Netflix unwatchable, Internet otherwise fine [ Edited ]

[texasguy37 ACE - Expert]

If the customer who posted on the Roku forum is running speed tests on various servers and only receiving 1.6 mbps on a 3 mbps package, this does not appear to an issue related to Netflix streaming.  As I understand it, those who were having issues streaming Netflix were receiving the expected internet speeds when they tested there internet speed against various servers.  It was only when they attempted to stream that they encountered issues.  This customer may have some other issue with his internet that is unrelated to streaming Netflix.  We have seen those issues before.

[Zuul86]

It's not noise in the line.  I had a tech out to check all of that.  My next step is to hook up my Roku box at my neighbor's house who has Roadrunner.  If it works over there then I'll know it's an AT&T Uverse issue.  I'll give AT&T another month to work things out.  The service has been great besides this Netflix bandwidth issue. 

[bld522]

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texasguy37 wrote:

As I understand it, those who were having issues streaming Netflix were receiving the expected internet speeds when they tested there internet speed against various servers.  It was only when they attempted to stream that they encountered issues.

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Yes, that describes my experience.  So it may be an unrelated issue as you suggest.  The only way to know for sure is for the affected party to contact AT&T Technical Support.  Hopefully he/she will take that action and the problem will be resolved.

[twodoge]

I've been having the same problem as a lot of other people here.. and posting this for documentation and interest.

using standard AT&T dsl account I've had for 10+years and haven't switched over to UVerse(after reading this I doubt I will)

started using ROKU box/netflix approx 6months ago and everything was fine- streaming all day with not so much as a hickup but now I get the constant rebuffering..

- it rebuffers every 2.5 mins and takes approx 2.5 mins to rebuffer

- Starting approx a month and a half ago - had no prob 'til then.

- live in the East Bay of california

- talked to roku and did their solutions, as well

- only happens with the roku box. Using the desktop and handheld is fine(realize there are different streams for those)

If there are any solutions would be great to hear 'em.

I'd prefer to keep my AT&T account but if something doesn't work between these three soon, I'm just dumping AT&T, netflix and roku and signing up for comcast - though I hate the idea. too bad.

[chribrian]

I have contacted tier2 tech and they have been great to deal with so far. They replaced my RG and the line from box on house to RG. It has helped with errors on uverse realtime but still had streaming problems. Changed DNS server to googles and still having streaming issues. Sent another e-mail back to tier 2 hopefully they can figure this out. I would hate to drop my att service but when my neighbor has TW 7mbps and no streaming issues at all I am disappointed with ATT. I pay a premium for 18mbps and can't even stream a 5mbps movie.

[chribrian]

Well I just got a response back from tier 2 that there is nothing wrong on ATT side. I guess that is my queue to cancel and go elswhere. I really didn't want to cancel because I have had great customer service but at the end of the day if TW can stream 5mbps on a 7mbps line ATT should have no problem doing so on 18mbps line.

[bld522]

twododge wrote:

"I've been having the same problem as a lot of other people here.. and posting this for documentation and interest.

using standard AT&T dsl account I've had for 10+years and haven't switched over to UVerse(after reading this I doubt I will)

started using ROKU box/netflix approx 6months ago and everything was fine- streaming all day with not so much as a hickup but now I get the constant rebuffering..

- it rebuffers every 2.5 mins and takes approx 2.5 mins to rebuffer

- Starting approx a month and a half ago - had no prob 'til then.

- live in the East Bay of california

- talked to roku and did their solutions, as well

- only happens with the roku box. Using the desktop and handheld is fine(realize there are different streams for those)

If there are any solutions would be great to hear 'em.

I'd prefer to keep my AT&T account but if something doesn't work between these three soon, I'm just dumping AT&T, netflix and roku and signing up for comcast - though I hate the idea. too bad."

If it's any comfort to you, you're not alone.  Check out this thread for details:

http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=23127

PS:  I'd suggest you start reading posts from around 1/1/11.  That's when the lastest rash of Roku streaming problems started happening.  And for what it's worth, if I weren't under contract to AT&T until the end of the year, I'd switch to cable too.

[anotherBAM]

Same issue as a lot of others here. Great/normal ping and speed to everything else but can't stream from these VOD services.

