Why Does YouTube's throughput suck so bad?

[Defiantly 41]

Over the past few months I've grown more and more frustrated with YouTube. Regardless of the device or WiFi I use, the buffering and watch-ability is simply awful.

I've got an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy tablet that connect to both my home and work WiFi Both experience the same laggy, it-plays-5-seconds-at-a-time between buffering. I was able to find a iOS app that lets me lower the resolution from HD to "Low". This helps a bit but I still encounter issues.

Anyone else have similar experiences/frustrations?

[Kalint 228]

Yeah but I know its because its ******* Time Warner

[Defiantly 41]

I've had this issue with VerizonFIOS and Comcast ISPs. Also, and I probably should have mentioned this; Vimeo runs as smooth as butter in HD. No issues. It's gotta be YouTube. ...right?

[+BudMan 2,893]

Nope never had issue one with youtube bandwidth

Do you have a specific video your having issues with you can link too? Some of the major ISP use their own caching server for youtube, that could be your problem?

I would rightclick on a video and get the info, what speed are you getting. I would also again from rightclick on video to a speedtest - what does that show?

[Klownicle 64]

REJECT/DROP 173.194.55.0/24

REJECT/DROP 206.111.0.0/16

(for the uninformed, /16 and /24 is not a range, but a subnet class) ie, 206.111.0.0 - 206.111.255.255 = /16)

Problem solved, was posted on reddit just this week. I did it myself and everything loads instantly now on my 85mbit FiOS line vs before laggy as ever. This affects all the feeds on youtube/vimeo, so all will be well. It can be confirmed by adding and removing with tests before after and then removed after again.

Time Warner and Verizon have this issue, no one is quite sure the absolute cause, but those servers your blocking are google and vimeo servers that most likely handle content throttling. When they are blocked you download directly from the source, ie; google data center.

Use caution as you are blocking a wide range of ip address locations. No one has reported any adverse effects yet.

Linux commands below; (Advanced Firewall on Windows Vista or higher can handle this also)

sudo ipfw add reject src-ip 173.194.55.0/24 in

sudo ipfw add reject src-ip 206.111.0.0/16 in

Source; http://www.reddit.co...50w8x?context=1

[Anibal P 2,012]

Could also be shoddy ISP DNS caching, I used to have issues with 1080 YT videos till I stopped using Comcast's DNS for a couple of servers that were closer to me, took a few days to notice the difference because like a dork I forgot to run ipconfig /flushdns after making the changes

[Jason S. 1,243]

REJECT/DROP 173.194.55.0/24

REJECT/DROP 206.111.0.0/16

Problem solved, was posted on reddit just this week. I did it myself and everything loads instantly now on my 85mbit FiOS line vs before laggy as ever. This affects all the feeds on youtube/vimeo, so all will be well. It can be confirmed by adding and removing with tests before after and then removed after again.

Time Warner and Verizon have this issue, no one is quite sure the absolute cause, but those servers your blocking are google and vimeo servers that most likely handle content throttling. When they are blocked you download directly from the source, ie; google data center.

Use caution as you are blocking a wide range of ip address locations. No one has reported any adverse effects yet.

can you elaborate on this? i also have this Youtube issue. you sit there and constantly have to wait for youtube to buffer. oh, you wanted to watch that 30 second clip? that'll be 5mins of buffering...

[LaP 1,707]

I don't have any issue with youtube. Even with HD videos.

Bell Sympatico isp here.

[+The Evil Overlord 17,415]

Anyone else have similar experiences/frustrations?

No where near as well educated as Budman in wifi, bandwidth, or any thing of the sort as, but I've never had any of buffering or lag watching stuff on youtube

I just downgraded to 30meg last month as I was effectively wasting money on 120

Edit Please disregard my post

I didn't realise we were talking about US broadband, as a UK resident I don't know your infrastructure

[Tuishimi 129]

I was having problems last Spring... found out my modem was not fully supporting all the channels offered by my ISP. Purchased a new modem and am taking full advantage of the offered bandwidth.

