Neither YouTube, nor any ISP owns sole blame. My ISP, Sonic.net, is a flea among giants; fewer than 75,000 subscribers, mostly in the S.F, Bay Area of California. Netflix streams fine because they are an Open Connect partner. They are not a content provider. Yet YouTube flakes out; buffering and balking at 720p! Yet the same video plays flawless on a different connection; and, no, not a VPN. No need to hide my traffic from my ISP.
Here is the difference in trace routes:
Sonic.net "Fusion":
Tracing route to nuq05s02-in-x08.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:802::1008]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2602:24a:de40:7d90::1
2 26 ms 25 ms 26 ms cust-gw.ipv6.sonic.net [2602:24b:8179:10::1]
3 26 ms 26 ms 25 ms 0.ge-5-1-1.gw.200p-sf.sonic.net [2001:5a8:5:d::1]
4 26 ms 25 ms 25 ms 0.as0.gw2.200p-sf.sonic.net [2001:5a8:5:8::2]
5 26 ms 26 ms 27 ms 0.xe-6-0-0.gw.pao1.sonic.net [2001:5a8:5:6::1]
6 28 ms 27 ms 28 ms 2001:550:2:3a::9:1 (Cogent)
7 28 ms 27 ms 27 ms 2001:550:4::48 (Cogent)
8 28 ms 29 ms 27 ms 2001:550:2:1f::46:2 (Cogent)
9 27 ms 50 ms 27 ms 2001:4860::1:0:7ea (Google)
10 28 ms 28 ms 28 ms 2001:4860:0:1::693 (Google)
11 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms nuq05s02-in-x08.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:802::1008]
Trace complete.
Hurricane Electric:
Tracing route to nuq05s01-in-x00.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1000]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2001:470:82cb::1
2 575 ms 36 ms 33 ms NKonaya-1.tunnel.tserv3.fmt2.ipv6.he.net [2001:470:1f04:448::1]
3 27 ms 37 ms 28 ms ge5-19.core1.fmt2.he.net [2001:470:0:45::1]
4 27 ms 26 ms 27 ms 10ge1-1.core1.sjc2.he.net [2001:470:0:31::2]
5 27 ms 28 ms 27 ms 2001:4860:1:1:0:1b1b:0:9 (Google)
6 27 ms 44 ms 28 ms 2001:4860::1:0:7ea (Google)
7 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms 2001:4860:0:1::691 (Google)
8 27 ms 27 ms 26 ms nuq05s01-in-x00.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1000]
Trace complete.
Hop 1 in each case is my router.
Pay attention to the routing!!!Sonic.net to Google (Youtube; buffers @ 720p) goes through Cogent (notorious for running ports "hot").
Hurricane Electric to Google (Youtube; does not buffer @ 1080p) goes direct.
There are
three players in the first; any one of which, or all three in some combination, could be the problem. That is the gist of ShadowFoxBiH
's post.