 JakeX
join:2006-09-11
Ypsilanti, MI | [Speed Problem] Youtube being throttled on ATT 6Mbit profiles? I have been conistantly having buffering issues with Youtube using my standard home ADSL connection (6Mbit from ATT - ADSL).
Not a single video running 480p or higher will pre-load without me getting a buffering icon in the center of the screen. I have a 'Network meter' widget on my Windows 7 desktop, (for giggles) and I watch the traffic sputter up and down, I am able to right click on a youtube video and view the information, and see that transfer speeds are constantly bouncing 0 -> 2500Mbits, up and down, up and down.. sputter sputter sputter...
Ok so right about now you're thinking, you didn't configure your modem, your profile isn't @ 6Mbit, or any other factors that would discount my idea that ATT is throttling Youtube (probly to push a 6Mbit user to U-Verse is my idea -- 6Mbit is listed as unsatisfactory for `HD` video... ha!).
Here is what I discovered:
I setup a proxy server on my 100Mbit dedicated server (caveat here is it is in a professional hosting center, in New Jersey). I setup my proxy connection in firefox to use my server. The beauty here is, that I saturate my 6Mbit pipe right away! I can view a 1080p video as soon as the page loads, I get no delay, I have YET to run into a buffer pause. I have good non throttled (guaranteed) bandwidth allocation at my hosting facility, so I'm just thinking of routing all my house traffic over VPN to my server.
I want to try this as I am really suspicious that I am having media throttled by ATT.
Has anyone else done these types of tests? What were your outcomes? I am very curious to know, as my experience is NIGHT and DAY!
I max out my youtube experience when I view via my proxy, but it is barely watchable without my proxy (traffic shaping from ATT?).
I will most likely make a video of the comparison if people are interested, I just wasn't sure if digging more into this is worth my time.
Thanks for reading, curious on your feedback. |
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| Re: [Speed Problem] Youtube being throttled on ATT 6Mbit profile I always thought the buffering issue was on YT's end, now I've begun to realize that video's buffer much better from well known YT channels vs regular users. yesterday I played a 720P YT video that was 27 minutes long and it buffered in about 5 minutes, I can play a 720P video on a regular users channel that's only say a minute long and it will not buffer fast enough.....So at least in my case I still think it's on YT's end.
Did you notice anything like that going on? btw we have a 12 mbit Uverse connection, but it was the same exact behavior with our old 3 mbit ADSL connection before. |
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| reply to JakeX
YES, I have the same problem. AT&T 6Mbps ADSL, and I can NEVER stream YouTube 1080p smoothly, and many times even 720p is problematic. All my speed tests and downloads are fine, as are HD video streams from other sites.
So, yes, I would agree that AT&T is throttling YouTube traffic to DSL users. Maybe it's universal across speed profiles but only really noticeable at 6Mbps. |
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JakeX
join:2006-09-11
Ypsilanti, MI | @samesame, I can only speak for my 6Mbit profile. I have checked on other providers in Canada (Cogeco Cable) and users with 15Mbit or 30Mbit dedicated connections fly at around ~5-10Mbits without problems.
It is not a problem from Youtube, as I've seen a lot of AT&T people complaining on Google forums about slow speeds.
This proxy test that I made just shows me that I get full all-you-can-eat from Youtube, its AT&T thats limiting the speed, and whats maddening is the limitation is down to sub 2Mbit speeds, and looks like a drip-drop effect where I get a little bit, then a lota-bit, then a little, then nothing.. then a little.. and so on.
Through my test server (over proxy on the 100Mbit) I get a constant full beautiful stream from youtube of 5-6Mbits which is sufficient for 1080p video playback.
I am going to try this for my Apple TV2 (proxy movie trailiers / rentals) just to see if that speeds up, as my ATV2 crawls for trailers!? ugh...  |
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| reply to JakeX
Youtube is served from Google's CDN (Content Delivery Network, »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_de···_network).
Different videos can be severed from different data centers and different systems in the same data center and even different routes out of the same data center.
Youtube has issues on many ISP at different times and in different places with different videos.
Don't assume that ATT is throttling, It seems every few day someone jumps the gun and screams THROTTLING!!!! and ends up being just capacity issues on some route that they are on to the content they are trying to get.
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 DennisPremium,Mod
join:2001-01-26
Algonquin, IL
kudos:5
Chicago
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| reply to JakeX
How about a traceroute comparing the two different paths?
I'll come right out though and say I also don't agree that there is throttling going on. However situations like this are always "interesting" so I don't mind talking about it. I'm not clear 100% on what impact a proxy has on MTU size and of course the path from where you are proxying.
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| said by Dennis:How about a traceroute comparing the two different paths?
I'll come right out though and say I also don't agree that there is throttling going on. However situations like this are always "interesting" so I don't mind talking about it. I'm not clear 100% on what impact a proxy has on MTU size and of course the path from where you are proxying.
traceroute wont help, It will only show the path from the user to the server, not from the server to the user.
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| reply to JakeX
I also forgot to mention that my YT buffering issues peak between 5-9 PM, the rest of the day just about everything buffers fast. Considering my own experience there is practically no way I could see how AT&T is throttling YT (at least for me) unless AT&T seems to know what YT channels are very well known and popular vs less popular channels.
