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by Charles Miller

"Who you gonna call?" The blockbuster 1984 movie "Ghostbusters" suggested it better be a team of parapsychologists. But I gave a better answer right here in this column last week to the more than 100,000 people who were asking that very question two Friday nights ago.

The night of Friday, Nov. 15 was the first-ever attempt by Netflix to broadcast a live sporting event. For many it was an unmitigated disaster. According to Netflix, over 60 million customers tuned in expecting to see the Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul heavyweight fight. Most of those customers did get to see the fight as planned. But what many thousands of those customers watched instead was their stream buffering, freezing, or disappearing altogether. Around the world phone lines, including mine, lit up, many being overwhelmed by the large number of calls. I received only one call because the people reading this column are better informed than most.

Back in 1978 an estimated 90 million viewers tuned in to watch the broadcast of the Muhammad Ali versus Leon Spinks match, and nobody had any buffering problems. Do you wonder why technology seems to have taken a step back?

For over-the-air television broadcasts it makes no difference if 90 viewers are watching, or 90 million. The internet is different. Modern streaming services must provide a separate connection through the internet from the server to each and every individual viewer; and Netflix was not properly prepared to do that. But this is not where I want to go, in part because I have no insight into what goes on inside Netflix.

What I do want to point up is that last week's column provided a clear answer to that question "Who you gonna call?" Anyone who paid attention last week would have known to use the "trace route" test to answer the question of who to call to report the problem, and saved themselves at least a little frustration.

What the Netflix customer who was not seeing the fight could have seen on the trace route test was a roadmap answering the question "Who you gonna call?" Should they call their local tech guru? Nope, because the test results showed the internet connection inside their house was good to their Internet Service Provider (ISP). Should they call their ISP (Telmex, Megacable, TotalPlay, etc)? Nope again, because the test results proved the internet connection provided by the local ISP was perfect all the way to Netflix's servers. While in this case the trace route test could not show what the problem was, it would show where it was.

So the trace route test would have clearly shown there was no point in calling anyone other than Netflix because that was the location of the problem. Of course last Friday night you might possibly have reached a recording that said something like: "Your call is very important to us, please hold... you are 72,903rd in line."

Hopefully, Netflix will be able to correct whatever technical difficulties caused their Tyson-v-Paul debacle, and do so before Christmas Day. That is when Netflix is going to attempt to live-broadcast the NFL game featuring the world champion Kansas City Chiefs taking on the ascendant Pittsburgh Steelers. Let us hope that all the football fans as well as the people at Netflix enjoy the game and that nobody needs to ask "Who you gonna call?"

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Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant with decades of IT experience and a Texan with a lifetime love for Mexico. The opinions expressed are his own. He may be contacted at 415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

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