UPDATE 7 (1/27/09) Hurray! Starting this morning people in FL, NY, TN, and other places are reporting that they can now use the Orblive app directly without the workaround and still log in without a timeout. I confirmed it working as of this writing and the app, including streaming, is quite functional. It appears we should mark this one as fixed. As to the exact problem and the resulting fix we can only say that a case ticket (Case #TT000009527013 ) that was opened up with AT&T by Orb must have been acted upon. With the nature of live streaming there will no doubt be occasional errors, but for the affected users overall app functionality should be restored. Thanks to all of the parties involved in seeing this one through.
UPDATE 6 (1/25/09) Orb has reported that the problem hit them on the west coast yesterday evening. I will assume that their local AT&T DNS server updated, carrying with it the problem. Orb posted a traceRT on an iPhone to the forum showing the stop at the AT&T server, interestingly enough. At least Orb can now reproduce the problem, which should expedite a solution.
UPDATE 5 (1/24/09): AT&T support front lines have been extremely helpful in trying to resolve the issue. Reports have come in that technicians are spending over 30 minutes at a stretch trying everything possible to determine the problem. At this point nothing as been resolved, but given that there are so many streaming video apps active and running over 3G dropping Orb in the middle of all the other streamers hardly makes sense as a major bandwidth saving measure. That is, unless someone was using it for purposes other than designed and it was branded a security risk. To cast doubt on that scenario is the fact that only the Eastern half of the US seems to be affected – a security risk would be yanked across the board. My gut tells me it is a glitch that may take some time to resolve. For now, I would advise users to get used to the workaround if they are in an affected area. But if anything breaks we’ll give an update.
UPDATE 4: The Orb folks have released a little information about the way the app connects. Apparently when the orb starts it uses the URL api.orb.com over https to connect to its alias at the mycast.orb.com site, where it then drops back to http. When using the iPhone’s Safari the URL https://api.orb.com fails on 3g (if affected), yet it works on wifi (and other devices/computers). This is also explains why the workaround usually works. Nothing yet from AT&T.
UPDATE 3: A little offical word. According to the Orb Folks (posted on their forum), they have made no changes at all. If correct, this would in theory put the ball back with AT&T. As luck would have it, Orb is apparently in an area that is not affected with the issue (Oakland, CA).
UPDATE 2 (01/23/09): PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS UPDATE IS ONLY THE CURRENT WORKING THEORY. At this point it is starting to look like the DNS servers that AT&T utilize do not have the correct data (why we don’t know) for the orb app’s login in most of the country. Some people are not experiencing issues, so we would assume that they are lucky enough to roll into a DNS server that has not updated recently (or vice versa). Of course, the bad news is that iPhone users cannot configure the DNS server that their AT&T account uses, so this really does not help anything. Still no official word at this moment.
UPDATE: As of this writing the connection is still broken, but there is a workaround in place. First, use Safari on the Iphone itself to go to mycast.orb.com and wait for the login to appear. When the login shows, immediately quit Safari by way of the home key and start the Orb Live app. It should then login normally. The process will need to be repeated each time you use Orb Live.
So, yes I have an iPhone. And yes I run the rather slick Orb Live App, which allows one to connect to their Orb and stream media of all sorts, not the least of which is live TV (assuming you have a PC with a tuner for the source). The finished product works almost as well as a Sling player for windows mobile (we are still waiting for the iPhone version), plus you can access more PC based media.
Everything was working fine yesterday. The app connects and gives access to live TV channels (which is what I used it for most of the time) while out and about. Today, though, is another story. The unit will connect fine on WiFi, I can get to the Orb online, but the AT&T connection through the iPhone will simply not connect – and I am no the only one to suddenly have problems.
In an attempt to find out what was going on, I posted a question to the Orb forum ( http://forums.orb.com/viewtopic.php?t=15538), and as of this writing people in Illinois, New York, and Florida replied experiencing the same problems. Right now it is a mystery, but given the widespread nature of the same symptom it is looking like AT&T may be filtering out (blocking) the Orb traffic. It could be a technical glitch, but I can find no announcement of technical issues or server problems with AT&T to explain it. One thing is certain, it is not a local problem.
Calls to AT&T have yielded no answers, but to their credit the reps have tried to be helpful. However, this appears to be outside of the normal support channels, and AT&T points back to Apple for help. It may take a little time before anything is known for certain if it is a deliberate action. To note, other streaming apps on the iPhone (including ABC, 1Cast, etc.) still work great over 3G. This may have even been an accidental block on behalf of AT&T (or its business partners). Of course, this helps little with the connect timeout message.
As soon as I find out the answer I’ll update this. For now, I would suggest take that into consideration if you are looking at the otherwise quite functional Orb Live on the App Store ($9.99, link), especially if you had wanted it for use only with the 3G connection (edit – on the Eastern half of the US).
Hopefully it is only a glitch. But if it is only a glitch, AT&T should at least report it as an issue, especially since it has been over 24 hours for some people, and they HAVE had callers reporting the problem. Lessons learned for future, perhaps.
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