I also hear about Comcast users complaining about YT not buffering well... |
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 gaforcesUnited We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
1 edit | reply to JakeX
Im on the 3mb plan, highest you can get with att here.
I cant even play the 480p without it freezing and buffering. But I could watch netflix hd with the 1.5mb profile.
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 DavidNow accepting new patientsPremium,VIP
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL
kudos:70
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| reply to JakeX
truthfully I would say skip the server test and just use atube catcher.
Then I can view it on my own 100Mbit link called "LAN". I wouldn't have to deal with youtube or their buffering. It's been well known as Napsterbater  stated that this isn't just an AT&T problem. Many have this problem including comcast, charter, dslextreme, etc. My neighbor complains about Youtube buffering and he's on the charter cable network, the neighbor two houses down on the right (a covad/dslextreme circuit) complains of the same thing. So I don't think it's an AT&T thing, or I see no evidence of it so far.
So far I can download it to a local disk here and view it that way. I get full speed downloading it that way instead of having a pc/tv download it then view it at the same time.
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| reply to JakeX
Re: [Speed Problem] Youtube being throttled on ATT 6Mbit profile I'm on AT&T (3Mbit) and I usually don't go over 150KBps watching YT videos. Within the recent week I can't even pass 75KBps while watching a video. I've ALWAYS had to stop the video, let it buffer and watch it later.. It'd be nice to figure out what's causing the problem. |
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DavidNow accepting new patientsPremium,VIP
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL
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| after last nights conversation with a colleague in tx that has Verizon fios at his house we are convinced now it's a YouTube problem. Even with his 25/25 connection he still buffers with YouTube.
So that just concludes it's not a local network/ISP issue just a YouTube issue.
He did note that atube catcher did allow him to download the video at the full 25mbps, but streaming at the same time isn't happening.
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| said by David:after last nights conversation with a colleague in tx that has Verizon fios at his house we are convinced now it's a YouTube problem. Even with his 25/25 connection he still buffers with YouTube.
So that just concludes it's not a local network/ISP issue just a YouTube issue.
He did note that atube catcher did allow him to download the video at the full 25mbps, but streaming at the same time isn't happening.
I came to that conclusion a long time ago, when we switched from 3 mbits to 12 and discovered that YT buffering was no better. |
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DavidNow accepting new patientsPremium,VIP
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL
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| said by GusHerb94:I came to that conclusion a long time ago, when we switched from 3 mbits to 12 and discovered that YT buffering was no better.
One guy up here thinks it has something to do with the way flash implements/renders on youtube.
So far when I download the video with atube catcher and view it locally, that seems to be working flawlessly for me anyway.
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 56403739Less than 5 months leftPremium
join:2006-03-08
Naples, FL
kudos:2 | reply to JakeX
If anyone still cares, same thing happens on Comcast 12/2 through the same computer equipment and network in the Chicago burbs. GooTube definitely has some issues. |
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 underlord2Lolcat is LolPremium
join:2005-01-06
Belleville, MI
·AT&T Yahoo
| reply to JakeX
Especially now that Xbox Live now has YouTube, they need to open their pipes a bit 
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| reply to JakeX
Yes it is ATT who is at fault here. I'm trying to load an 18 min video at 1080p for the last hour at my apartment using an ATT Uverse connection and its still not done. I was curious so I logged into a remote machine at another house around 15 miles away with a Comcast (Xfinity) connection and the video finished buffering in a few minutes. |
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| said by ATTYT :Yes it is ATT who is at fault here. I'm trying to load an 18 min video at 1080p for the last hour at my apartment using an ATT Uverse connection and its still not done. I was curious so I logged into a remote machine at another house around 15 miles away with a Comcast (Xfinity) connection and the video finished buffering in a few minutes.
Still doesn't mean its an ATT problem, Youtube has been notorious for these issues across many providers.
The Youtube server you are connection to can be overloaded, or the peer link your going across could be as well, not necessarily ATT's issue.
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ASUS M4A79T Deluxe | AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE AM3 w/4 Cores @ 3.41Ghz(OC) | 4Gb DDR3 Memory @ 1600mhz | Sapphire ATI HD4870 1GB 800mhz/1000mhz(OC) | 2x500GB HDD's Raid 0 | Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Build 7600 (RTM) | Windstream DSL 12m (14.9m Sync)/766k |
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 nwrickertsand groperPremium,MVM
join:2004-09-04
Geneva, IL
kudos:7
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to JakeX
When I was on 1.5 mb/s dsl, I occasionally had buffering delays with youtube. But most videos were fine.
When I moved up to 3 mb/s dsl, I occasionally had buffering delays. But most videos were fine.
Now that I'm at 12 mb/s u-verse, I occasionally have buffering delays. But most videos are fine.
It really seems like a youtube problem to me. I have had times when I am watching a video with occasional buffering delays. The delays are not too bad. So I take my chances and click on the HD button (high definition). I expected the buffering problems to get a bit worse. But, instead, they completely vanished. How could it be other than a youtube problem, if the higher data rates of HD work better than the lower data rates?
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