Despite the faster speeds now being pushed through fiber and DOCSIS 3.0, there's many users who continue to suffer from the inability to quickly and consistently stream YouTube videos. Spend a few minutes in any of our forums and you'll find this is a universal problem with many carriers, including AT&T U-Verse, Verizon FiOS and Time Warner Cable.
I've watched for some time as users try to affix blame for the issues. Is it due to CDN problems? Peering imbalances? DNS issues? Is it the ISPs' fault or is the problem with Google's caching servers stored on the ISP network (which ISPs have no access to)? Does using an alternative DNS operator help? I've seen a flurry of opinions but no solid answers, so I'm asking you -- and I'm sending out feelers at major ISPs.
Last week, one user at Reddit discovered that if they block certain IP ranges responsible for throttling the stream, their video experience improves dramatically, as the video below appears to attest. There's some additional discussion of that supposed fix here as well as over at Hacker News. I'm hoping users can contribute the tips that have worked for them into the comment section below. I'd also love to hear from ISP employees with front line experience and networking chops for a longer story.
What fixes work, and what fixes don't? What is within the user's control, and what isn't?