nanog mailing list archives

Re: Netflix VPN detection - actual engineer needed


From: Spencer Ryan <sryan () arbor net>
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2016 19:36:32 -0400

I'm unaware of any US based user who gets native dual stack from their ISP
having issues. Netflix is blocking anonymous VPNs based on their content
providers requests. HE'S tunnel broker is effectively that.
On Jun 5, 2016 7:34 PM, "Laszlo Hanyecz" <laszlo () heliacal net> wrote:



On 2016-06-05 22:48, Damian Menscher wrote:


What *is* standard about them?  My earliest training as a sysadmin taught
me that any time you switch away from a default setting, you're venturing
into the unknown.  Your config is no longer well-tested; you may
experience
strange errors; nobody else will have seen the same bugs.

That's exactly what's happening here -- people are setting up IPv6 tunnel
broker connections, then complaining that there are unexpected side
effects.


Damian,

If we were talking about some device that is outputting incorrect packets
and they are failing to work with Netflix I would agree with you, but in
this case the packets are standard and everything works fine.  Netflix went
out of their way to try to find a way to make it not work.  The users and
geeks aren't just breaking stuff and expecting others to work around their
broken setup, but this is actually what Netflix is doing.  All Netflix can
look at is the content of the packet and so they're using the source
address to discriminate.  It is true that some users might be able to work
around it if they can get on an ISP that gives them an allowed address, but
that isn't a good solution for an open internet.

There are a lot of non technical Netflix users who are being told to turn
off IPv6, switch ISPs, get a new VPN, etc. because Netflix has a broken
system.  Those users don't care what IPv6 is, they just learn that it's bad
because it breaks Netflix.  Most users have no way to change these things
and they just aren't going to be able to use Netflix anymore.  That's a
very selfish way to operate, a huge step backwards, and it's a kick in the
balls to everyone who works to make technological progress on the
internet.   The simple truth is that Netflix is trying to figure out where
people are located, but this is not possible to do reliably with current
internet technology.  Instead they did something that is unreliable, and
many customers become collateral damage through no fault of their own. All
the breakage is on the Netflix side.

-Laszlo




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