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jesserehmer's profile

Mentor

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19 Messages

Tuesday, November 26th, 2013 8:55 PM

Speed issues with Netflix streaming

To start off I'm a knowledgeable Linux Systems Engineer with over 20 years experience in Internet related technologies so I've done my fair share of troubleshooting on this topic.  We also live in the city limits of St. Louis and are told that our area has completed it's Uverse network upgrades.

 

Since we switched to Uverse we have consistent issues streaming Netflix.  The initial 10-15 seconds of any video plays great, but then the picture quality severely degrades, sometimes enough that you cannot read text within the video because it is so pixelated.  I was warned before switching by other users in our area that there is a severe over subscription issue with Uverse Internet.  The more I look at this the more I am inclined to agree, but wanted to get community feedback.

 

We experience the issues the worst during peak times (4pm-midnight) but also at 4am we cannot stream movie in full HD without degradation of the picture due to throughput issues.  This alone leads me to believe my area is oversubscribed on Internet and there simply is not enough bandwidth upstream to handle the streaming appropriately.

 

We've done the following to troubleshoot:

Moved all wireless devices to wired.

Restarted router/modem (too many times to count).

Had our lines checked by a tech.

Run speed tests during - these tests are inconclusive because we have the 24Mbps package and even during trouble times we sometimes get speeds up to 18Mbps which is more than sufficient for Netflix HD streaming (you only need 5Mbps sustained).

 

Multiple devices are affected including the Apple TV that never once had an issue in its 5 years of service while using Charter cable services.  To re-iterate, never once, have we experienced what we are experiencing now with Charter cable services, but it consistently happens every day with AT&T.

 

Calls to AT&T have gone no where.  Techs say everything is fine, one even went as far as to tell me this is a common problem and he sees a lot of people cancel Internet services and go back to Charter for them.  I priced it out and we can get just Internet through Charter at 30Mbps (guaranteed steady throughput, not UP TO like AT&T) for $54.99/month without having to have cable TV through them.  That is considerably cheaper than I'm paying for 24Mbps Internet through Uverse.

 

All of that said is there anyone who can actually help me fix this problem?  I'd much prefer not to give another penny to Charter, but if this is the quality of Internet service we can expect from AT&T there is no way I am going to continue paying them for substandard service at a higher rate than the cable company.

 

Am I doomed with Uverse or is there hope?

ACE - Expert

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34.7K Messages

10 years ago

I really do not believe that AT&T throttles this traffic.  But I don't think they go out of their way to assist Netflix in getting their traffic into AT&T's network, nor do I think they should do so without compensation from Netflix.

 

Mentor

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19 Messages

10 years ago

They definitely use QoS within their network to throttle Internet services.  This is a widely known fact in the Internet carrier industry.  I work for a data center/web hosting provider who has 10Gbps circuits through AT&T, Level3, Verizon, Hurricane Electric, and Intelliquent.  I can say with 100% certainty that our representatives have gone into detail about how QoS is implemented at the edge of AT&T's network.  I can only imagine that it is worse once inside before it gets down the DSL/Uverse subscribers.  The problem is no one who you speak with as an end user/customer knows how any of it works and it rarely gets escalated to the right people for resolution.  I do know that they've had a lot of problems with Internet service in our area and they touted their upgrade was completed when they sent reps around door-to-door, which is when we switched.

 

I will say that our speed has improved since the tech has been out as I can now sustain 21-23Mbps when downloading a large (>1GB) file.  However, Netflix is still terrible quality as the tech witnessed himself.  He had no explanation except to say that something else upstream must not be right and to keep pressing customer service.

ACE - Expert

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34.7K Messages

10 years ago

I don't doubt that there are more packets trying to be routed into some areas of AT&T's peering routers than they're configured to accept and that they have some prioritization in place to deal with that.

 

What I don't accept is that AT&T needs only to turn a switch or repriortize traffic and everyone will be happy. 

 

Mentor

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19 Messages

10 years ago

Now that I've been able to gather more data there is seemingly some throttling happening here... Any device be it my Macbook, AppleTV, or Blu-ray player can not download faster than 3Mbps from Netflix.  When the playback first starts the download starts at 5Mbps for a little bit (the "required" amount for HD playback according to Netflix) and then quickly throttles down.  Explains why the playback sometimes is fine the first 15 seconds and then suddenly becomes pixelated.

 

Streaming from iTunes is giving me a steady 13Mbps download rate through the entire playback and the quality is wonderful.  I'm going also follow up with Netflix, but since no one else around me is experiencing this I doubt it is a problem with their network.

ACE - Expert

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34.7K Messages

10 years ago

Think iTunes is using the same CDN to deliver content as Netflix?

 

Mentor

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19 Messages

10 years ago

Not sure about that, if they are it is not performing for Netflix like iTunes because iTunes is working great.

 

Something odd happened after midnight last night, it magically got completely better.  It was fine this morning before I left for work.  I'll check again tonight during peak hours to see what it looks like then as well.

Mentor

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19 Messages

10 years ago

Also, since I saw the thing about DNS causing issue with iTunes downloads for another user, I did change the DNS settings to 4.2.2.2 (Level3) last night.  It was better after that, but not immediately.  It's possible that once the AppleTV relooked up the DNS entry it was pointing to a different place for Netflix.

Community Support

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6.7K Messages

10 years ago

Hello jesserehmer,

 

We have received your message and will continue working with you via private message to investigate your situation.

 

SadathCS
ATTU-verseCare

Mentor

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19 Messages

10 years ago

Thanks.  I haven't heard anything yet.  My performance has been poor this evening.  Right now speedtest.net ratings are ranging from 4.1 - 16.4Mbps.  I'm seeing the same sort of fluctuation in download speed on the computer as well.

Mentor

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19 Messages

10 years ago

Still no resolution.  They were going to send out a tech to swap out the gateway for a different model since I am so close to the switch.  I've yet to be contacted about it.

 

The more I read on here and discuss with other U-verse customers (as well as with AT&T employees) the more it seems like a problem with QoS specifically for Netflix.

 

When I'm trying to stream from Netflix and have all other devices turned off I only see 1-2Mbps throughput.  If I download from a server hosted in a data center I work for I receive 24.5Mbps throughput (yes, .5Mbps over what I'm supposed to get).  There is no neighborhood throughput or overall throughput problem here, simply an issue with AT&T performing QoS with traffic destined to/from Netflix.  

 

We are going to cancel AT&T Internet and go back to Charter at the end of this billing cycle.  Enough is enough and the people higher up at AT&T don't care to look into this problem.

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