I have been having problems with the constant buffering on Youtube for the last month or so, also allot of 404, resets etc. With Youtube video running I would get spikes of speed every other second at barely half of my total speed, not enough to keep a standard video going.
I reset my DNS to one public and one open DNS with VERY promising results, it works fine now.
I guess Qwest's routing is messed up. On another note I just opted out of Qwest's 404 hijack advertising as well, it kinda bothered me. I wonder If that new "service" has anything to do with the slowdowns?
I don't think this is a Qwest issue. With my cable ISP, some YouTube clips don't load, load slowly, and few load normally. YouTube has always been slow no matter what location or ISP I've used.
same here
downgrading to flash player 9 might fix it as 10.0 disables hardware acceleration = slower
Use the hardware processing power of the graphics card to paint SWF files into the browser and accelerate compositing calculations of bitmaps, filters, blend modes, and video overlays faster than would be performed in software.
Use the hardware processing power of the graphics card to paint SWF files into the browser and accelerate compositing calculations of bitmaps, filters, blend modes, and video overlays faster than would be performed in software.
All that means is if your computer isn't up to the task of HD video, neither is Flash.
Mine isn't as it's got onboard Intel video from 2004...I'm not gonna blame Flash over it though. I can watch HQ vids on YT just fine, but my video chokes on HD because it's old. It's not a Qwest or Adobe problem.
Flash blows for quality anyways..watch THIS SITE and see true HD...
Flash isn't really a determining factor in video quality. It is the codec, resolution, and bitrate that most influence quality.
The 1080p sources on CBS look great. Yes, they do look better if they are downloaded and played on a local player as opposed to streaming within the online flash player, but they still have very good quality either way.
I don't really use YouTube, but I have been experiencing VERY slow HD movie trailer downloads with my Apple TV for awhile now. Lately, they have been taking up to 2-3 minutes to start playing.
I switched my DNS servers in the router to OpenDNS servers and now HD movie trailers play after 30-45 seconds like they used to!
I've switched the DNS back and forth in the router from Qwest>OpenDNS several times to verify that it was in fact related to the DNS change, and I get repeatable results each time. Something is VERY wrong with the Qwest DNS servers. I'm no expert and I don't pretend to know how all this stuff works, but if changing a single variable repeatedly results in 3-4x faster/slower speeds, there is a serious problem.
I doubt it is the DNS servers. DNS just performs a name lookup, and passes an IP address to the client for access.
More likely it is BGP issue, return path, or something along those lines. Very likely, using OpenDNS causes YouTube to send you to a different content delivery server than using Qwest DNS, and you are experiencing a difference in the path. In which case, there is no problem with the DNS servers.
OTOH, connection between the CDN (i.e., YouTube) and your IP network requires cooperation between the networks.
So I've been reading through this thread and so far have seen a bunch of jib jab instead of actual solutions. OpenDNS is an OK workaround, but it adds up to an extra 50-100ms to my ping. Does anyone have a real solution, or will this thread go on for another ten pages without providing any answers?
I've had 20 meg dsl for 6 month and no issues at all.
Ditto.
I have the 7/896 service, upgraded from the 1.5/1 a few years ago. Both work just fine.
I think what people want is a perfect connect..fast all the time, no latency anywhere and cheap.
Newsflash: It does not exist.
Perhaps some think that packets from your computer go directly to your ISP and then wherever it is you're trying to go. This never happens. They are usually many hops that your ISP cannot control because they are outside of their network. The place you're trying to reach could be in a different timezone, a different country, or across the world.
When I ping seattle from spokane, it SHOULD go directly there right? It's only 300-odd miles, but that's not how the traffic is routed. Not even close. And there is nothing that can be done about that. It's all about peering arrangements, network conjestion, etc.
Changing DNS to other than your ISP's can help, or it might not. I use OpenDNS purely because they offer more features and arguably more security.
Here's a trace done just now...
--- 01/26/10 08:43:46 Pacific Standard Time
--- looking up host youtube.com
--- traceroute to youtube.com [74.125.45.100],
30 hops max, 18 byte packets
1 [ 192.168.0.1] 192.168.0.1 0 ms
2 [ 66.45.176.66] dsl1.spkn.tierpoint.com 45 ms
3 [ 66.45.176.65] 66-45-176-65.ptr.llix.net 46 ms
4 [ 66.45.179.33] 66-45-179-33.ptr.tierpoint.com 46 ms
5 [ 65.61.96.117] br2-20g-po6.spkn.tierpoint.com 46 ms
6 [ 65.61.96.30] pr1-ge-2-0.spkn.tierpoint.com 46 ms
7 [ 206.81.80.17] six.sea01.google.com 62 ms
8 [ 209.85.249.32] 209.85.249.32 62 ms
9 [ 72.14.233.117] 72.14.233.117 110 ms
10 [ 209.85.242.215] 209.85.242.215 126 ms
11 [ 72.14.232.215] 72.14.232.215 126 ms
12 [ 209.85.253.145] 209.85.253.145 142 ms
13 [ 74.125.45.100] yx-in-f100.1e100.net 126 ms
--- traceroute statistics for youtube.com
13 packets transmitted, 13 received
round-trip time (ms) min 0, avg 75, max 142
Notice how the ping nearly doubles as soon as it leaves my ISP, hits Google servers starting in Seattle and then bounces around inside Google's network on it's way to Cali? It's just how it is. The Internet is dynamic by it's very nature. It wasn't built to make any one person happy.
I've watched several YT vids today, including some embedded into Google News and other sites. They play just fine within seconds.
Perhaps you people with problems need to contact Google and ask them to look at their peering arrangements with Qwest?
This may be an issue with some of Qwest's DNS servers, but it is not Qwest throttling these domains by design. I have no issues with my 3072/640 connection on Qwest DNS or OpenDNS either.
) will not load quickly on some bitrates. This particular one only uses 100KBps out of my 1.2MBps on the 1080p setting, while it will load at 700KBps on the 720p setting. I don't believe the issue is with Qwest but with Youtube.
Tried to watch a 22-minute video last night. It stalled at least five times for at least 20-30 seconds, forcing me to reload the page each time. I eventually gave up on streaming it and just downloaded the video using the downloadhelper extension for firefox. Even then, I had to keep pausing and resuming the download to "stimulate" it when it stalled.
I've said it before, but I'm a Mediacom and Qwest customer and I see this performance issue on both ISPs, intermittently, with YouTube where it barely can stream ahead of the video. Sometimes if I refresh the video the status bar shows a different server for the video and it may work significantly better.
I am a recent customer to Qwest DSL. I have the 7mbps speed. I switched from Comcast. I have noticed extreme slowness with video sites like youtube. It might work initially, but after a few videos it starts to slow down. I then run a speed test and my download speed drops below 1mbps. I then try other sites and other computers and its the same extreme slowness on any site. If you wait and come back perhaps in 30 minutes, the speed seems back to normal.
I should say I was using the supplied Q1000 modem/router from Qwest initially. I just changed my setup to bypass the router portion and the routing is now handled by my old router which I was using with no problem with Comcast. So between switching routers, computers, websites, the problem is either with the modem which seems unlikely, or with Qwest itself.
I have Qwest at home and at work. We have multiple people streaming youtube all day long with very few issues. The same with netflix, which uses a lot more bandwidth.