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Relevant anecdote: I've recently switched to full-time hotspotting with Verizon, and I'm still adjusting my Netflix habit to match.

Verizon, as usual, sent me my "you're at your last 10% before we throttle you" notice just as I went over my limit, and at the exact same time, DNS stopped working for netflix.com.

Everything else worked just fine, but none of the netflix.com properties would resolve.

I had lazily been using Verizon's DNS for my hotspot. Changing to 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 immediately brought it back online.

I can't prove it wasn't just a glitch, but it was pretty damn suspicious anyhow, and exactly the sort of underhanded behavior I'd expect from today's telecoms.



I do full-time hotspotting on verizon, always max out over my limit, and have never experienced this.

What specific configuration did you change from 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 - i would like to know for future reference if it does happen.


They changed their DNS to point to Google's servers, which have the static IPs 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4


Oh! I thought I had lost this terminal session due to another recent forced restart (there's a VERY annoying bug in udev, Debian Stretch, or KDE Plasma 5 ... but another rant for another day).

But I haven't!

The server was fe80::188e:1b74:da0:42e9%3.

Here's some of my terminal output from when it happened. I was on Netflix when the notification came in and Netflix stopped loading less than a minute later.

    $ dig www.netflix.com
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 53897
    ;; flags: qr; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
    
    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;www.netflix.com.               IN      A
    
    ;; Query time: 5 msec
    ;; SERVER: fe80::188e:1b74:da0:42e9%3#53(fe80::188e:1b74:da0:42e9%3)
    ;; WHEN: Sat Jan 06 01:25:55 PST 2018
...huh, that's weird. I doubt this is a Netflix issue. What does Google say?

    $ dig www.netflix.com @8.8.8.8
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 48982
    ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 10, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
    
    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;www.netflix.com.               IN      A
    
    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    www.netflix.com.        824     IN      CNAME   www.geo.netflix.com.
    www.geo.netflix.com.    1314    IN      CNAME   www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com.
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 28 IN A       52.25.169.106
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 28 IN A       52.39.122.191
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 28 IN A       52.35.217.11
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 28 IN A       52.26.64.50
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 28 IN A       52.33.220.134
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 28 IN A       52.33.159.26
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 28 IN A       52.35.162.191
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 28 IN A       52.39.27.188
    
    ;; Query time: 50 msec
    ;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
    ;; WHEN: Sat Jan 06 01:26:00 PST 2018
    
...ok. And Verizon?

    $ dig www.netflix.com
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 31554
    ;; flags: qr; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
    
    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;www.netflix.com.               IN      A
    
    ;; Query time: 7 msec
    ;; SERVER: fe80::188e:1b74:da0:42e9%3#53(fe80::188e:1b74:da0:42e9%3)
    ;; WHEN: Sat Jan 06 01:27:10 PST 2018
...Okay. What about YouTube, Reddit, HN, Google, Slashdot, my servers? Can I reach those? (Yes.) Okay, let's try reconfiguring this connection's DNS then to use Google public DNS.

    $ dig www.netflix.com
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 45369
    ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 10, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
    
    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;www.netflix.com.               IN      A
    
    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    www.netflix.com.        704     IN      CNAME   www.geo.netflix.com.
    www.geo.netflix.com.    1194    IN      CNAME   www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com.
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 26 IN A       52.39.175.187
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 26 IN A       52.40.134.13
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 26 IN A       52.37.33.45
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 26 IN A       52.40.109.21
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 26 IN A       52.39.98.186
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 26 IN A       52.37.69.124
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 26 IN A       52.40.112.84
    www.us-west-2.prodaa.netflix.com. 26 IN A       52.39.34.178
    
    ;; Query time: 33 msec
    ;; SERVER: 8.8.4.4#53(8.8.4.4)
    ;; WHEN: Sat Jan 06 01:27:40 PST 2018
...Neat.

(edited to shorten it up.)


It was set to "auto" before, so whatever Verizon was giving me over DHCP.


What is your monthly cost of doing that? I've considered it since I travel a lot and I'm interested in living more mobile long term.


If you get sprint coverage in the areas you'll be you cant beat calyx institute. $400 a year for 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot + 1 Year Unlimited Unthrottled Wireless 4G / LTE Internet Service + T-Shirt https://www.calyxinstitute.org

Great write up from boing boing expalning how and why they can do this: https://boingboing.net/2016/09/22/i-have-found-a-secret-tunn...


$90/month plus all their various fees and whatnot, works out to around $103 I think for a single line. Still cheaper than a reasonable Verizon plan with data plus Comcast.

I did it for much the same reason. Had to move anyway, don't expect to spend as much time at home over the next year.

20GB/mo coupled with the website obesity crisis (http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm) coupled with it being nice to have a dumb show on in the background while doing dishes (about the extent of my Netflix habit) makes things uncomfortable for the last few days of my billing cycle. I'm currently browsing the web at a stunning, 21st-century America speed of 600kbps -- aka, I actually get better speed by going to a crowded Starbucks.




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