That is true.  The problem is that traditionally the ISPs have to deal with 
customers that can’t get to the content they want.  Netflix ridiculous 
detection schemes do nothing but create tons of work for the service provider 
which in turn creates stupid work-arounds and network configurations that are 
ill conceived.  Myself, I had to shut off IPv6 at home to get things to work 
reliably several times for dumb reasons.   Kind of hard to preach the v6 
message when I had to shut it off myself several time to get my own stuff to 
work Ok.  Netflix just decided that creating issues for a subset of their 
customers was better than having the real fight with the content providers.

My point is that there is no reliable geo-location method for Netflix to use, 
at least there never has been yet.  Good luck ever getting that to work behind 
the great firewall of China.

Steven Naslund
Chicago IL

From: Cryptographrix [mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2016 4:56 PM
To: Naslund, Steve; nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: Netflix VPN detection - actual engineer needed

Oh I'm not suggesting for a microsecond that any provenance of location can not 
be hacked, but I totally think that - until the content providers change their 
business model to not rely on regional controls - they could at least use a 
more accurate source for that information than my IP(4 or 6) address.

I just don't think that this is an appropriate venue to discuss the value of 
their business model as that's something their business needs to work on 
changing internally, and fighting it (at least for the moment) will only land 
Netflix in court.

In short, I'm pointing the finger at Netflix's developers for coming up with 
such a lazy control for geolocation.

On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 4:58 PM Naslund, Steve 
<snasl...@medline.com<mailto:snasl...@medline.com>> wrote:
Wifi location depends on a bunch of problematic things.  First, your SSID needs 
to get collected and put in a database somewhere.  That itself is a crap shoot. 
 Next, you can stop google (and some other wifi databases) from collecting the 
data by putting _nomap at the end of your SSID.  Lastly, not everyone has wifi 
or iOS or GPS or whatever location method you can think of.  BTW, my apple TV 
is on a wired Ethernet, not wifi.

Point is, for whatever location technology you want to use be it IP, GPS, WiFi 
location, sextant…..they can be inaccurate and they can be faked and there are 
privacy concerns with all of them.  What the content producers need to figure 
out is that regionalization DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE!  The original point was that 
they could have different release dates in different areas at different prices 
and availability.  They are going to have to get over it because they will lose 
the technological arms race.

There is no reason you could not beat all of the location systems with a simple 
proxy.  A proxy makes a Netflix connection from an allowed IP, location or 
whatever and then builds a new video/audio stream out the back end to the 
client anywhere in the world.  Simple to implement and damn near impossible to 
beat.  Ever hear of Slingbox?

Steven Naslund
Chicago IL

From: Cryptographrix 
[mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com<mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com>]
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2016 3:42 PM
To: Naslund, Steve; nanog@nanog.org<mailto:nanog@nanog.org>
Subject: Re: Netflix VPN detection - actual engineer needed

Apple TVs get their location indoors using the same method they use for other 
iOS devices when indoors - wifi ssid/Mac scanning.

Non-iOS devices are often capable of this as well.

(As someone that spends >67% of his time underground and whose Apple TV 
requests my location from my underground bedroom and is very accurate)

On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 4:36 PM Naslund, Steve 
<snasl...@medline.com<mailto:snasl...@medline.com><mailto:snasl...@medline.com<mailto:snasl...@medline.com>>>
 wrote:
Their app could request your devices location.  Problem is a lot of devices 
(like TVs, Apple TVs, most DVD player, i.e. device with built in Netflix) don't 
know where they are and it cannot easily be added (indoor GPS is still 
difficult/expensive) and even if they could should they be believed.  I think 
the bigger issue is whether any kind of regional controls are enforceable or 
effective any more.

Steven Naslund
Chicago IL

-----Original Message-----
From: NANOG 
[mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org<mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org><mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org<mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org>>]
 On Behalf Of Cryptographrix
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2016 3:21 PM
To: Spencer Ryan
Cc: North American Network Operators' Group
Subject: Re: Netflix VPN detection - actual engineer needed

Come now, content providers really just care that they have access to regional 
controls more so than their ability to blanket-deny access (ok, minus the MLB 
who are just insane).

And part of those regional controls deal with the accuracy of the location 
information.

If their app can request my device's precise location, it doesn't need to infer 
my location from my IP any more.

As a matter of fact, it's only detrimental to them for it to do so, because of 
the lack of accuracy from geo databases and the various reasons that people use 
VPNs nowadays (i.e. for some devices that you can't even turn VPN connections 
off for - OR in the case of IPv6, when you can't reach a segment of the 
Internet without it).


