Poor Netflix Streaming- what to troubleshoot next?

[kawa001]

Can anyone make some suggestions as to how to troubleshoot the consistently poor Netflix video quality (.56 Mbps) I receive? Here the facts:

                - .56 Mbps is consistently what I receive my movies at according to Netflix.

                - I have 25 Mbps Verizon FIOS up/down.

                - The Netflix "manage video quality" setting is set to Best Quality

                - The AT&T, Verizon, Speedtest.net & Vudu throughput tests all put my throughput at better than 20 Mbps.

                - I copied and then downloaded  a 1 GB file from my PC to an internet server several times and got better than 20 Mbps.

                - I can watch Vudu HDX movies perfectly.

                - It makes no difference whether it's my iPhone, desktop PC, laptop PC, or my Blu-ray player.

                - It makes no difference whether I'm running wired LAN or wireless.

                - I have cold rebooted all my devices many times over.

                - Time of day doesn't matter.

                - Verizon insists that they don't throttle Netflix streaming.

                - I replaced my Verizon Actiontec NI424-WR Rev D. router with a newer Rev I. router in order to rule a bad router out. No difference. BTW, I'm using factory settings.

                - Netflix says that they don't know what the problem is.

                - Verizon says that they don't know what the problem is.

[prisaz]

It could depend on where you are located. Just as a primary test. Go to a command prompt and execute tracert netflix.com, and report that information back here. Are you having issues connecting to netflix.com?

The route you are taking to get to Netflix.

It seems for me most of my traffic goes from Washington, DC to CA, over the level3 routers.

Level3 could be having a bottleneck during peak times. Or a bad router dropping packets. This is my trace route to netflix. I am not sure what connection would be used for the VOD steaming. The tests below would be for streaming netflix from your PC for testing.

How to watch instantly How do I watch instantly on my TV? Can I watch instantly on my smartphone or tablet too? Can I also watch instantly on my computer?

Yes. Simply press Play on any TV episode or movie to instantly watch it online on your Internet connected PC or Mac.

You would need to use the netstat command when you are connected or trying to connect, to find out what connection is being made to which IP or URL, and trace route to that IP or host. I just traced to netflix.com, and that may not be the address that your device or PC is connecting to for content.

Open a command prompt under all programs accessories, and right click run Command prompt and select run as administrator before executing the netstat command. Perhaps netstat /a /b /f. You can do netstat /? to see the various command options. This command is very helpful in determining where your PC is connecting, and what application it is using to connect.

I find that the default command prompt character width of 80 is usually not enough. I set mine to 132 so the lines do not rap. That can be found under properties and layout. I always keep a custom command prompt shortcut on my desktop. Under the shortcut properties tab where it shows shortcut, select advanced, and you can select run as administrator for having an administrator command prompt.

C:\Users\ME>tracert netflix.com

Tracing route to netflix.com [69.53.236.17]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  My PC
  2     3 ms     4 ms     5 ms  My Gateway
  3    10 ms     7 ms     7 ms  G0-12-3-6.WASHDC-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.184.172]
  4     6 ms     7 ms     7 ms  so-13-1-0-0.RES-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.22.54]
  5     7 ms     7 ms     9 ms  0.ae1.BR1.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.32.141]
  6     5 ms    11 ms     9 ms  ae16.edge1.washingtondc12.level3.net [4.68.62.133]
  7     6 ms    19 ms     7 ms  vl-3602-ve-226.ebr2.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.158.38]
  8    12 ms    12 ms    12 ms  4.69.148.49
  9    10 ms    17 ms    25 ms  ae-81-81.csw3.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.134.74]
 10    13 ms    11 ms    12 ms  ae-82-82.ebr2.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.148.41]
 11    83 ms    81 ms    84 ms  4.69.135.185
 12    96 ms    87 ms    87 ms  ae-81-81.csw3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.153.10]
 13    83 ms    84 ms    84 ms  ae-33-80.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.152.133]
 14    83 ms    84 ms    84 ms  NETFLIX-INC.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.71.113.102]
 15    80 ms    97 ms    84 ms  xe-2-2-0-955.jnrt-edge02.prod1.netflix.com [69.53.225.30]
 16    83 ms    84 ms    84 ms  te1-8.csrt-agg02.prod1.netflix.com [69.53.225.10]
 17    80 ms    82 ms    82 ms  netflixfreetrial.com [69.53.236.17]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Me>

 If you find a section of the trace route that is having problems, you can use https://www.arin.net/ and whois at the top right of the page. Then contact them and report the issue. It may not be Verizon or Netflix. Say if you see issues on level3, you can look up the whois for the IP or URL. If ae-81-81.csw3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.153.10] was having issues responding, or timing out, you could go to the Arin.net whois and just type in the IP.

