This just started a few days ago, I can stream videos from all the other sites just fine, but any YouTube videos are slowing to a crawl. I'm assuming they started throttling YouTube traffic after the recent court ruling that allowed it. But is there anything I can do to speed up the YouTube videos? Thanks.
I'm assuming they started throttling YouTube traffic after the recent court ruling that allowed it.
That wasn't what that court ruling was about. How do the other streaming sites perform? I can reliably stream the troublesome Netflix at 5800 kb/s (1080p), as well Amazon and Hulu; but YouYube occasionally gives me fits.
Full disclosure: My ISP is Sonic.net, which participates in Netflix Open Connect.
I'm specifically talking about CenturyLink, it sounds like your ISP is not throttling your YouTube. I can stream videos from other sites just fine (IGN, GameSpot) and my speeds are fine according to Speedtest.net. But my YouTube speed is at about 30k/s. If anyone else who are using CenturyLink and was able to bypass it's YouTube throttling, please help. Thanks.
I'm specifically talking about CenturyLink, it sounds like your ISP is not throttling your YouTube.
A.) On a good night I can stream YouTube at 1080p without buffering. B.) On a bad night I can't stream YouTube at 720p without buffering. C.) Having a slow YouTube streaming session is not, prima facie evidence of ISP throttling.
YouTube is notorious for streaming problems across ISPs, which seems to indicate congested routes outside of the ISP's control. I have to wonder: I have IPv6 enabled, and Google (YouTube parent) seems to favor IPv6 routing when users are IPv6 capable.
So last night I wasn't getting throttled, but tonight I'm getting throttled again. So I finally gave up and bought a VPN and it seems to have fixed the issue. So while it's not free it's the best I can do for now. I hope the other ISP in my area doesn't do this. Otherwise I guess I'll have to keep using VPN to watch YouTube.
So last night I wasn't getting throttled, but tonight I'm getting throttled again.
You do understand that "throttling" isn't something an ISP is going to turn off, or on according to some management whim? If they are going to throttle, they are going to keep it throttled.
BTW, YouTube buffering is worse for me lately, as well. Very likely a YouTube capacity issue.
You can call it whatever you want. Throttling, network management, QoS management, it's all the same to the end user. Tonight it's a Friday night, so probably more people are steaming video on the network. There are probably threshold that got exceeded so it triggered some automated throttling. But when I tried to stream the same video through the VPN it's fine. As of right now at 2am the streaming speed is fine again even without VPN. So I'm fairly sure it's Centurylink's issue not a YouTube issue.
As it's been stated here several times over it's a saturated link somewhere between centurylink and YouTube. I've had this issue with cox, time warner, comcast, insight, AT&T, and centurylink.
This is surely not something confined to centirylink, and there is no "threshold", it's like a water pipe... Only so much can get through at one time and you using a VPN causes it to be routed different than it's normal route
You can call it whatever you want. Throttling, network management, QoS management, it's all the same to the end user.
Or not. I have never seen a packet capture which shows evidence of same. All I have ever seen is an anecdotal, "streaming sucks, so ISP is throttling". Probably an after effect from when Comcast got their balls busted for shaping BitTorrent traffic; but a DSLR member (funchords ) provided hard, packet capture evidence as proof.
If there are overwhelming anecdotal evidence that Centurylink is slowing down streaming and if the same solution that solves throttling also works, I'm fairly sure it's throttling (or any other name you want to call it).
Also for the previous poster, I asked a friend to stream the same video that I was having issue with on his Cox HSI, he says it's fine for him. So Cox may be throttling in certain areas, but at least not in my area yet.
"We've also talked about how despite the claims that ISPs are intentionally throttling these streams, nobody has access to the full data in order to be able to indisputably prove it."
"YouTube (which has horrible performance on many ISPs) works on Cox but not CL" does not make a convincing case for throttling of YouTube.
