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Netflix Blocks Many IPv6 Users Over Geolocation Difficulty
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.
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.
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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?
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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:
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
add chain=forward dst-address-list=netflix action=reject