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Netflix Blocks Many IPv6 Users Over Geolocation Difficulty

Posted by msmash on from the assuming-control dept.

An anonymous reader writes: In another example of content owners putting the screws to Netflix and consumers, network operators are reporting that the popular streaming service has begun blocking many customers on IPv6 connections. Many users of Hurricane Electric's IPv4-to-IPv6 service have been blocked entirely, while users on ISPs that provide native IPv6 are also facing difficulty connecting and watching shows. Netflix customer service has been advising users that the only workaround is to completely disable IPv6 on their computers. The ban on IPv6 appears to be the latest round of a wider crackdown against users whose IP address can't be sufficiently geolocated. While the rest of the internet moves forward with implementing IPv6, content owners are forcing Netflix to move backwards.

11 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. uh, what? by ripvlan · · Score: 4, Informative

    I thought the world was running out of IPv4 and the internet was in dire straits. We must all move to the IPv6 lifeboats or drown in the sea of no-internet.

    Hopefully this is a temporary problem/solution because Netflix is effectively shutting off Potential New Customers. "Thanks for joining the modern internet - sorry we can't service you today"

    geolocating IPv6 --- hmmm.... an interesting problem. I guess it was easier when you only had to map 4 billion entries and the address scheme followed a pattern.

    1. Re:uh, what? by Bert64 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's actually easier with v6, because each isp will generally only have one very large block instead of hundreds of small ones, then you can correlate the blocks to the regions that isp serves - not many isps serve multiple countries.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    2. Re:uh, what? by rahvin112 · · Score: 4, Informative

      One of the points with IPv6 was to reduce the size of BGP tables that contain that routing data. As you say IPv6 should be significantly easier to geolocate than IPv4, well except for those services like Hurricane Electric which is not at all unlike a VPN. IPv4 has been cut up to single IP's in some cases. The routing and Geolocate data is massive.

  2. IPv6 lookup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why can't they just remove the AAAA entries in DNS for their domains. Then no IPv6 connection will be attempted since no IPv6 address will be found.

    1. Re:IPv6 lookup by NotInHere · · Score: 3, Informative

      That would be a more aggressive blow against ipv6 than what they are currently doing. Right now they only seem to appear to block for the customers they can't geolocate over ipv6, but they don't block it for customers they can geolocate over ipv6. The thing which makes this a story is that its hard for them to geolocate ipv6 addresses, thus leading more ipv6 addresses blocked than ipv4 ones.

    2. Re:IPv6 lookup by mmontour · · Score: 3, Informative

      They could deploy a set of parallel domains like "v4.netflix.com" without AAAA records, then add a profile setting so that affected users could be redirected there without impacting anyone else.

      I am not going to turn off IPv6 across all of my devices just because Netflix can't figure out v6 geolocation. For dual-stack customers, why not simply locate them with a v4 query and then let that user session send in IPv6 requests from anywhere?

  3. YUP by whitelabrat · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just noticed I was getting blocked the other day. Not trying to do anything shady. I need IPv6 for work and use Hurricane Electric for that. Kinda not cool move Netflix.

  4. Re:Has IPv6's reputation just been destroyed? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm curious if this will utterly destroy IPv6's reputation among Internet users at large.

    Check this graph again in a month and you should have your answer.

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  5. Re:The easier workaround by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    easiest workaround piratebay.org

  6. Re:Has IPv6's reputation just been destroyed? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, you're only half right. There are other reasons why you would want IPv6 besides addresses. Like not needing to NAT everything (cludge) and faster/lower overhead routing.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  7. ACL the Netflix subnets by tomtom · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm blocking Netflix IPv6 subnets on my router with ICMPv6 no-route-to-host. Windows, Mac and Android clients all seem to immediately fall back to IPv4 and play as normal. It seems like a better solution than disabling IPv6 outright.

    Mikrotik RouterOS syntax:

    /ipv6 firewall address-list
    add address=2406:da00:ff00::/48 list=netflix
    add address=2600:1407:19::/48 list=netflix
    add address=2607:f8b0:4001::/48 list=netflix
    add address=2620:108:700f::/48 list=netflix
    add address=2a01:578:3::/48 list=netflix

    /ipv6 firewall filter
    add chain=forward dst-address-list=netflix action=reject