Throttling = QoS policy applied to traffic to rate limit it Congested link = queue is full and packets are dropped as a result due to lack of space in the queue, with no regard to what the packets are (and not withstanding any AQM)
But I suspect my post will be ignored just as you've ignored NormanS and brad152 .
I don't think it's the second situation you described because I can stream videos from other sites. If the network is congested, I shouldn't be able to stream IGN or Gamepost videos smoothly. But if it's a specific throttling rule set for a specific site, then it's inline with what I'm seeing. I'm getting throttled right now. YouTube defaulted to 144p because anything higher will choke, but when I connected the VPN I can stream the exact same video at 720p. Tell me that's not throttling (I'm sure you will, but I don't think I will be convinced).
I'm getting throttled right now. YouTube defaulted to 144p because anything higher will choke, but when I connected the VPN I can stream the exact same video at 720p. Tell me that's not throttling (I'm sure you will, but I don't think I will be convinced).
You know, when I see the sun rise over the mountains to the east, I just know that is all the evidence necessary to prove that the sun moves around the Earth. Convince me that I am wrong!
This is not astrophysics. The very large and very small in this world are just weird and does not adhere to common sense. We're made of 99% empty space and so are walls, would you run into a wall since two objects are made of mostly empty space? No (at least I hope not), because we can observe that when someone runs into a wall, they can't go through it.
I don't know all the specific QoS rules that Centurylink has, but I've observed throttling behavior, and the method that other people used to bypass the throttling works. So unless Centurylink can provide contrary evidence, I think it's more reasonable to believe that I'm getting throttled when watching YouTube.
I don't know all the specific QoS rules that Centurylink has, but I've observed throttling behavior, and the method that other people used to bypass the throttling works. So unless Centurylink can provide contrary evidence, I think it's more reasonable to believe that I'm getting throttled when watching YouTube.
I wonder, am I being throttled? When I visit YouTube, and watch:
I can sometimes play it at 1080p HD, but other times have to back it off to 480p to avoid buffering. Some additional observations:
• I can consistently play at 1080p through a 6in4 tunnel. • I usually have to back off when accessing through a 6rd tunnel. • My tunnels are not a VPN. • 'netstat -aon' shows four concurrent connections to YouTube in the 6in4 tunnel, but only a single connection in the 6rd tunnel.
Trace routes follow.
6in4 tunnel (Hurricane Electric, plays 1080p with no buffering):
C:\util\dig>tracert 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1004
Tracing route to nuq05s01-in-x04.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1004]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2001:470:1f05:448::1
2 32 ms 30 ms 31 ms NKonaya-1.tunnel.tserv3.fmt2.ipv6.he.net [2001:470:1f04:448::1]
3 26 ms 25 ms 27 ms ge5-19.core1.fmt2.he.net [2001:470:0:45::1]
4 26 ms 25 ms 26 ms 10ge1-1.core1.sjc2.he.net [2001:470:0:31::2]
5 33 ms 26 ms 34 ms 2001:4860:1:1:0:1b1b:0:9
6 36 ms 27 ms 26 ms 2001:4860::1:0:7ea
7 27 ms 27 ms 33 ms 2001:4860:0:1::691
8 26 ms 27 ms 26 ms nuq05s01-in-x04.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1004]
Trace complete.
6rd tunnel (Sonic.net, buffers, sometimes badly, at 1080p):
C:\util\dig>tracert 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1003
Tracing route to nuq05s01-in-x03.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1003]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2602:24a:de40:7d90::1
2 26 ms 26 ms 26 ms cust-gw.ipv6.sonic.net [2602:24b:8179:10::1]
3 26 ms 26 ms 26 ms 0.ge-5-1-1.gw.200p-sf.sonic.net [2001:5a8:5:d::1]
4 27 ms 25 ms 26 ms 0.as0.gw2.200p-sf.sonic.net [2001:5a8:5:8::2]
5 27 ms 26 ms 26 ms 0.xe-6-0-0.gw.pao1.sonic.net [2001:5a8:5:6::1]
6 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms 2001:550:2:3a::9:1
7 28 ms 28 ms 27 ms 2001:550:4::48
8 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms 2001:550:2:1f::46:2
9 28 ms 27 ms 28 ms 2001:4860::1:0:7ea
10 28 ms 28 ms 28 ms 2001:4860:0:1::691
11 27 ms 28 ms 27 ms nuq05s01-in-x03.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1003]
Trace complete.
