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General Discussion

Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points
Posted by Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points

Can't see video content from Treehouse. Can it be that my ISP is blocking Treehouse's CDN?

So, for the last 15 months I've been working in Brazil. We signed up for broadband with a local provider, GVT, on a 25 mbps plan. In general, service has been pretty reliable, both in terms of uptime and delivering the promised speed. We use an ordinary assortment of media providers for video and music content with few issues.

So what's the problem? Well, I've been a Treehouse subscriber since just before we moved, and have continued once we arrived in Brazil with no trouble. That is until two weeks ago. All of a sudden, while I can navigate the site as normal and use quizzes and forums, I can't stream or download media content. At all.

If I attempt to watch embedded streaming videos, the circular arrow spins for a time, then nothing happens. The browser status bar shows it trying to connect with various resources, ending with a call to edgecastcdn.net. When I try to download videos, even via iTunes, nothing happens for some seconds, then the a blank page that reads "This webpage is not available - ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT" loads. The details read, "Google Chrome could not load the webpage because wpc.a8b5.edgecastcdn.net took too long to respond. The website may be down, or you may be experiencing issues with your Internet connection.".

Eventually, I performed a tracert on edgecastcdn.net, and it went through. However, calling individual resources from Treehouse and another site I found that uses Edgecast both timed out repeatedly.

All this taken together, what should I be looking for/assigning blame to? Is it common for ISPs block individual CDNs? Or is it more likely a matter of Edgecast and/or GVT having some fundamental incompatibility somewhere in their respective systems? If this can't be resolved, I'll have to drop Treehouse, which would be a shame.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

BTW, apologies if this isn't the best place to pose this question, but I don't know where else to bring it. I tried the various Stack Overflow forums, but none seem to work.

4 Answers

William Li
PLUS
William Li
Courses Plus Student 26,868 Points
William Li
William Li
Courses Plus Student 26,868 Points

Jeffrey, sorry that you are experiencing problems while streaming/downloading video contents from Treehouse. It must be frustrated.

Under this circumstance, it'd be best for you to contact Treehouse's Customer Support, they are the ones with intimate knowledge of Treehouse's infrastructures, and they should be able to help you with any technical issues.

Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points
Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points

Hi William,

Thanks for the reply. I've already brought this situation to customer support. Frankly, they didn't have any firm information for me. They suggested taking steps I told them I'd already taken and suggested contacting a VPN provider or inquiring with my ISP. My hope was that someone else living abroad may have had similar experiences, or that someone with specific knowledge of network architectures may have some useful insights.

If I can't obtain even a theoretical understanding of the nature of the problem before contacting my ISP, it's unlikely they will be able to help me. If I ask them "Are you blocking/throttling Edgecast CDN?", I have no way of testing whether they are telling the truth assuming that they reply that they aren't. Or, if my issue is the unintentional result of some incompatibility or other backend error, I don't have any specific information beyond "I can't access content from this one CDN.". In my experiences, companies like this are only helpful if the customer can be specific.

Apologies if this all comes across as curt, but I've spent more time on this than I feel is reasonable with little to show for it.

Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points
Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points

Aaaaand, like magic, Treehouse media is available again.

Still, this problem initially appeared almost three weeks ago, then went away after a few days, then returned for five or six days. There's definitely a glitch somewhere and I'd still like to know where in case this issue recurs.

Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points
Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points

After two whole days of access, I'm again unable to connect to media.

0 0
0 0
1,570 Points
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0 0
1,570 Points

and I have the same problem I cannot load any videos and there is no customer support whatsoever

Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points
Jeffrey Oelkers
Jeffrey Oelkers
22,336 Points

Hi there. In what country are you located? The issue I was having with viewing Treehouse videos here in Brazil on GVT has (knocks on wood) disappeared.

Around the time I stopped having the problem, I uninstalled a really shoddily written banking app that I had installed around the time the problem began. While it's probably a coincidence, it may be worth reviewing any recent apps that you've installed. Otherwise, the source of the problem I was having remains a mystery.

Sorry I couldn't be more help. Treehouse seemed at a loss when I inquired and, as I explained in one of my responses to them, without having a hypothetical confirmation of what issues are possible, I felt it was a waste of time to even ask my ISP.