Problem with Netflix streaming to the tv..

[ananda]

.. through the Roku box.

It can't connect to the Internet. But Netflix streams fine on my computer.

Is anyone else having this problem?

[mockmonkey]

1. Same problem here with Netflix

Hulu still works fine on the Roku.

[ananda]

2. Thanks.

I don't have a Hulu account, but it's good to know that it's a widespread Netflix problem. When I called Netflix, there was an auto message saying they were working on it.. whatever that means. It's taking long enough.

I'm in season three, episode 3, of Spiral. I want to keep watching to find out what happens next. I'll probably go into withdrawal when it's over, lol.

[mockmonkey]

3. no problem

Facebook page for Roku has a lot of people talking about it. The Help page on Netflix doesn't seem to work either.

[ananda]

4. The Roku forum has people posting on it too.

Netflix help opened earlier, but I suspect it's overwhelmed now that more people have discovered the problem.

Luckily, Netflix works fine here on my cpu, so I can still watch Spiral.

I think I'll check out the FB page too.

Thanks again.

[Mnpaul]

5. I have a Sony netbox and no problems with Netflix

and that is with crappy dsl. Every once in a while I have to redetect the network but other than that no problems.

[ananda]

6. It appears to be a problem between Roku and Netflix.

I hope they fix it soon, but I'm fine since streaming works on the computer.

[ananda]

7. It could be AWS, an Amazon Cloud problem.

WTF! This I do not understand. Here's a link:

http://gigaom.com/video/netflix-down-xmas-eve/

[sakabatou]

8. I can't stream on my comp. It's stuck at 7%

[ananda]

9. Damm that's a shame.

Just keep trying from different angles. It stuck at 7% for me a couple of times, but mostly it worked when I tried again.

I just don't get what AWS, Amazon Cloud stuff, has to do with Roku and Netflix! Can somebody explain?

In other words, Amazon has to fix it first from their end; and I'm wondering if they caused the problem in the first place, being a Netflix rival and all.

[a2liberal]

19. Let me try

I'm not sure what you know already, so I apologize if this explanation is either too detailed or not detailed enough.

So basically, these days some companies (Amazon was the pioneer) sell computing and storage on a pay-by-use basis. Amazon started doing it as a way to sell excess capacity from their own operations, but it has since become a product in its own right. Other companies like using it because they don't have to worry about setting up and managing their own infrastructure, and also don't have to do as much capacity planning. If you have a heavy traffic day, you just dynamically (it can all be done via programs, you don't have to have a person sitting there) spin up more servers in the Amazon cloud to handle it, instead of having to have enough capacity up-front in your own server farm to handle the maximum potential load. A lot of researchers also use it for number-crunching for the same reasons (can do lots of data analysis without having to have your own server farm)

Even if you don't want to rely on a 3rd party cloud service, a lot of people still use the same sort of infrastructure internally because it forces you to think about how you modularize your programs so that they can scale easier. So even if you are using your own equipment, you design it ahead of time so that your application will just work if you add more computers. But using the 3rd party service is much easier because they manage the hardware, infrastructure, etc. and the load tends to balance out. Until you have a day when for some reason everyone needs more capacity...

Because it's so convenient, these cloud services have become a major backbone on the internet. Unfortunately that means that when they do have an outage they have the potential to take a lot down with it. Just a month or 2 ago, it took out Reddit (a social news/discussion/link-sharing site) for a day.

While I'm sure it's possible, I doubt Amazon would try to mess with Netflix on purpose... they don't want a reputation of AWS being unreliable.

[Orrex]

10. Does this fill anyone else with confidence about cloud-based data storage?

What could possibly go wrong with countless terabytes accessible only by the whims of the server?

[Superbot]

11. I stopped streaming Netflix a while back after the price hikes

I was a good deal before the price increase. However, back then, their selection of movies was terrible. Almost no HD, and most were 2nd/3rd rate movies. Have the movies selections gotten better?

[Tsiyu]

12. WE lost Netflix on the Wii

this evening where I was visiting.

I figure everyone is home and the tubes got jammed

[marlakay]

13. We can't get it on tv or my iPad

Just switched to a movie we had on DVR.

Bad night for them to be down...

[sakabatou]

14. Streaming seems to be back up

[ananda]

15. Not here.

Netflix is completely down here.

Maybe it's not so good for Netflix and Roku to be completely dependent on the cloud service of a rival like Amazon. However they work this problem out, I hope it stays fixed for good.

[alarimer]

16. Yes, according to their Twitter so are a lot of people

I haven't checked today yet.

[ananda]

17. It's working again now here in Austin.

Off for my Spiral fix. Happy smiley!

[Generic Brad]

18. Still can't get it on Apple TV

It's just not Christmas without "Breaking Bad".