We bought a BluRay player w/ Amazon VOD as we had received several free coupons to try their service. Couldn't watch the first and only movie we tried. I guess AT&T's strategy worked, as we had guests in town and ended up renting the movie through the Uverse STB VOD so we could finish the movie.

It's even more frustrating to see this doesn't appear to be an isolated issue. One of our cable companies is rolling out the same Mediaroom boxes as Uverse on their FTTP network...as soon as I can get one of those it's good bye Uverse.

[bld522]

If it's a CDN issue or if traffic shaping is involved, switching to another ISP . . . even one offering FTTP . . . may not solve the problem.  In the short time I've been studying this issue, I've come to realize that it's far more complex than most people imagine.

[chribrian]

From what I understand the main issue is old network that they don't want to update while charging high prices for mediocre bandwidth and poor consistency.

[texasguy37 ACE - Expert]

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chribrian wrote:

From what I understand the main issue is old network that they don't want to update while charging high prices for mediocre bandwidth and poor consistency.

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What is the source of your information?

[chribrian]

Don't need a source it is a widely known fact. Russia and Ukraine even have higher average bandwidth than us

[texasguy37 ACE - Expert]

I see.

[bld522]

This will be my final post in this thread . . . hopefully.  The problem I was having streaming Netflix content via my 3.0Mpbs DSL connection/Roku XDS box seems to have disappeared.  I'm now able to load Netflix content quickly and stream it consistently at a full 4 dots without rebuffering.  Why I was unable to stream Netflix content at all for awhile, then could stream it but only with constant rebuffering, then could stream it without rebuffering during daytime hours and weekends but not during prime time, then could finally stream it without rebuffering 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is beyond me.  All I can tell is you that I didn't do anything to try to fix the problem I was having.  I just watched and waited and it seemed to fix itself.

I learned a lot in the short time I was having Netflix streaming problems.  Perhaps the most important thing I learned is that Internet media content streaming is still in its infancy and will take time to develop into the consistent, reliable delivery methodology we've come to expect from cable and satellite providers.

Good luck to all those who are still having difficulty streaming Netflix content.  I hope your problems get resolved quickly.  And farewell . . . for now.

[chribrian]

Ha now they want to cap their crappy service instead of improve their network. Just one more reason to leave.

[bld522]

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texasguy37 wrote:

I see.

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I wasn't going to post again.  But with the news of AT&T's broadband cap, I thought I'd do a little more investigating.  First, here's the news about the broadband cap:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/att-data-cap_n_835318.html?ir=Divorce

And here's what I dug up by Googling about a bit:

http://www.alternet.org/story/148397/how_the_phone_companies_are_screwing_america:_the_$320_billion_...

Interesting read, is it not?

I'm not sure this has anything to do with the problems I was having streaming Netflix.  But it does lend some credibility to chribrian's posts.

[bitamois]

Texas Guy, Matt, et al

Why would a Comedy Central stream, e.g.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/thu-march-10-2011-trey-parker---matt-stone

keep buffering and rebuffering when played through my computer directly from UVerse, but work fine when I run it through a VPN connection? This is happening and it does make me suspicious of packet shaping.

[bld522]

Similar questions have been asked in the Roku forum.  The best guess is that different CDNs serve different stream types and some CDNs are more efficient than others at delivering Netflix content.  So you may be hitting one CDN that doesn't stream very well when you attempt to access Netflix content directly and another CDN that does stream well when you attempt to access Netflix content via your VPN.  Although that's been suggested as a possible source of the problem by Roku Technical Support, it has not yet been confirmed by them.

[bld522]

One other thought.  Does packet shaping make sense in a capped environment?  On the contrary, I'd think AT&T would want to open the floodgates to folks who want to "overuse" their Internet connection now that the company can derive more revenue from them.  Heck, if I were AT&T, I'd shape packets IN FAVOR of Netflix streams, not in opposition to them.

[bitamois]

It seems like we're having the same issues we had in early February. Netflix is not watchable. Other content sites seem to be lagging or not able to stream. Is anyone else experiencing this? I just started tonight.