[Hum 6,929]

Maybe it's because there is a million idiots watching videos. :laugh:

[Klownicle 64]

can you elaborate on this? i also have this Youtube issue. you sit there and constantly have to wait for youtube to buffer. oh, you wanted to watch that 30 second clip? that'll be 5mins of buffering...

See; http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/13kmvd/have_time_warner_internet_but_can_barely_stream/c750w8x?context=1

Couple posts down.

[Jason S. 1,243]

I was having problems last Spring... found out my modem was not fully supporting all the channels offered by my ISP. Purchased a new modem and am taking full advantage of the offered bandwidth.

"all the channels"? what's that mean?

[Klownicle 64]

I also confirmed the above fix on my works Verizon MPLS connection, amazing it was. :) I always just dealt with the slow YouTube thinking there was nothing could be done about it till I stumbled on the reddit post made this week.

[Defiantly 41]

I also confirmed the above fix on my works Verizon MPLS connection, amazing it was. :) I always just dealt with the slow YouTube thinking there was nothing could be done about it till I stumbled on the reddit post made this week.

Hi Klownicle, can you elaborate on how to implement this fix? Thanks!!!!

[Jason S. 1,243]

See; http://www.reddit.co...50w8x?context=1

Couple posts down.

from what i gathered in the post, i just need to add the 206.x.x.x/16 space in the windows firewall, right? i just added a Deny rule on my work laptop. Do i also need to do the other 173 range that you posted?

Also, some people were doing this in their router's IP tables, but i'm not so sure i can do that.

[Klownicle 64]

from what i gathered in the post, i just need to add the 206.x.x.x/16 space in the windows firewall, right? i just added a Deny rule on my work laptop. Do i also need to do the other 173 range that you posted?

Also, some people were doing this in their router's IP tables, but i'm not so sure i can do that.

Someone linked to a good guide the other day, but I'm not able to find it at this time.

You need to go into your advanced firewall for windows, create a outbound rule, choose custom, all programs, all ports, tcp for protocol, enter address lines as 206.111.0.0/16 etc, and finish.

It should look like below for 206.111.0.0/16 in your advanced firewall if done right.

The 173 subnet class c is for vimeo if I read correctly, I just used google in the above example. And its 206.111 not 206.x

And IpTables wise, routers like the Actiontec supplied by FiOS allows for GUI Web Access for advanced filtering.

[theyarecomingforyou 9,094]

I assume then that it's an ISP issue? YouTube videos stream perfectly here and I use Magic Actions so videos default to 1080p.

[Klownicle 64]

I assume then that it's an ISP issue? YouTube videos stream perfectly here and I use Magic Actions so videos default to 1080p.

Either ISP/Routing or YouTube (Google) is throttling based on ISP.

[+BudMan 2,893]

So if that blocking works, then yes its a caching issue with the verizon and timewarner peering caches.

Sure you can block those networks, and then you should bounce to some other source.

I am not sure I would jump on blocking a /16 like that, but if that whole block is just used for cache - then its not going to hurt anything. As long as your aware if you run into connection issues sometime in the future, verify if on that netblock, etc.

[webeagle12 868]

NOD firewall would't letting me put /16. Any idea?

[linsook 149]

"all the channels"? what's that mean?

His issue has nothing to do with youtube but his connection speed. He probably switched to a docsis 3 modem, which needs at least 4 channels to bond with in order to take advantage of the higher tier offerings. This shouldn't have been a problem to begin with unless nobody informed him of upgrades or he ignored letters sent out.

[Brian M. 773]

Virgin Media over here have a similar issue - there's a thread on their forums that's been going on for over a year now.

They run caching servers, but those servers don't have enough capacity to deal with the number of requests. Which results in me having a 100mb connection and not being able to stream a standard def video from YouTube!

[Klownicle 64]

NOD firewall would't letting me put /16. Any idea?

206.111.0.0/16 is not a ip address it is a ip subnet class

[webeagle12 868]

206.111.0.0/16 is not a ip address it is a ip subnet class

Still wouldn't let me. I'm doing something wrong..