Sample response for 4.69.153.10

Network

NetRange	4.0.0.0 - 4.255.255.255
CIDR	4.0.0.0/8
Name	LVLT-ORG-4-8
Handle	NET-4-0-0-0-1
Parent
Net Type	Direct Allocation
Origin AS
Organization	Level 3 Communications, Inc. (LVLT)
Registration Date	1992-12-01
Last Updated	2012-02-24
Comments
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-4-0-0-0-1
See Also	Related organization's POC records.
See Also	Related delegations.

Organization

Name	Level 3 Communications, Inc.
Handle	LVLT
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd.
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country	US
Registration Date	1998-05-22
Last Updated	2012-01-30
Comments	ADDRESSES WITHIN THIS BLOCK ARE NON-PORTABLE
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/LVLT
Function Point of Contact

Tech

IPADD5-ARIN (IPADD5-ARIN)

NOC

NOCSU27-ARIN (NOCSU27-ARIN)

Abuse

APL8-ARIN (APL8-ARIN)

Admin

APL7-ARIN (APL7-ARIN)

Point of Contact

Name	ipaddressing
Handle	IPADD5-ARIN
Company	Level 3 Communications
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country	US
Registration Date	2012-01-26
Last Updated	2012-01-26
Comments
Phone	+1-877-453-8353 (Office)
Email	ipaddressing@level3.com
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/IPADD5-ARIN

Point of Contact

Name	NOC Support
Handle	NOCSU27-ARIN
Company	Level 3 Communications
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country	US
Registration Date	2012-01-30
Last Updated	2012-01-30
Comments
Phone	+1-877-453-8353 (Office)
Email	noc.coreip@level3.com
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/NOCSU27-ARIN

Point of Contact

Note	ARIN has attempted to validate the data for this POC, but has received no response from the POC since 2010-06-08
Name	Abuse POC LVLT
Handle	APL8-ARIN
Company	Level 3 Communications - Abuse
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd.
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country	US
Registration Date	2003-01-28
Last Updated	2005-12-07
Comments	The information for this POC has been reported to be invalid. ARIN has attempted to obtain updated data, but has been unsuccessful. To provide current contact information, please e-mail hostmaster@arin.net.
Phone	+1-877-453-8353 (Office)
Email	abuse@level3.com security@level3.com
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/APL8-ARIN

Point of Contact

Name	ADMIN POC LVLT
Handle	APL7-ARIN
Company	Level 3 Communications - IP Addressing
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd.
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country	US
Registration Date	2003-01-28
Last Updated	2012-07-02
Comments
Phone	+1-877-453-8353 (Office)
Email	ipaddressing@level3.com rshibata@level3.net
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/APL7-ARIN

[Hubrisnxs]

If it's wireless, then you probably just have wireless interference.  

I deal with it periodically. 

Most liekely it is the wireless signal.  you can change that in the router.   open a browser, and go to http://192.168.1.1

user name is admin.  and the password is most likely the serial number found on the service tag of your VZ router unless you changed it. Once you login succesfully, go to the top and hit wireless, then on the left basic security.   then go to option 3 which is channel  1, 6 and 11 and are the only channels you should try.

So it will likely be set to auto, change it to 11 and put the check for keep settings even after reboot (Directly under the channel) and then hit apply.  after you hit apply,  test your connection out, if you notice a difference, leave it like that until the problem happens again, and if it happens again, go back into the router, and try channel 6,     test it out.  and then finally 1 if the first two don't work.

Also take a look at page 2 of Actiontec's Wireless PDF File.  It gives you some idea's with regards to position and orientation of where the router sits and how it can best be positioned for maximum coverage.

  http://support.actiontec.com/doc_files/MI424WR_Rev(all)_Wireless_Networking_Guide.pdf

[kawa001]

Thanks for suggesting this but as I stated in the 8th bullet of my original post I encounter this issue on a wired LAN connection as well.

[kawa001]

---

@prisaz wrote:

It could depend on where you are located. Just as a primary test. Go to a command prompt and execute tracert netflix.com, and report that information back here. Are you having issues connecting to netflix.com?

Sample response for 4.69.153.10

Network

NetRange	4.0.0.0 - 4.255.255.255
CIDR	4.0.0.0/8
Name	LVLT-ORG-4-8
Handle	NET-4-0-0-0-1
Net Type	Direct Allocation
Registration Date	1992-12-01
Last Updated	2012-02-24
Comments
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-4-0-0-0-1
See Also	Related organization's POC records.
See Also	Related delegations.