[chribrian]

It seemed to work great last weekend but is running at a crawl again. It is actually worse for me because Vudu will only play SD now. Oh but nothing is wrong on ATT's side so they say. With this and the caps I have TW being installed next week.

[SparkyRadar]

My U-Verse was installed on March 3rd, TV has been OK, but the Internet/VDSL side has had the video streaming issue all along. Several at&t line technician visits have improved outside line quality, but the streaming issues remain.  I am now thinking it is caused by "traffic-shaping" or "packet-shaping".  Anyone use the following site? 

http://www.connectionanalyzer.com
 

The "Graph" tab (select "download") shows the problem visually...compare it to the "upload"...nice straight lines for "upload" and many random lags up to 200ms for "download"...the random latency kills streaming for me...especially Adobe Flash streaming...Netflix & Windows Media Player seem to adapt better...but even Netflix drops in and out of HD due to the problem.  Any suggestions?  I'd like to get some resolution before my 30 day "money-back guarantee" runs out!

[bld522]

I don't have any suggestions for you, I'm afraid.  But I absolutely LOVE the link you provided.  Visualware's Connection Analyzer doesn't identify where the problems are occurring, but it sure lets you know when they do.  And it beats the heck out of capacity analyzers like speedtest.net.

Thanks!

[bld522]

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chribrian wrote:

It seemed to work great last weekend but is running at a crawl again. It is actually worse for me because Vudu will only play SD now. Oh but nothing is wrong on ATT's side so they say. With this and the caps I have TW being installed next week.

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Before you go, here's a little more evidence to support the claim you made regarding US broadband performance as compared to broadband performance in other countries:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/newsroom/broadband_review_final

The report is over a year old.  But I doubt much has changed since then.

Good luck with TW.

[Arch-Stanton]

I use Amazon VOD streaming on my net enabled TV, netflix on my laptop, and the playstation network (PSN) on my PS3.  Amazon and netflix are streaming, but PSN does a direct download of movie files before playing them.  I have Uverse MaxPlus (18mbps).  Several times in the last few weeks I have noticed interruptions in netflix streaming and amazon VOD streaming.  This is usually in conjunction with PSN issues (last night it took from 1AM until 11AM this morning to download just 3gb of an 8gb movie), genearlly when one service starts lagging I'll change to another, and the problems follow.  I have run several speed tests at the same times as these services are lagging, and generally get 14mbps connection speeds on these tests.  I can't figure out what is causing this, I find it hard to believe that netflix, amazon, and psn would all repeatedly have problems at the same time on thier network side.  

Have called ATT support several times and thier webchat, but generally they are not helpful (my PS3 download is slow because of browser optimization?  seriously?  I should call sony and tell them the support tech thinks thier hardware is a browser).  Anyone have any ideas?

[chribrian]

I wonder what ATT is up to in my area. My connection is really bad last 4 or 5 day's. Even my Directv cinema connection wont download faster than 262kbps. Even my office at work which has ATT dsl is even screwed up.

[S0DA]

I just made this account to report the exact same symptoms here in Saint Louis, Missouri.

I am unable to stream ANY videos (sans youtube) without them CONSTANTLY buffering and rebuffering every 5 seconds.  It doesn't matter if they are streamed from my PC or my Xbox.

This is obviously an issue with AT&T's routing or hardware and somwting needs to be done about it and fast.  I am already seriously considering scrapping all Uverse services due to the ridiculous bandwidth cap they are planning to impose (yet refusing to inform new subscribers about), this appears to be the final nail in the coffin.

Switching nameservers had absolutely NO EFFECT, positive or negative.  The issue is only affecting streaming content, not name resolution.

Enough with the lip service, lets see some action.  None of this scripted, powercycle your RG nonesense. 

[chribrian]

I think my problem is  SXSW in Austin which is 20 minutes from me are hogging all the bandwidth on ATT network.

[jmsherman8]

We burn through netflix movies and tv episodes here sometimes on two devices at a time while using computers online and uverse handles it without a catch...The speeds are awesome... The service works great. Unfortunately with the coming caps I see ATT Uverse leaving my house very very quickly for another provider that has no cap.

[RCSMG ACE - Expert]

If you find a provider who is not currently and not planning to institute caps, come back and let us knkow who.