"Guide" Fix Youtube Buffer issue On Virgin Media :)

shankly1985 · 14 Dec 2012 at 17:31

Doz007 said:
Something has definitely changed. I can now instantly start watching 1080p YouTube videos whilst it quickly buffers the rest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8evyE9TuYk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVu3gS7iJu4&list=UUjmJDM5pRKbUlVIzDYYWb6g&index=3

I've been using these 1080p movie trailers as my test videos. I'm also able to jump ahead to unbuffered sections if i'm quick enough and it instantly continues playback.

Extremely impressed.

*Edit* Just to be clear, I haven't blocked any IPs etc.

Also noticing buffer improvements tonight, lets hope it stays like this.

Jayster · 14 Dec 2012 at 17:33

GhostlyPea said:
That's fine then, I wasn't clear on what you were saying. What method were you proposing to actually get a positive detection on one of the servers? I haven't read up on what people were doing

- GP

Well I used smartsniff to find ip's and then just cross referenced them with an iplookup. But I soon realised there are far too many servers to even begin blocking individually. Lets hope it is not necessary however and that tonight is at least as good as last night was.

shankly1985 · 14 Dec 2012 at 17:34

Guys try unblocking the IP's things seem to be working great

Calabi · 14 Dec 2012 at 17:41

I had this problem for ages thought I was the only one or was youtube's fault. It only happened on selective videos.

Will try this out if it continues much longer.

What is wrong though, how can they mess this up? I'm guessing its some sort of selective throttling, like they could do with peer to traffic. They dont like people watching videos so they throttle it.

Jayster · 14 Dec 2012 at 18:58

Calabi said:
I had this problem for ages thought I was the only one or was youtube's fault. It only happened on selective videos.

Will try this out if it continues much longer.

What is wrong though, how can they mess this up? I'm guessing its some sort of selective throttling, like they could do with peer to traffic. They dont like people watching videos so they throttle it.

They have set up cache servers for certain video sites to save on bandwidth/peering costs these have been causing problems for some reason. This should be at least be what has been causing the problem recently.

GhostlyPea · 14 Dec 2012 at 21:02

Just disabled the rules I had and it's looking good so far, hope it's sorted

- GP

shankly1985 · 17 Dec 2012 at 16:35

Looks Like Virgin Media has now fixed this

Not had a single buffer issue since last week.

Sp00n · 22 Dec 2012 at 19:30

It does seem like its fixed, I had to remove the firewall block as it was making eBay run slow :-/

Dave85 · 22 Dec 2012 at 19:38

Yeh seems they finally sorted it but at least we know if it bogs down again out come the /16 block

HecFam · 16 Apr 2013 at 18:07

Sorry for the long time, no see on this thread but im having problems again

.

Im on 60Mbps and speed test was showing 60.12Mbps, so thats fine.

Just youtube is really slow... Youtube speed test says i have 11Mbps? Every vid takes a while to load and if you click on the time line it restarts the video rather than jumping to that point.

Are blocking those IP addresses still recommended?

churchhawk · 16 Apr 2013 at 18:57

Same here and i'm on 100mb, mornings its fine but evenings YouTube is awful, sometimes i cant even stream a standard def video without it stuttering.

When I Phone them up and they just say " cant see anything wrong" so they wont do anything, this has been going for 6 months now.

Even on their own forums people are complaining about it.

HecFam · 16 Apr 2013 at 19:00

Its only ever been a recent thing for me, seems to be in last couple of days. Most threads ive seen are from the end of 2012.

Yesterday i set my superhub to modem mode (since wifi dropped out every 5-10 seconds) and am using a edimax router. Would that affect anything?

Its helped in the way that wifi actually works now, and i can finally use Google's DNS servers but Youtube just seems to take a fair while.

HecFam · 16 Apr 2013 at 20:25

I must say i just blocked those IPs and its working well again.

I was watching some haatfilms and it stopped buffering halfway though and didn't continue again. blocking the IPs seems to work well.

Hmmm

Now it seems any video >3minutes loads in a heatbeat. Anything more takes a good 30 to being buffering and doesn't keep up with playback.