Organization

Name	Level 3 Communications, Inc.
Handle	LVLT
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd.
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country	US
Registration Date	1998-05-22
Last Updated	2012-01-30
Comments	ADDRESSES WITHIN THIS BLOCK ARE NON-PORTABLE
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/LVLT
Function Point of Contact

Tech

Admin

APL7-ARIN (APL7-ARIN)

Point of Contact

Name	ipaddressing
Handle	IPADD5-ARIN
Company	Level 3 Communications
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country	US
Registration Date	2012-01-26
Last Updated	2012-01-26
Comments
Phone	+1-877-453-8353 (Office)
Email	ipaddressing@level3.com
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/IPADD5-ARIN

Name	NOC Support
Handle	NOCSU27-ARIN
Company	Level 3 Communications
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country
Registration Date	2012-01-30
Last Updated	2012-01-30
Comments
Phone	+1-877-453-8353 (Office)
Email	noc.coreip@level3.com
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/NOCSU27-ARIN

Point of Contact

Note	ARIN has attempted to validate the data for this POC, but has received no response from the POC since 2010-06-08
Name	Abuse POC LVLT
Handle	APL8-ARIN
Company	Level 3 Communications - Abuse
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd.
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country	US
Registration Date	2003-01-28
Last Updated	2005-12-07
Comments	The information for this POC has been reported to be invalid. ARIN has attempted to obtain updated data, but has been unsuccessful. To provide current contact information, please e-mail hostmaster@arin.net.
Phone	+1-877-453-8353 (Office)
Email	abuse@level3.com security@level3.com
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/APL8-ARIN

Point of Contact

Name	ADMIN POC LVLT
Handle	APL7-ARIN
Company	Level 3 Communications - IP Addressing
Street	1025 Eldorado Blvd.
City	Broomfield
State/Province	CO
Postal Code	80021
Country	US
Registration Date	2003-01-28
Last Updated	2012-07-02
Comments
Phone	+1-877-453-8353 (Office)
Email	ipaddressing@level3.com rshibata@level3.net
RESTful Link	http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/APL7-ARIN

---

we

[kawa001]

Prisaz,

Thank you for the detailed instructions. When I play Netflix from my PC it goes to a23-66-230-59.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com [23.66.230.59]. I'm not seeing a smoking gun. Any thoughts?

Here is the trace route:

Tracing route to a23-66-230-59.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com [23.66.230.59] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  Wireless_Broadband_Router.home [192.168.1.1]  

2     5 ms     7 ms     6 ms  L100.WASHDC-VFTTP-125.verizon-gni.net [173.66.170.1]  

3    11 ms    12 ms    11 ms  G0-6-1-4.WASHDC-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.187.134]  

4     9 ms     9 ms    14 ms  so-7-1-0-0.RES-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.199.30]  

5    77 ms    62 ms    10 ms  0.so-2-0-2.XL3.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.30.17]  

6    12 ms    12 ms    15 ms  0.xe-10-1-0.XL1.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.41.154]  

7    14 ms    14 ms    19 ms  0.xe-10-2-0.GW9.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.35.109]  

8    14 ms    11 ms    12 ms  akamai.customer.alter.net [152.179.50.174]  

9     8 ms     9 ms     8 ms  a23-66-230-59.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com [23.66.230.59]

[prisaz]

The ICMP traffic seems to be rather fast. I wonder what port it opens for the streaming video.

I stopped using netflix because of constant issues like yours. It was never anyones fault. I called netflix and they said no problems on their end. I asked since their servers responded so quickly to a trace route, why can't they keep up with the streaming video request. I think the guy was really nasty at that point. Plus I found not much new after I watched netfix again and again, and not everything on DVD was available online. I tried the service when I purchased my TiVo, and canceled, waited and tried again when they begged me back, and canceled again the second time.

Hubrisnxs had a good thought. I never thought it could be a wireess issue.

Netflix Issues http://downrightnow.com/netflix

• Netflix streams from servers all over the United States. If the server in your region is under higher than usual demand, you may notice congestion unrelated to your connection or home network setup. Netflix also may simply encounter errors and go down on occasion. You can check Netflix's status at the website DownRightNow.com, which reports the status of a dozen different services, including Netflix.

Read more: Netflix Buffering Problems | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_12002768_netflix-buffering-problems.html#ixzz24h0uC5fM

I hope Verizon opens a deal with Red Box to be their streaming provider. Please Please Please!!!

[IWantNetflix]

Verizon throttles netflix during prime hours so you will pay Verizon more money and use Verizon's video services.

Try watching Netflix between 4am and 6am instead.

[SteveVi]

Never had an issue up until a couple of weeks ago.  I have 50Mbps FiOS service and SpeendTest,net results look fine,  All Netlifx deivces in my home (PC, Bluray player, Smart TV) have the same issue, which seems to be dependant on time of day; anything before 5PM is fine.  After 5PM "Netflix SuperHD" material plays back at 388Kbps and lower.  Absolutely sucks!  I've been a happy FiOS customer of nearly 10 years but Verizon can kiss my **bleep** if they keep playing this game.

[SoNi67]

Verizon will not get me to drop netflix for their redbox, exactly because of this strategy.