Help with YouTube

Aug 11, 2008
10,451
642
126
Hi everyone. Not sure if this is the correct forum, but I am having a problem with playing Youtube videos. Sometimes they play OK, but others, all I get is a black screen with a spinning circle that just goes on forever.

Is my internet *really* this horse s**t? I have 15 meg DSL. It seems like I just dont have enough bandwidth, but there are only 2 users in the household. I thought one of the advantages of DSL was supposed to be that other users on the line did not tie up bandwidth.

I dont know if it is the internet, or some software or settings problem in my computer. I have a fairly powerful system, i5-2320, HD7770, 8gb of ram. I have tried turning down the visual quality of the videos to the minimum, and they will still not load.

I am paying 125.00 per month for internet and a landline, and cant even play videos. Seriously??? I am ready to throw the mouse through the screen and smash the computer to bits for good measure. Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.
 

Fardringle

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2000
9,200
765
126
Who is your ISP and what browser(s) are you using? There have been reports of this issue happening in Chrome with some third party extensions, and also problems with CenturyLink throttling connections to Youtube even though they "officially" claim that they don't do it.
 
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
642
126
The wi-fi provider is Century Link. When I am having the problem, it does not make any difference which browser I use. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, none of them will play Youtube videos.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
98,021
16,760
126
Have you tried playing through a computer connected to the router with hard wire?
 

mxnerd

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2007
6,799
1,103
126
Uninstall Adobe Falsh & Chrome, Firefox, Opera.

Run CCleaner, then reinstall browsers & Adobe Flash.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
10,200
126
I thought one of the advantages of DSL was supposed to be that other users on the line did not tie up bandwidth.
Erm... no.

I am paying 125.00 per month for internet and a landline, and cant even play videos. Seriously??? I am ready to throw the mouse through the screen and smash the computer to bits for good measure. Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.
What does your provider say when you say you can't YouTube properly?

Edit: Get yourself a VPN.
 
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
642
126
Erm... no.


What does your provider say when you say you can't YouTube properly?

Edit: Get yourself a VPN.

Havent contacted them yet. It has only occurred the last couple of nights. First time I thought it was just a random thing, but now it seems to happen every night. I really suspect the ISP is doing something funky, which of course they would not admit if I called them. For the last couple of nights, I could not even load videos during the prime evening hours, then at like 11pm, everything started working perfectly. Goes from black screen which never loads to no lag or anything.

Edit: how would using a VPN help?
 

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
12,684
2
81
Havent contacted them yet. It has only occurred the last couple of nights. First time I thought it was just a random thing, but now it seems to happen every night. I really suspect the ISP is doing something funky, which of course they would not admit if I called them. For the last couple of nights, I could not even load videos during the prime evening hours, then at like 11pm, everything started working perfectly. Goes from black screen which never loads to no lag or anything.

Edit: how would using a VPN help?

It's quite simple really, no 'funny business' needed. Your ISP has an agreement with some other ISP that carries traffic for YouTube. By simply turning a blind eye to the level of congestion on the links between your ISP and the ISP delivering YouTubes, your ISP can introduce degradation to their clients without doing anything illegal or violating net neutrality.

The simple solution is to use a proxy/VPN for your Internet traffic where the exit for the proxy/VPN is already beyond the edges of your ISP's network and therefore your YouTube traffic won't be able to take the routes through your ISP that are congested.

I experience the same problems you do across the board on all streaming services on both my TWC connection in Austin and my Comcast connection in the Bay Area. Simply switching on an SSHVPN connection for my browser to a VPS I maintain in a Dallas datacenter eliminates any sort of buffering/stuttering with online streaming. It's quite magical really.

If you call and complain to your cable company they will give you the run-around saying that your neighborhood is busy and that lots of people are streaming YouTube currently and they aren't responsible for the quality of the stream coming from YouTube. Using a VPN like above proves them wrong and shows that there is plenty of last-mile bandwidth available.
 
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
642
126
Hmmm. I understand what you are saying the problem is. But all the proxy/VPN stuff confuses me.

I know my chrome browser has some setting for proxy servers, but I dont really understand what that means, or how to set up a VPN like you describe.

My work laptop has a VPN, so I can connect to the work servers from home, but that is my only experience with VPN, and I am not going to use that for personal use.
 
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
642
126
As best I can tell I am already using HTML 5. I saw a box checked that said use HTML 5 when available. The problem seems to have gone away the last couple of nights.