YouTube terrible speed and buffering

[Alecmac007]

I am on Vodafone fibre so just under a year and no problems getting 10mbps but over the last 5 days I am getting terrible performance on YouTube on wifi on all devices. It either buffers, doesn’t play video and occasionally I get a period of a few minutes with no problems.

I have rebooted router and reset firmware and spoke to  Vodafone but no solution. If I connect to mobile data all is good, and all other streaming video sites work fantastic and my wifi speed is always good. Any ideas?

[embattle]

Out of interest what parts of the country are people in, see if it has a geographical element for me it is the South West.

[richardpreston]

Midlands myself have logged a complaint to have not heard anything yet.

[mmotti]

South West here.

Just wanted to take the time to actually write a note to say the complaints team / technical team have been absolutely fantastic so far. I've had numerous calls from the both of them even today.

It's the first time that I've actually felt as if this issue is getting to the right people.

I would strongly advise anybody who has not yet done so to go down the raising a complaint route to get to speak to somebody who will listen and act appropriately.

[4pack]

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@Jayach wrote:

Sorry, but what do speedtest results have to do with YouTube buffering?

This thread is about problems with using YouTube/Google services, not general speed issues.

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Actually it demonstrates the extent of either a terrible routing problem or traffic throttling. As really if it were purely a capacity issue there would be little difference between the vpn and the non vpn connections.

Forcing data beyond the Voda endpoint results in a 25 - 75% speed reduction. 

This is being obfuscated to the consumer behind wifi interference, packet storm, firmware updates, dns, technical support pretending they have a fix etc. etc. 

Is any Voda customer really getting what they are paying for?

So lets have a look at the route then to youtube shall we...

VPN Off

212.158.250.33 - Vodaphone London WC2N

63.130.127.221 - Vodaphone New York - 10022

Request time out

74.125.253.31 - Google LLC California 94043

209.85.241.93 - Google LLC California 94043

172.217.169.14 - Google LLC London 

VPN On

172.20.21.254 - no id

172.20.22.3 - no id (presume vpn supplier network)

request time out

86.106.136.113 - Manchester M32

176.10.83.156 - Manchester M32

176.10.83.134 - London WC2N

77.243.176.217 - London WC2N

142.250.161.124 - Google LLC California 94043

209.85.249.187 - Googlle LLC California 94043

142.251.52.143 - Google LLC California 94043

142.250.200.46- Google LLC California 94043

So those are the routes, doesn't appear like vodaphone routes are wildly off, there are many more hops through the vpn, which works and gives better throughput... hmm what can it be 🤔

[Jayach]

Sorry @4pack  I still can't figure out what you are trying to prove,

@embattle  I don't have the problem, and I am in SE Essex. It does seem like it is a problem for those in the South West.

[4pack]

@Jayach

Can't you figure it out ? You seem to know plenty about the network and are offering help on a problem you don't actually have...

[Jayach]

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@4pack wrote:

@Jayach

Can't you figure it out ? You seem to know plenty about the network and are offering help on a problem you don't actually have...

@4pack wrote:I think its pretty clear whats going on

@4pack wrote:... hmm what can it be 

I've already said I can't understand what you are getting at. If you have something to say, just say it.

Most of the help I offer on here is for problems I don't have,

[daern]

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@daern wrote:

I've also supplied traceroutes to different Youtube URLs that either work, or don't work. e.g. on Saturday, these were the two URLs I was seeing in the Chrome trace:

Link to URLs due to this forum blocking pasted URLs

...which take very different routes out of Vodafone.

Having just tried again today, using incognito mode (so nothing lingering about), these were the URLs in the log:

Link to URLs due to this forum blocking pasted URLs

Note the "cgne" suffix consistently on the failing URL's hostname. Every failing URL I've seen for Youtube features this cgne suffix. Wonder what this means...perhaps a Voda-specific, direct-peered URL? Wonder what "cgne" means in this context? Something to do with carrier-grade NAT (which I don't /believe/ Voda are using for consumers...)

Would anyone willing to do so please see if their own failing youtube videoplayback URLs also contain this cgne suffix, or anything else that might link them with mine. (Note: you'll need to creatively share them here, due to this technical forum blocking pasted URLs (lol). Easiest way to find this in Chrome is to hit F12, select the network tab, type "videoplayback" into the filter box in the top left and start mashing away at videos. The failing URLs will (eventually) show up in red and you can click on them to find the URL.)

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Anyone with this problem want to try to reproduce it and get the information above before I go into bat with Vodafone and Google later today?

[yorkshireskippy]

This buffering issue started last week for me. I rang Vodaphone Sunday for a solution, the 'dedicated' tech team rang me and did something there end.....completely cut off my Broadband and booked a BT engineer for today. Great.

So, I start the long battle with Vodaphone now to see what they are going to do. If they don't solve the issue I'll be leaving and going back to BT, they are expensive in comparison but at least I didn't get these buffering issues. Maybe the BT engineer has a solution?

Update. My internet speed is also reduced now on top of the buffering issue.

Update. What a surprise, nothing wrong from a BT perspective....

Update. Vodaphone are now pushing through updates to my router. Lol

[4pack]

@Jayach  Are you on the payroll?