyman.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

2 recommendations

tshirt

Premium Member

Show me...

...some PROOF.
today's speculation is no better than yesterday's or last weeks.
"On the Comcast front, some annoyed users have tried unsuccessfully to claim Comcast is also throttling Netflix, though as with Verizon the evidence just isn't there.

Netflix could prove it if it was true, this is spin and it wearing thin.

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper

Premium Member

Re: Show me...

said by tshirt:

...some PROOF.

 
Comcast has a history of interfering with traffic and denying it as long as they can get away with it.

A tiger does not change its stripes.

NOCMan
MadMacHatter
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Colorado Springs, CO

NOCMan to tshirt

Premium Member

to tshirt
Colorado Springs 50/20 plan.. 250kbps netflix stream. It's unusable.

Speedtest.net to Denver comcast server full speed
Speedtest.net to local ISP Falcon Broadband Full Speed.

Probably will do some packet dumps to see if we can see what's going on did not have time to setup the captures today.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

There is a problem with Comcast and Netflix...

The quality is crap. I have a 50/10 connection and you'd never know it. Comcast isn't allocating sufficient bandwidth to the peering points.

DocDrew
How can I help?
Premium Member
join:2009-01-28
SoCal
Ubee E31U2V1
Technicolor TC4400
Linksys EA6900

DocDrew

Premium Member

Re: There is a problem with Comcast and Netflix...

said by IPPlanMan:

Comcast isn't allocating sufficient bandwidth to the peering points.

What else are you having problems with besides Netflix? A peer point problem should affect multiple upstream sources.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Re: There is a problem with Comcast and Netflix...

I only stream from Netflix. Comcast speed for other usage is fine. Netflix quality is terrible. The interconnect with Netflix is overloaded.

DocDrew
How can I help?
Premium Member
join:2009-01-28
SoCal
Ubee E31U2V1
Technicolor TC4400
Linksys EA6900

1 edit

1 recommendation

DocDrew

Premium Member

Re: There is a problem with Comcast and Netflix...

said by IPPlanMan:

I only stream from Netflix. Comcast speed for other usage is fine. Netflix quality is terrible. The interconnect with Netflix is overloaded.

If it's a direct link to Comcast, more than likely it's be a paid transit link: »www.comcast.com/dedicate ··· ect=true In that case, it's up to Netflix to pay for the bandwidth they need.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Re: There is a problem with Comcast and Netflix...

Sure would be great if a Comcast/Netflix person could comment and clear this up.

jlivingood
Premium Member
join:2007-10-28
Philadelphia, PA

1 recommendation

jlivingood to IPPlanMan

Premium Member

to IPPlanMan
While occasional peering issues have happened with ISPs over the years (some more than others), services like Netflix have many options to deliver high performance if they choose to use them.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Re: There is a problem with Comcast and Netflix...

Are you saying they aren't choosing those options?

Is Comcast providing the amount of bandwidth resources and interconnectivity service level Netflix has contracted for?

your name
@comcast.net

1 recommendation

your name

Anon

Re: There is a problem with Comcast and Netflix...

said by IPPlanMan:

Are you saying they aren't choosing those options?

Is Comcast providing the amount of bandwidth resources and interconnectivity service level Netflix has contracted for?

I think he is implying that Netflix is using non-optimal routes as part of their pressuring Comcast to do that deal with Netflix that puts Netflix caches on Comcast property.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Re: There is a problem with Comcast and Netflix...

It's unclear what he's implying because he hasn't answered my questions.

yahooy
@verizon.net

yahooy to IPPlanMan

Anon

to IPPlanMan
said by IPPlanMan:

Are you saying they aren't choosing those options?

Is Comcast providing the amount of bandwidth resources and interconnectivity service level Netflix has contracted for?

Sounds like that is exactly what he is saying... Netflix has purchased a 1 lane highway (Cogent) to get thousands of trucks to multiple interstate highways (Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, TWC, etc).