On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 4:17 PM Spencer Ryan 
<sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net><mailto:sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net>>>
 wrote:

> There is a large difference between "the VPN run at your house" and
> "Arguably the most popular, free, mostly anonymous tunnel broker service"
>
> If it were up to the content providers, they probably would block any
> IP they saw a VPN server listening on.
>
>
> *Spencer Ryan* | Senior Systems Administrator | 
> sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net><mailto:sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net>>
>  *Arbor
> Networks*
> +1.734.794.5033 (d) | +1.734.846.2053 (m)
> www.arbornetworks.com<http://www.arbornetworks.com><http://www.arbornetworks.com>
>
> On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 4:09 PM, Cryptographrix
> <cryptograph...@gmail.com<mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com><mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com<mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com>>>
> wrote:
>
>> I have a VPN connection at my house. There's no way for them to know
>> the difference between me using my home network connection from Hong
>> Kong or my home network connection from my house.
>>
>> Are they going to disable connectivity from everywhere they can
>> detect an open VPN port to, also?
>>
>> If they trust my v4 address, they can use that to establish
>> historical reference. Additionally, they can fail over to v4 if they
>> do not trust the
>> v6 address.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 4:05 PM Spencer Ryan 
>> <sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net><mailto:sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net>>>
>>  wrote:
>>
>>> There is no way for Netflix to know the difference between you being
>>> in NY and using the tunnel, and you living in Hong Kong and using the 
>>> tunnel.
>>>
>>>
>>> *Spencer Ryan* | Senior Systems Administrator | 
>>> sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net><mailto:sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net>>
>>> *Arbor Networks*
>>> +1.734.794.5033 (d) | +1.734.846.2053 (m)
>>> www.arbornetworks.com<http://www.arbornetworks.com><http://www.arbornetworks.com>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 4:03 PM, Cryptographrix
>>> <cryptograph...@gmail.com<mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com><mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com<mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com>>
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>> Same, but until there's a real IPv6 presence in the US, it's really
>>>> annoying that they haven't come up with some fix for this.
>>>>
>>>> I have no plans to turn off IPv6 at home - I actually have many
>>>> uses for it, and as much as I dislike the controversy around it,
>>>> think that adoption needs to be prioritized, not penalized.
>>>>
>>>> Additionally, I think that discussing content provider control over
>>>> regional decisions isn't productive to the conversation, as they
>>>> didn't build the banhammer (wouldn't you want to control your own
>>>> content if you had made content specific to regional laws etc?).
>>>>
>>>> I.e. - not all shows need to have regional restrictions between New
>>>> York (where I live) and California (where my IPv6 /64 says I live).
>>>>
>>>> I'm able to watch House in the any state in the U.S.? Great -
>>>> ignore my intra-US proxy connection.
>>>>
>>>> My Netflix account randomly tries to connect from Tokyo because I
>>>> forgot to shut off my work VPN? Fine....let me know and I'll turn
>>>> *that* off.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 3:49 PM Spencer Ryan 
>>>> <sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net><mailto:sr...@arbor.net<mailto:sr...@arbor.net>>>
>>>>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I don't blame them for blocking a (effectively) anonymous tunnel
>>>>> broker. I'm sure their content providers are forcing their hand.
>>>>> On Jun 3, 2016 3:46 PM, "Cryptographrix"
>>>>> <cryptograph...@gmail.com<mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com><mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com<mailto:cryptograph...@gmail.com>>>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Netflix needs to figure out a fix for this until ISPs actually
>>>>>> provide IPv6 natively.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 3:13 PM Blair Trosper
>>>>>> <blair.tros...@gmail.com<mailto:blair.tros...@gmail.com><mailto:blair.tros...@gmail.com<mailto:blair.tros...@gmail.com>>
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> > Confirmed that Hurricane Electric's TunnelBroker is now blocked
>>>>>> > by Netflix.  Anyone nice people from Netflix perhaps want to
>>>>>> > take a
>>>>>> crack at
>>>>>> > this?
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 2:15 PM, 
>>>>>> > <mike.hy...@gmail.com<mailto:mike.hy...@gmail.com><mailto:mike.hy...@gmail.com<mailto:mike.hy...@gmail.com>>>
>>>>>> >  wrote:
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > > Had the same problem at my house, but it was caused by the
>>>>>> > > IPv6
>>>>>> > connection
>>>>>> > > to HE.  Turned of V6 and the device worked.
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > --
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > Sent with Airmail
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > On June 1, 2016 at 10:29:03 PM, Matthew Kaufman (
>>>>>> matt...@matthew.at<mailto:matt...@matthew.at><mailto:matt...@matthew.at<mailto:matt...@matthew.at>>)
>>>>>> > > wrote:
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > Every device in my house is blocked from Netflix this evening
>>>>>> > > due
>>>>>> to
>>>>>> > > their new "VPN blocker". My house is on my own IP space, and
>>>>>> > > the
>>>>>> outside
>>>>>> > > of the NAT that the family devices are on is 198.202.199.254,
>>>>>> announced
>>>>>> > > by AS 11994. A simple ping from Netflix HQ in Los Gatos to my
>>>>>> house
>>>>>> > > should show that I'm no farther away than Santa Cruz, CA as
>>>>>> microwaves
>>>>>> > > fly.
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > Unfortunately, when one calls Netflix support to talk about
>>>>>> > > this,
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> > > only response is to say "call your ISP and have them turn off
>>>>>> > > the
>>>>>> VPN
>>>>>> > > software they've added to your account". And they absolutely
>>>>>> refuse to
>>>>>> > > escalate. Even if you tell them that you are essentially your
>>>>>> > > own
>>>>>> ISP.
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > So... where's the Netflix network engineer on the list who
>>>>>> > > all of
>>>>>> us can
>>>>>> > > send these issues to directly?
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > Matthew Kaufman
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> >
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>

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