Can no longer stream a lot of videos online (most likely related to Spark?)

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Can no longer stream a lot of videos online (most likely related to Spark?)

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freitasm

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#1190155 7-Dec-2014 16:52

If you folks want to see this fixed, follow P's instructions above...

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Talkiet

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#1190158 7-Dec-2014 17:07

As above, the Spark employees here don't know about any "new blocking policy" because there isn't one.

In the future, people would be VERY safe to assume that if something doesn't work, it's not due to any deliberate blocking (unless blocked by the Department of Internal Affairs’ Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System which BTW, Spark doesn't have any control over which sites are in that list)

I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next bloke, but assuming that ISPs are blocking types of content isn't a good conspiracy theory. It's an incredibly bad, inaccurate one. As far as Xtra/Telecom/Spark is concerned it's never been the case (excepting occasional sites that are blocked as they are phishing targets or actively used in attacks).

SO please in future, please assume something's just a bit wrong instead of assuming we're huddled round a table deciding what sites people can use.

On Friday for example, I was literally huddled around a table with some others looking at ways to address the current issue, and there will be more huddling this week. ALL the huddling is about how to fix things for you guys.

I echo PLs comment. If someone is having problems, LOG A CALL. DO NOT JUST POST HERE. LOG A CALL WITH THE HELPDESK.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

plambrechtsen

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#1190251 7-Dec-2014 21:54

I struggled to get the right dr evil meme here. Unfortunately it's a technical issue we are working hard on resolving rather than some conspiracy.

hermes3

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#1190500 8-Dec-2014 12:05

While I appreciate the point you're trying to make, I think you doth protest a little too much.

I wish I lived in a world where my observations could actually be considered a 'conspiracy theory'. However, for many corporates this kind of thing would simply be good strategic management. I'll be happy to learn that Spark is not one of them.

Thanks for your work on this, looking forward to updates on this... technical issue.

matisyahu

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#1192342 9-Dec-2014 18:37

hermes3: I'm a spark customer. We recently changed from ADSL to Fibre using the Huawei HG630b.

Changeover was not quite a week ago. Within the last few days pretty much all of the common video streaming sites are no longer streaming (eg videoweed, moveshare.et, nowvideo.sx, novamovie.com etc).

Sites are accessible, links work etc, but video itself is blocked - continuous loading sitting at 0%.

If you search around you can find more obscure sites that do work. This blocking across all devices and has only occurred since Fibre install.

Using a VPN, the same links work, videos stream. Results form http://www.lagado.com/tools/cache-test suggest there is a 'stealthed transparent proxy cache' involved.

It would seem to me, based on all this, the most logical conclusion is that Spark has applied a new blocking policy to the Fibre service. If so, I'm a little surprised that this policy hasn't been made public (that I know of) and that the 3 Spark employees in this thread don't appear to have any knowledge of a new policy.

One can understand the possible reasoning behind such a move given the pending introduction of services like netflix, but the lack of openness wouldn't inspire confidence and that kind of approach generally backfires when things like this become more widely publicised.

I'd be happy to find there is another explanation for this and look forward to updates on this thread, until then I think the simplest explanation is probably the correct one.

I'm on VDSL and cannot test it here but have you tried loading the site with a https prefix?

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

Lens

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#1198690 16-Dec-2014 21:41

I have a related problem - using Spark VSDL unlimited trying to download videos via UnoTelly is incredibly slow, and frequently freezes. I am using an HG630b modem. It can take over 24 hours to download a 500Mb video.

Occasionally it bursts into life, but mostly runs at just a few bytes/sec. This did not used to happen when on ADSL - only since upgrading. It does not appear to affect YouTube or other high bandwidth sites - Skyping with video for example is actually very good.

I am using an iPad to download, but problem affects my wife's iPad too. We are using the BBC iPlayer application.

Any ideas gratefully received.

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

MrJonathanNZ

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#1200300 19-Dec-2014 07:40

I'm only on an ADSL plan but even my internet streaming (youtube, twitch) which can usually be watched at 1080/source regularly buffers.
I tried to do the spark speed test and the results seemed to be ok but it wasn't able to do the packet test (unotelly?) been going on for a couple of weeks.
I do see that the service indicators on the spark website for broadband are orange, just miss bufferless streaming.

freitasm

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#1216849 18-Jan-2015 10:46

A month on... How are you folks doing? Is this solved yet?

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moulinette

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#1224835 29-Jan-2015 17:57

freitasm: A month on... How are you folks doing? Is this solved yet?

No, it was never fixed, but I subscribed to UnoTelly last week based on this forum's recommendation and I can watch my videos again now I am using their DNS servers.

Naithin

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#1225088 30-Jan-2015 08:59

Mine resumed working fairly near the beginning of this issue - but it is worth noting that I'm using Unotelly DNS (which had some adjustments against the Spark Network according to the Netflix issue thread of yesteryear) and that if I do switch back to standard DNS the issues return.

Take care,

-Naithin,.

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