The point is, your packets traverse a different route through a VPN vs. no VPN. If the no VPN route is congested, while the VPN is not, you will get better results through the VPN.
BTW, your comment on Astophysics is lame. And my point was that "observation" doesn't always convey knowledge. If you don't know what to look for, what appears obvious may actually be illusion. I might even get unlazy and kill IPv6 to have another look; and even follow up with Wireshark.
But you are not looking everywhere, and guessing.
P.S. My Sonic.net trace goes through Cogent, which has a notoriously bad reputation for "hot ports".
Im also having this issue.. cant even watch youtube or netflix without buffering... I never had this problem with charter. so I know it's not my system or setup...
Thinking its a CL problem too.. Not so much 'throttling' as in a 'problem' as I go back and forth on being able to watch youtube in 1080p to not being able to at all.. Last night, I could not watch at all..
I don't think it's the second situation you described because I can stream videos from other sites. If the network is congested, I shouldn't be able to stream IGN or Gamepost videos smoothly. But if it's a specific throttling rule set for a specific site, then it's inline with what I'm seeing. I'm getting throttled right now. YouTube defaulted to 144p because anything higher will choke, but when I connected the VPN I can stream the exact same video at 720p. Tell me that's not throttling (I'm sure you will, but I don't think I will be convinced).
I'm on CenturyLink, and it's extremely rare for me to have issues with streaming YouTube - so I highly doubt they're doing throttling of YouTube. If they're going to throttle it, they're going to do it for all of their customers.
Just because you can stream from other sites with no problems doesn't mean CenturyLink is throttling YouTube. The other sites are most likely taking different routes that don't have network congestion. YouTube servers, Netflix servers, Hulu servers, IGN servers, Gamepost servers...they're all in different locations and all take different routes to get between you and them. Network congestion doesn't specifically mean that the congestion is occurring somewhere on CenturyLink's network. It can occur anywhere. It's highly possible for network congestion to be somewhere along the route that YouTube takes, and that none of the others services cross that part of the route that's experiencing congestion.
Definitely becoming a problem for me, and only getting worse. What makes the issue even worse is the fact Google only lets you buffer parts of a video now. It used to be it would load the entire video to you; now it only loads a little bit of it, then stops until the video has progressed a bit (this doesn't really happen with lower quality vids; just 720 and 1080). I realize WHY that's a thing now, but ti makes watching a 720 or 1080 impossible without incessant buffering.
It wouldn't be nearly as bad if I could just let the thing load int he background and start watching it later.
If Sprint had unlimited 4G LTE...would be tempting to go with that; I get similar latency, roughly the same download (9ish megabits), but 5 megabits upload (as opposed to 830k).
Either way, hope the routing issues are resolved soon.....
As it's been stated here several times over it's a saturated link somewhere between centurylink and YouTube. I've had this issue with cox, time warner, comcast, insight, AT&T, and centurylink.
^This. Although it's actually the caching node that's congested.. but either way CL are the ones who have to contact Google to get it fixed!
I'm specifically talking about CenturyLink, it sounds like your ISP is not throttling your YouTube. I can stream videos from other sites just fine (IGN, GameSpot) and my speeds are fine according to Speedtest.net. But my YouTube speed is at about 30k/s. If anyone else who are using CenturyLink and was able to bypass it's YouTube throttling, please help. Thanks.
I've never been able to stream Youtube on CL at 1080 without constant buffering. And with a 20Mbps connection I shouldn't be having buffering issues.