Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Comcast and Netflix now have a direct adjacency

gist.github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–69 of 69 posts

Re: Comcast and Netflix now have a direct adjacency

#61

Post by bifrost »

unabridged wrote: post #53
exelius wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be so sure there's no money changing hands. One of the sides caved; and it was probably Netflix. The amount of money the ISPs were asking for from Netflix was not outrageous; the ISPs were more worried about the precedent that providing free interconnects might set. Give one to Netflix for free, and Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft all think they're entitled to one too. Strategically, Netflix was holdin…

> is it possible to hate Comcast more than most people already do? Yes. Right now the average person only hates Comcast because its a monthly bill, it increases frequently, and there is not much competition, they don't yet hate Comcast for the technical reasons "internet" people do. But if Comcast starts making Netflix, YouTube, etc not work correctly and starts affecting the average American's daily life it will bec…

> Congressmen will start seriously discussing turning the internet into a utility.

They have already done this, it should be opposed. You don't want people who can't balance a checkbook and think that the internet is a "series of tubes" deciding how you get internet access. The PUC/FCC rules and tarrifs are already a byzantine nightmare.

Re: Comcast and Netflix now have a direct adjacency

#63

Post by MichaelGG »

davidrudder wrote: post #13
ck2 wrote: post #4

It would be funny if netflix just looked for one of their hubs/datacenters and moved in next door on purpose. ISPs are common carriers and must be regulated as such, because as soon as Comcast makes its own netflix-like service, you can forget getting netflix to stream smoothly.

Comcast has it's own netflix-like service. They call it something like Xfinity OnDemand. It's actually not terrible.

It's not like Netflix is fantastic by itself. It's serviceable, but the player is very rudimentary, and often has severe issues with things like subtitles.

Re: Comcast and Netflix now have a direct adjacency

#64

Post by r00fus »

davidrudder wrote: post #13
ck2 wrote: post #4

It would be funny if netflix just looked for one of their hubs/datacenters and moved in next door on purpose. ISPs are common carriers and must be regulated as such, because as soon as Comcast makes its own netflix-like service, you can forget getting netflix to stream smoothly.

Comcast has it's own netflix-like service. They call it something like Xfinity OnDemand. It's actually not terrible.

If you're talking about streampix, read the disclaimers [1] and see why Netflix still wins (availability, selection, not tethered to one set-top-box, always on-demand, no random fees/taxes tacked on, doesn't require bundling to a subscription level). Until that changes, Netflix has nothing to worry about.

"Not available in all areas. Set-top box required to access On Demand on TV. Programming not available On Demand in all areas. Basic Service subscription required to receive other levels of service. Not all programming available in all areas. Equipment, installation, taxes and franchise fees extra. Pricing subject to change. Streampix included with the following tiers of service: Blast Plus, HD Preferred Plus XF Triple Play, HD Premier XF Triple Play and HD Complete XF Triple Play. Services and features subject to change..."

[1] http://www.comcast.com/streampix (see the legalese at bottom)

Re: Comcast and Netflix now have a direct adjacency

#65

Post by akulbe »

I will admit that I am probably making a pretty sweeping assumption here... but I'm assuming Netflix previously had the same access as everyone else on the Internet, from Comcast - and now, they do not. They have BETTER access.

To me, this is disturbing. Surely there is some financial incentive for Comcast to do this.

It seems to me that this is exactly the kind of thing that the whole "net neutrality" issue is trying to prevent (i.e. back office deals that give one content provider better access over others)

Or... am I just missing lots of things? (wouldn't be the first time!) :)

Re: Comcast and Netflix now have a direct adjacency

#66

Post by nknighthb »

exelius wrote: post #37
MiguelHudnandez wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's a value proposition. The argument ISPs keep using is that Netflix traffic is costing them too much. I don't think Netflix should have to engineer a solution to that problem AND pay the ISP for the privilege of saving them tons of money. If the costs (4U of rack space, networking equipment, and network engineering around privacy/security) are more than the ISP would save, it's an easy decision. Note that in…

No; no ISP would ever run externally managed equipment inside their network. They would run it in a separate cage with a direct fiber connection to the gateway routers. Rule #1 of network security is that you never run someone else's equipment inside your network; you ALWAYS make them go through a gateway. Also it's largely semantics where a device like OpenConnect is hosted. Netflix could host it at a datacenter acr…

I spent a year in 2007-2008 managing equipment inside Comcast's network while working for a very much not-Comcast company. Even had a Comcast VPN assigned specifically to me complete with RSA fob shipped to me by Comcast. You haven't got the first clue what ISPs do, nor how networks work.

Re: Comcast and Netflix now have a direct adjacency

#67

Post by wcummings »

ck2 wrote: post #4

It would be funny if netflix just looked for one of their hubs/datacenters and moved in next door on purpose. ISPs are common carriers and must be regulated as such, because as soon as Comcast makes its own netflix-like service, you can forget getting netflix to stream smoothly.

Comcast already has a competing service: Cable TV

Re: Comcast and Netflix now have a direct adjacency

#68

Post by mkr-hn »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #45
mkr-hn wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for the STB interface. At least the mobile app is decent.

Are you on X1?

Not available here. A Google Fiber truck was spotted in Atlanta, so I wouldn't be surprised if I can get that out in Winder before X1.

Re: Comcast and Netflix now have a direct adjacency

#69

Post by exelius »

dsl wrote: post #59
exelius wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No; no ISP would ever run externally managed equipment inside their network. They would run it in a separate cage with a direct fiber connection to the gateway routers. Rule #1 of network security is that you never run someone else's equipment inside your network; you ALWAYS make them go through a gateway. Also it's largely semantics where a device like OpenConnect is hosted. Netflix could host it at a datacenter acr…

> This is how all the big CDNs do it You have no idea how big CDNs do it. I've personally installed CDN gear into ISP racks. Sometimes you get an uplink into a router, other times you sit on a switch with other gear. That "direct fiber interconnect" is called private peering and mostly used to fill cache boxes on the providers network.

Large ISPs sure as hell don't do this (maybe they used to; but not in the last 3 years). They have dedicated cages in their datacenters for external gear that sit at the edge of their network.

Regardless, the word on the Netflix-Comcast situation is that Netflix is indeed hosting the hardware at 3rd party datacenters with a dedicated connection to Comcast. Whether you call it an interconnect or private peering is just semantics; it's a pretty common practice in the industry and technologically, it's no different than having a 10gig fiber link within a datacenter.

Post reply on HN