TV3 on-demand on AYCE

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › TV3 on-demand on AYCE

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#542788 8-Nov-2011 19:53

Same here at home - on and off for the last year or so.

Occasionally my flatmate says "can you fix the tv3 website" and i say sure i'll look at it when i get home. And by the time i get there its fine again. And at work on orcon, its worked perfectly fine the whole way through.

Ray Taylor

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tangent

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#543168 9-Nov-2011 15:17

Ok, I've done some tests with this and I think I know where the problem lies.

What I noticed was that on both Slingshot and on 2degrees 3G this problem was occurring. Having previously worked for 2degrees I know that (depending on area) many of their broadband links go via APE on the same path as Slingshots do.

From memory 2degrees may even use Callplus as a providor theselves - but either way, they both go via APE.

TV3's on-demand service is supplied by Telstraclear and I have spoken to their techies about this at length.

On the surface, it appears that there is some sort of choke point or peering issue where Slingshot's or Citylinks port on APE is concerned when linking to TelstraClears preferred route to APE.

I make this suggestion with little to no internal testing done. But I think the common factor is either APE's relationship with Telstraclear or Callplus's relationship with TelstraClear.

farcus

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#543211 9-Nov-2011 16:20

tangent: Ok, I've done some tests with this and I think I know where the problem lies.

What I noticed was that on both Slingshot and on 2degrees 3G this problem was occurring. Having previously worked for 2degrees I know that (depending on area) many of their broadband links go via APE on the same path as Slingshots do.

From memory 2degrees may even use Callplus as a providor theselves - but either way, they both go via APE.

TV3's on-demand service is supplied by Telstraclear and I have spoken to their techies about this at length.

On the surface, it appears that there is some sort of choke point or peering issue where Slingshot's or Citylinks port on APE is concerned when linking to TelstraClears preferred route to APE.

I make this suggestion with little to no internal testing done. But I think the common factor is either APE's relationship with Telstraclear or Callplus's relationship with TelstraClear.

so I am connecting from Japan - I doubt my connection has anything to do with slingshot / callplus.
I can also confirm I often used to see exactly the same problem when I was in NZ using a Telecom connection so I don't think the problem is as isolated as you are suggesting.

tangent

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#543233 9-Nov-2011 17:09

Ok, thats a useful observation. Certainly if you had the exact same issue while on Xtra then my theory wouldn't really hold up. (altho only traces could confirm for sure)

I'm keen to find common factors.... So far I had been able to isolate the issue to something to do with APE/callplus/citylink. (in a general sense)

I've contacted the techie from TV3 again and asked him to provide a list of hosts for testing from.

I'm thinking we need 3 types....because as you may have noticed - Ad content and TV3 content seem to work fine because the stream doesn't appear come from the TelstraClear on-demand link.

So

1. Hosts to trace content certificate proxy
2. Hosts to trace ad-server
3. Hosts to trace TelstraClear on-demand server

If we can all do traces to these while having the issue from working and non-working connections and post our results in here....at least we may be able to prove/disprove my theory.

If someone has a better troubleshooting method then by all means....

=]

tangent

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#543234 9-Nov-2011 17:11

farcus:

so I am connecting from Japan - I doubt my connection has anything to do with slingshot / callplus.
I can also confirm I often used to see exactly the same problem when I was in NZ using a Telecom connection so I don't think the problem is as isolated as you are suggesting.

Oh yeah, Im not sure that your issue with connect from Japan is quite the same and should probably stay seperate to the domestic issues with on-demand.

farcus

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#543248 9-Nov-2011 17:49

tangent:
farcus:

so I am connecting from Japan - I doubt my connection has anything to do with slingshot / callplus.
I can also confirm I often used to see exactly the same problem when I was in NZ using a Telecom connection so I don't think the problem is as isolated as you are suggesting.

Oh yeah, Im not sure that your issue with connect from Japan is quite the same and should probably stay seperate to the domestic issues with on-demand.

even with it being identical behaviour?

