Has Youtube been slower over the last few months?

Alfie · 23 Jan 2011 at 15:34

LordSplodge said:
I bet it is traffic shaping by ISPs. I noticed that iPlayer went through a period of failing even though the BBCs own test said I could stream HD. YouTube as well has been through a go slow recently.

O2 "Broadband" here. I've told them I am not happy about how they manage traffic and will be voting with my feet once my contract has expired.

<Sarcasm> Poor little ISPs sold us unlimited Internet and now they can't handle it... </Sarcasm>

I work in technical support for an ISP and it would be very frustrating for a customer to jump to such a conclusion on both limited evidence and perhaps limited experience of networking.

On another note. It could well be that the affected ISP's are going via the LINX exchange in London where there have been packet loss issues of late.

sunlitsix · 23 Jan 2011 at 18:19

Some videos I can load instantly even at 1080p, on the other hand I've just been trying to watch some videos which are only 240p and its buffering for about 2 minutes. ¬_¬ Annoying to say the least!

Twentyone · 23 Jan 2011 at 18:21

Yea Youtube as one of many things has been slow for me lately

LordSplodge · 23 Jan 2011 at 18:49

Alfie said:
I work in technical support for an ISP and it would be very frustrating for a customer to jump to such a conclusion on both limited evidence and perhaps limited experience of networking.

On another note. It could well be that the affected ISP's are going via the LINX exchange in London where there have been packet loss issues of late.

Alas I am not your average customer with little knowledge of networking.

And whilst the levels and types of traffic shaping vary it is inevitable that they will only get worse especially with the increase in demand for video.

I understand the reasons (especially for non LLU providers) but have no sympathy for ISPs who are now crying because peopleafe actually using the "unlimited" Internet they have been (mis)sold.

You are, of course, correct in saying it could have been one of the backbones causing the problem.

Breeny · 23 Jan 2011 at 18:58

There's an article in this month's Custom PC about some ISP's shaping traffic for iPlayer and YouTube - O2 is one of the mentioned companies.

LordSplodge · 23 Jan 2011 at 19:08

Breeny said:
There's an article in this month's Custom PC about some ISP's shaping traffic for iPlayer and YouTube - O2 is one of the mentioned companies.

Is there? I noticed something was amiss recently (iPlayer being the most noticeable) and after some digging around traced the source of the problems to O2 who provide my broadband. They denied all knowledge of it when I contacted them of course.

I'm concerned as a customer. I pay my monthly fee and I want my ISP to deliver me bits. Just bits with no priority attached to them. I'll chose what I want to use my broadband for as long as it is within fair usage, of course!

I'm more concerned that as a small time content provider there will be no way I can compete if ISPs force content providers to pay or get throttled. I can't compete with the big boys. The Internet will simply become like Cable/SKY TV. This is why we must have Net Neutrality in law like it is in Brazil for example.

Trouble is most of the current generation of Internet users don't care as long as they get their "Facebooks"

Difficult times ahead and our prehistoric infrastructure doesn't help.