YouTube Streaming Insanity

I seem to be going around in circles with this one..

Basically, for the past couple of months YouTube video's have been very problematic. They are slow to stream, and some don't stream at all..I'd say 80% of the video's watched won't play properly. Before the problems started I did not have any problems playing video's and the harware is exactly the same as before.

I run Windows XP Professional with SP2 and 1 GB RAM, on an fast computer.

Beyond the speculation, does anyone here know what the hell is going on with YT? The problem is not confined to one ISP.

I have reformatted my hard drive, re-installed Windows..hell, I’ve even gone and plugged a new computer into the router to no avail. The same problem affects my friend down the road, as well as many others.

Does anyone have a definitive answer here? The site is slow, cumbersome and actually proceeds to crash the browser at times especially with video's containing many comments. Oddly, not one single other site has the same effect.

maybe its just your computer,youtube works fine on mine.
And dont use internet explorer

[edit on 21-9-2007 by acast666]

Stop using Bittorrent. If you aren't using it already, try calling up your ISP. There's probably a few heavy BT users in your area.

[edit on 22-9-2007 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by acast666
maybe its just your computer,youtube works fine on mine.
And dont use internet explorer

[edit on 21-9-2007 by acast666]

Hi,

My computer worked fine using YT for one year, right up until the problems started. It streamed all video's no problem whatsoever..that' about 5,000 of them at least.

I have also tried an alternative Browser and it has the same problem with both streaming and gross instability when trying to view comments pages.

These problems occured on:

1. My old computer, which was fine before
2. My relative's computer, on the same router (also fine before)
3. My new computer build
4. My friend who lives across town, on the same ISP
5. Lots of other people across the world

I could understand if, say, all sites were bad but it's only that site. For instance, Above Top Secret's main page appears in seconds, even though it's quite a big page with a fair few icons, adverts etc.

Originally posted by sardion2000
Stop using Bittorrent.

If you aren't using it already, try calling up your ISP. There's probably a few heavy BT users in your area.

[edit on 22-9-2007 by sardion2000]

The only time I use BT is when I am downloading e-Books, which accounts for say, 15 mins a day at the most. I understand the manner in which p2p file transfer programs can bog down bandwidth which is why I don't recommend them to people unless they know what they are doing.

Note: every other site I use that is capable of streaming video's does not have the streaming problem.

I did contact my ISP..I got a vanilla answer that was next to useless. I also contacted YT..the same. Neither am I being capped for abusing the service as apart from watching YT video's I never download large files unless they are say, Windows XP bulk updates (ISO'), and that's only once a month or less.

I have looked on other forums but can't get definitive answers. Some are saying that it's an issue between YT and the ISP's, whilst others are saying it's an issue between YT and it's hosting service.

Either way and whoever is responsible, there is definitely something wrong with YT that is beyond the control of the average user. I am at this moment in time attempting to run some trace programs to see where the traffic is being routed.

Yes, some people are fine whilst others are stumped..the streaming is worse than dial-up and when you use the site it's effectively like a clock ticking down to the point where it becomes just too slow to load. Sometimes the comments page will come up, sometimes not..in fact mostly not if there's a lot of comments to view..we're talking about ASCII characters, not large amounts of data.

At first I did think it was my hardware, until I asked around on the net and found out people were having exactly the same problems.

So far I have tried IE 6.0 and the latest version of Opera. I have yet to try Firefox or a games console hooked up to the router that is capable of viewing the site via it's own software.

Do you use a router? If you do, then the router may not be closing your BT connections properly, try reseting it. Another trick I've found handy is to completely turn off all internet connectivity, unplug your modem and routers and let it sit for 10 minutes and then try again. This also include disabling all network connections.