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farcus

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#543256 9-Nov-2011 18:04

I'm thinking we need 3 types....because as you may have noticed - Ad content and TV3 content seem to work fine because the stream doesn't appear come from the TelstraClear on-demand link.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

e.g. - if I try to view a Campbell Live full episode this is accessed via the On Demand service.
Although 3News 6PM full bulletin is not delivered via the ondemand service. (which usually works for me without problem - as does all ad content)

tangent

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#543261 9-Nov-2011 18:18

I think for the purposes of testing, tests should be done from the least restricted network to
the most restricted content.ier nzd adsl to NCIS or X FACTOR.

thats not to say testing from japan wont be useful.

Ragnor

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#543391 9-Nov-2011 22:25

For ondemand.tv3.co.nz the ads come from flash.mediaworks.co.nz

Couldn't see the request for the tv episode video in Firebug, HttpFox, Charles Debugging Web Proxy or Fiddler2.

So the flash player/object is probably using RTMP to pull down the video not a regular http request.

Would probably have to use wireshark to look into it further.

raytaylor

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#543412 10-Nov-2011 00:00

It uses streaming flash video and not HTTP.
Its a pain because you cant pre-buffer - it loads as it plays and only has about a 5 second buffer built into the flash player.

TVNZ use http which means my cachebox caches them and serves it to other viewers on my network at full speed. Thats why i offer unmetered tvnz ondemmand to my rural customers and am pulling TV3 because i get too many complaints about it not working.

Edit: My upstream is waspnet so i dont think its just related to slingshot.
Waspnet use Solarix and Telstra Clear for their upstream.

Ray Taylor

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#543416 10-Nov-2011 00:42

raytaylor: It uses streaming flash video and not HTTP.
Its a pain because you cant pre-buffer - it loads as it plays and only has about a 5 second buffer built into the flash player.

TVNZ use http which means my cachebox caches them and serves it to other viewers on my network at full speed. Thats why i offer unmetered tvnz ondemmand to my rural customers and am pulling TV3 because i get too many complaints about it not working.

Edit: My upstream is waspnet so i dont think its just related to slingshot.
Waspnet use Solarix and Telstra Clear for their upstream.

I dont think its related specifically to Slingshot either...but Callplus are a wholesale providor, so could it be that Callplus wholesale customers or something related to the delivery via APE is the common factors?

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Nebbie

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#543502 10-Nov-2011 09:56

Hi Guys

Can I have some people PM me directly with some contact details regarding this issue.
I will choose 3 random people to look deeper into this issue if I get a overwhelming response rest assured if we find the issue with 3 people it should be fixable for all.

I believe the issue may be related to TCNZ on-demand only allows NZ IP Ranges to stream content AYCE customers will get a IP address only recently assigned to us.

tangent: I dont think its related specifically to Slingshot either...but Callplus are a wholesale providor, so could it be that Callplus wholesale customers or something related to the delivery via APE is the common factors?

I will need to confirm that its limited to APE connections or via IP address.

NOTE: I have not acknowledged there is a problem however looking into the issue arraigned here.

Thanks
Bevin

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#543669 10-Nov-2011 14:04

Could it have anything to do with the fact that it appears AYCE customers get the 101.98.XXX.XXX IP range? I noticed that change a little while back, could have even happened at the same time of this problem.

tangent

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#543708 10-Nov-2011 14:34

TV3 are saying that the 2 relavent hosts are:

http://nzcontent.mediaworks.co.nz (For geo blocked video)

http://flashcontent.mediaworks.co.nz (For non geo blocked video)

I'm not sure if those are actually of any use for testing because I'm sure previous testing I did in august was with completely different hosts (non-http)

*shrug*

:)

Thanks Slingshot for your response - I understand the issue could be anywhere... on the Telstraclear side equally as much as anything else.

Cheers,

~ b

Nebbie

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#544294 11-Nov-2011 15:15

So I've just had a look into this and it appears that if you have a 101.98.XXX.XXX IP address with slingshot you will be unable to talk to nzcontent.mediaworks.co.nz.

Got Mediaworks looking into it now.

If you have this Issue and your on another ISP contact your ISP and advise them to contact media works.

Thanks
Bevin

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