I just set up to stream video so long distance friends could watch me play some games. I stream to Youtube directly from an open source encoder called OBS. My router is pfSense 2.4.4 on a Vault micro-appliance.
The first sign of trouble was the feed becoming unwatchable, with over 98% of frames being dropped. I released and renewed DHCP, getting a new IP address, and the problem was gone, down to 0% frame drop.
That was nice for a day, then it happened again. Again I changed IP address, and the problem went away.
That was good for a few hours, then I got kicked offline, totally offline. I released and renewed DHCP and was back online.
I continued to stream, then I found myself offline again within 20 minutes, and this time I could not renew my DHCP, the server seemed to be ignoring my requests. I noted "No DHCP offers received" in the log.
I waited almost an hour, during which time I rebooted the ONT and my pfSense router. Still nothing.
Finally, I changed my WAN side hostname, and immediately got a lease from DHCP.
This was tonight.
I am sensing that I was deliberately refused service, and that it's related to my streaming.
I'm not aware of any illegality of streaming live gameplay, (Zelda: Breath of the Wild in this case), people do so all the time. I'm also not aware of any TOS violation in uploading at 6mbps or so for extended periods on FiOS.
So what is going on? Are there serious network problems lately, and unfortunate timing is making it appear that is my IP and/or hostname that are being specifically denied service, or are they indeed shutting me down for streaming?
[edit]This is in the Tampa region, and I do see that there are ongoing issues here. The coincidences of changes made above temporarily fixing things seem pretty strong though...
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