SniperDude · 21 Apr 2013 at 18:51

Guide is old, might be new IP's now

But the Youtube issue is back for sure and support won't reply to the huge thread on the forums.

I would be surprised if it get repaired until the sale of virginmedia completes and they get a new CEO

AndyCr15 · 12 Jun 2013 at 21:28

Bit of a bump, but I'm having problems with YouTube, they just wont play. Maybe in 144p, but even then just a few seconds then wait a few minutes.

It's doing the same with Google Music. Speedtest says I'm getting 80+ meg, so it seems to be just these sites.

Anyone got any tips?

Defiant306 · 14 Jun 2013 at 19:18

I think I have managed to block these addresses in Kaspersky Pure 3.0, stupid company gives you guidance for 2.0 and the tab for network isnt even there lol.

I will report back after a few days trying this, cheers

kidloco · 14 Jun 2013 at 19:24

120mb connection and can't even stream a standard def YouTube clip. Role on fttc near me.

shankly1985 · 16 Jun 2013 at 18:42

If you guys still having issue on peak times try this. confirmed to be working by people on virgin forum.

From what I understand this streaming issue is nothing VM can do themselves, it how google handle the servers or something like that.

Goto Start and enter WF.msc in to the search or run bar and select enter;

1. Select Outbound Rules
2. Select New Rule
3. Select Custom Rule
4. Select Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk\VM-Youtube-Cache\vm-youtube-cache-01.jpg
5. Select All Programs
6. Select Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk\VM-Youtube-Cache\vm-youtube-cache-02.jpg
7. Select Protocol Type - ANY
8. Select Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-03.jpg
9. Select 'These IP Addresses'
10. Select ADD
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-04.jpg
11. Select 'This IP Address Range'
12. Enter - From: 62.252.170.140
13. Enter - To: 62.252.170.147
14. Click OK
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-05.jpg
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-06.jpg
15. Click Next
16. Select Block Connection
17. Click Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-07.jpg
18. Make sure all network locations are applied
19. Click Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-08.jpg
20. Provide a name for the rule
21. Click Finish
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-09.jpg
22. You should now see a rule like the below screenshot
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-10.jpg

KIA · 16 Jun 2013 at 20:18

shankly1985 said:
From what I understand this streaming issue is nothing VM can do themselves, it how google handle the servers or something like that.

Easy to blame the other party.

kidloco · 17 Jun 2013 at 13:47

shankly1985 said:
If you guys still having issue on peak times try this. confirmed to be working by people on virgin forum.

From what I understand this streaming issue is nothing VM can do themselves, it how google handle the servers or something like that.

Goto Start and enter WF.msc in to the search or run bar and select enter;

1. Select Outbound Rules
2. Select New Rule
3. Select Custom Rule
4. Select Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk\VM-Youtube-Cache\vm-youtube-cache-01.jpg
5. Select All Programs
6. Select Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk\VM-Youtube-Cache\vm-youtube-cache-02.jpg
7. Select Protocol Type - ANY
8. Select Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-03.jpg
9. Select 'These IP Addresses'
10. Select ADD
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-04.jpg
11. Select 'This IP Address Range'
12. Enter - From: 62.252.170.140
13. Enter - To: 62.252.170.147
14. Click OK
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-05.jpg
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-06.jpg
15. Click Next
16. Select Block Connection
17. Click Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-07.jpg
18. Make sure all network locations are applied
19. Click Next
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-08.jpg
20. Provide a name for the rule
21. Click Finish
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-09.jpg
22. You should now see a rule like the below screenshot
Screenshot - files.falconevo.co.uk/VM-Youtube-Cache/vm-youtube-cache-10.jpg

Cheers, ill give that a try and see if it does anything. Dont know what if any use it will be to me as the only time I stream YouTube is on my HTPC for trailers etc, and thats running Openelec not windows so cant do the above on that machine.

I still firmly believe the issue sits with Virgin. I never had these issues when I had 2mb BT broadband, so quite how I can get such poor streaming ona 120mb line is beyond belief.