YouTube annoyingly slow

[Smir]

So YouTube has been buffering it makes watching a little video extremely annoying, been happening a while now, youtube always buffers, its guaranteed a Vodafone problem, always is... just wondering if anyone else is having issues before I escalate it.

Internet speeds are fine, its just vodafone to youtube..

[TJ]

Hey @Smir, it's very strange to hear you're having trouble with YouTube when your internet speeds are fine 🤔

Is this only happening on one device in particular, or on multiple devices? You can always try some of the following troubleshooting steps:

• Make sure you don't have to many browser tabs open - This is more common when trying to use 4K video playback or 60 FPS settings, because they require a lot more processing power from your computer to render.
• Update your web browser and plug-ins - If you’re running an outdated web browser or outdated media plug-in, then it’s possible that there is a compatibility issue.
• Change your DNS server - The Google DNS server (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4) is probably one of the most reliable ones out there. You can change this is from your router dashboard.

Please get back to us and let us know if this helps at all 😊

[Smir]

playback is usually fine at 2k but, even does it when I lower it to 720p

I've changed DNS to 1.1.1.1/1.0.0.1 recently an just waiting to see if it solves the issue. 

only seems to happen at "busy" times just as before when I struggled to get any sort of download speed.

I have a pretty good pc and am using chrome so they aren't factors.

[TJ]

Keep us updated @Smir and don't hesitate to pop back us; we'll be more than happy to investigate further 👍

[Smir]

still happening just wondering if its congestion again, would save me a lot of hassle, and save Vodafone compensation further down the line.

[SNAKEPLISSKEN]

I am also noticing this quite a lot recently. I have the 76mbit FTTC package and it usually works fine web downloads go to as high at 7MB/sec yet youtube often buffers. Even some videos I watch that last more than 20 minutes seem to pause in the middle and buffer for a while. 

Yet at the same time, web downloads or speedtests seem to work fine. This only seems to be an issue with youtube. 

It's the exact same on my LG TV or my iPad or my desktop.... I happen to have two ISPs and it's not an issue at all if I swap over to the second ISP. 

[Smir]

exactly the same issue, facebook videos has something similar, must be something to do with Vodafone back end limiting bandwidth for the services or something, becoming very annoying, 15-minute videos won't even play atm...

I'm to on the top package and sync at a high rate

Recently I've been getting "if the video doesn't play soon try restarting your device" yeah I'm going to restart my entire PC -.-

[Mark]

I'm sorry you're having a problem accessing You Tube when using our internet service @Smir and @SNAKEPLISSKEN. So we can investigate this further, please contact us by following the instructions in the private message I've sent you.

[Smir]

the information in the private message is usless, unsure why you need to send that information privately.

calling up never solves anything, the only way I've managed to get things fixed is to go directly to management. I'm not wasting 4 more months of my live sending tests without any result.

[SNAKEPLISSKEN]

Thanks a lot, but already tried this. It's the usual, reset router..etc.. oh nope then we've done all we can. 

It is also an intermittenet issue, so chances are at the point where you call up it may not be occuring. 

I don't use wifi and It's not an issue with the router, or my home LAN. I can verify this by changing ISP and the issue goes away. 

What is needed are packet traces and monitoring logs from Vodafone.. not to ask the customer to reset their router. 

Please, ask someone in your NOC to investigate

[Mark]

So we can arrange for a member of our team to contact you and take a look into this @Smir we need to take some personal information. For security reasons, we can only do this via the secure link provided.

If we're unable to reslove your issue @SNAKEPLISSKEN, we'll be happy to raise an investigation and a member of our tech team will be in touch to help you further.

[Baders]

Hi, I'm experiencing similar problems as you.

My internet speeds are amazing at all times, however I struggle to stream content from Youtube and Twitch, even at 720p. This occurs across all my devices, macbook, pc, Galaxy S9, firestick. It also appears to be limited to these 2 sites as I can comfortably stream 4K content from Amazon Prime video. Therefore, this appears to be a problem on Vodafones back end servers.

I would like to know if you ever got this resolved?

[Jay8135]

I've been getting the exact issue. Only way I can watch a twitch stream is by activating a vpn to my closest server then twitch plays flawlessly. 

[Baders]

Good to hear I am not the only one!! I will try the VPN method to see if that makes a difference.

Can we get a moderator to look into this ASAP as this is not the service I signed up for.

UPDATE: I used a VPN to use twitch.tv and BOOM suddenly all my problems are gone. Perfect 1080p streaming with no delay. Please @Moderator look into this or I will be taking my business elsewhere. 

[Jay8135]

I'm dealing with Twitter support as live chat just want to factory reset my router every time I ask about it. Last 2 nights it has been affecting my sky q connection dropping and 're connecting every few seconds causing issues with the sky q mini boxes so I've asked to leave mid contract as I've had enough. 

[Baders]

Good idea, I have messaged them too. It is a shame as otherwise their broadband is excellent. (Despite also being unable to access Imgur.com!!)

[SNAKEPLISSKEN]

I've also confirmed the problem is non existant when using VPN  this is very interesting stuff as is Vodafone's complete lack of ability to do anything about this problem except PM us to contact support who'll ask us to reset our modems doing absolutely nothing to resolve the situation. The fact that using a VPN evades the issue leads me to believe that this is some form of nasty traffic shaping on behalf of Vodafone where high bandwidth stuffl ike streams are routinely interrupted (TCP resets) presumably to stop people streaming all day long or forgetting about it ... but the fact of the matter is that it's our connection that we've paid for and should be able to do what we want with it without having the ISP try to reset your connection.... the fact that it doesn't happen while VPN'd somewhere leads me to believe they are applying this policy to RTSP and other streaming protocols. 

Pretty sure that Vodafone a) knows about it ... b) is doing it on purpose and c) isn't inclined at all to resolve it. Which is why I'm taking my business elsewhere. 

[mbames]

If VPNs are the solution, then that means Vodafone must have some seriously nasty traffic shaping policies in place.  Which is odd, as they state they don't have ant policies in place, even at peak times

taken from: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/public/documents/webcontent/pdf_broadband_and_talk.pdf

[Smir]

Also noticing youtube stopping the video more, an I'm having to restart it.. =-/

[Anonymous]

If it were traffic shaping then with all of our data flowing through Vodafones London data centre it should be affecting us all - it's not!  Just did a silly test here and had 2 PCs each with 8 you tube videos open and running on the desktop with a couple of phones, a couple of tablets, and the living room TV all playing YouTube videos at the same time.  All were playing without stuttering or buffering, and I still hadn't maxed out on our data speed!

If you want a conspiracy theory, personally I think it's more likely that someone has found a backdoor into, or through that piece of equipment that we all know to be a pile of trash, the Vodafone VOX2.5 HHG2500 router!  I'm not saying that is my belief, but it's more likely, than the traffic shaping scenario.  *It's also easier to prove wrong, are there large numbers of non-Vodafone router ueser on their network who are also suffering?