Before when it was working they used FedEx, UPS, and others that knew what they were doing and had shipping commitments. (Akamai, LLNW, etc)

If Cogent wasn't a dirt road before.... Netflix turned them into one

mrethan1lane
@cgocable.net

1 recommendation

mrethan1lane

Anon

Re: There is a problem with Comcast and Netflix...

said by yahooy :

Sounds like that is exactly what he is saying... Netflix has purchased a 1 lane highway (Cogent) to get thousands of trucks to multiple interstate highways (Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, TWC, etc).

Before when it was working they used FedEx, UPS, and others that knew what they were doing and had shipping commitments. (Akamai, LLNW, etc)

If Cogent wasn't a dirt road before.... Netflix turned them into one

Except Netflix has a lot more than just a 1 lane highway. It's a multilane highway -- Cogent, TeliaSonera, Level3, Global Crossing, nLayer, NTT, XO, TInet, TATA, Hurricane Electric and Atrato. That list includes the largest transit providers in the industry and the most common wholesale transit providers.

•••
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN
Ubee E31U2V1
(Software) pfSense
Netgear WNR3500L

Chubbysumo to DocDrew

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to DocDrew
Peering points with netflix are almost all exclusive to netflix, since its either Cogent or Netflix, and they push so much data that they don't let them run anything else on them. its not "throttling" per se, its just comcast not upgrading their peering points, which causes a bottleneck.

••••

Nito
@sbcglobal.net

Nito to IPPlanMan

Anon

to IPPlanMan
Yep, same here. Every time I load up Netflix through my 360 or Xbox One, I get nothing but pixels. It seriously NEVER goes above 240p and it's been this way for months. I wish someone would just step up and tell us exactly what's happening.
wkm001
join:2009-12-14

wkm001

Member

An inherent problem?

This is the issue with the Internet. You have the source (Netflix), all of the transport carriers between, then the last mile provider (Comcast, Verizon, etc...). They all point the finger blaming each other. Which they can rightfully do. But it doesn't change the fact that as a Netflix subscriber we are directly paying for everything but the middle part of the transport.

Netflix has been ok for me lately on Comcast, but YouTube has been absolutely awful on my Chromecast.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

2 recommendations

Skippy25

Member

uVerse

I am experiencing the exact same issues with uVerse and have been for a few months now.

Amazon streams fine, Netflix blows goats.

I am debating on going to Charter (not because of this), but if I decide not to play that game of Russian roulette or it does the same then I will be cancelling Netflix as it is worthless as it stands.

•••

anonomeX
@comcast.net

anonomeX

Anon

I can't really comment on Comcast "performance"...

yet, having just moved over from Verizon--because Comcast is much cheaper and FiOS was really crappy with video. What I do know: all video streaming sucked for me on FiOS at specific times of the day, not just Netflix and not on any particular device (but all of them). Netflix and Amazon and Crunchyroll (the "big 3" for me) all would have a problem if any were having a problem. So, not Netflix, but a Verizon problem. Once I stream more with Comcast, I don't really expect it will be better (but I can be hopeful, right?). At least the things that I do actually need Internet access for will only cost half as much, even if the streaming isn't any better.
cmla
join:2013-10-01

cmla

Member

Try Changing DNS servers

I was having issues with HULU. I've used OpenDNS and Google DNS server. Google seems to improve things quite a bid.

Google DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

I'd never use comcraps dns servers!!
DigitalManny
join:2014-01-08
Glendale, CA

DigitalManny

Member

Charter Communications stop fucking with Netflix

No one likes a commie attitude your overpriced cable no one wants to watch Netflix in fucking SD.

jig
join:2001-01-05
Hacienda Heights, CA

1 edit

jig

Member

comcast report substantiated, at least a little

as far as I can find, Netflix hasn't commented, even in secret, on whether they think comcast is throttling.

there is a report out there of a comcast subscriber who measured ~256kbps to netflix while using a vanilla setup, and ~3Mbps to netflix over a VPN running over comcast's network to an external peer point.

i don't believe verizon has implemented an on-demand video store that competes with netflix, but comcast has.

edit-->
here's the link to the report:
»forums.comcast.com/t5/Ba ··· /1961139

comcast engineers try to explain it as different paths... which is of course true, but they don't explain why the network wouldn't balance out the usage naturally (using agnostic load balancing), unless they're shunting all netflix traffic to a particular over-burdened or under-provisioned edge node, which effectively throttles the singled-out service.

•••

Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

Kilroy

MVM

VPN as a solution?

This week's Security Now! podcast mentioned that someone watched a Netflix movie on Comcast and had terrible speed. Then they connected via a VPN connection and had at least a ten fold performance increase, even with the VPN overhead.

I'm on Comcast and I've been seeing Netflix performance issues for the last few months. Nothing that makes it unwatchable, but not as good as it used to be. Maybe I'll fire up my Pro XPN connection and see if it improves.
GusHerb
join:2011-11-04
Chicago, IL

GusHerb

Member

I've been having issues as long as everyone else has

With Netflix over Comcast - since about November. Got comcast in March and it was great, streaming 1080 no problem at all. When super HD came out it was great for awhile then too.
Now I'm lucky to get 720P and most shows hang at 480i for awhile.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

DNS / VPN

Several comments have been made that suggest changing DNS servers or using a VPN to resolve the issue.

If changing DNS points to a different Netflix server that works fine, it could be one of two things:

1) Former DNS resolved to an overloaded server pool
2) New DNS resolves to a server that uses a different backbone that's less congested

As suggested, can someone who experiences Comcast problems change their DNS or use VPN to determine if that improves the issue? If it improves, can someone post what server/route is different?

•••
bluefire
join:2001-03-26
Florissant, MO

bluefire

Member

Netflix Slowdown

I'm having problems with Netflix slowdowns also. At first I thought that I needed to reboot my equipment to fix the problems. Then I though that it was a slowdown from my internet service provider. So, I started to monitor my internet speeds as I watched netflix.
Here is what I got. I have Charter at 30mbps download and 4mbps up. My speeds are almost always consistent, once in awhile it may drop all the way down to 20mbps as I have monitored it. That's as slow as I have rated it. However, Netflix is is always slowing down to as low as 240SD and 288SD, about 40% of the times, then up to 480p for awhile and 720 very shortly and 1080p for and instant and dropping back to 480p or 288SD, or in that range. Since Netflix let Amazon stream some of it's content for it, could that be a problem or conflict of interest?

train_wreck
slow this bird down
join:2013-10-04
Antioch, TN
Cisco ASA 5506
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train_wreck

Member

_


netflixworks
@cgocable.net

netflixworks

Anon

Netflix is working around here

Netflix works fine for my ISP and most of the ISPs within the province of Ontario.
b10010011
Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
united state

b10010011

Member

I haven't seen it reach "HD" quality in a very long time...

Streaming during the evenings is as bad as:
Start up go through the quality level detection, lucky to get 5 out of 10 'bars'.
Buffer show for 30 seconds
play 2 minutes
buffer for 30 seconds
play 3 minutes
buffer for 30 seconds
play 2 minutes.
buffer...
Stop Netflix, turn off the TV
go do something else

DOCSIS 3 modem and I am getting 4 channel bonding downstream and 2 channel upstream. All the speed test show 16-20 Mbit speeds that my service tier should have.

So Comcast says there is nothing wrong with my service.

comcastnet
@pppoe.ca

comcastnet

Anon

Re: I haven't seen it reach "HD" quality in a very long time...

said by b10010011:

DOCSIS 3 modem and I am getting 4 channel bonding downstream and 2 channel upstream. All the speed test show 16-20 Mbit speeds that my service tier should have.

So Comcast says there is nothing wrong with my service.

Having appropriate speeds from the node to the core of their network and being able to attain the proper speeds to speed test servers doesn't imply those same speeds can be attained to everything beyond the borders of their network.
b10010011
Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
united state

b10010011

Member

I might add that the worst part about this is I would be happy to use Comcast's On Demand if they offered similar all you can watch for pricing AND had the shows I wanted to watch.
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