I’m paying for 100 Mbps Internet speed.
I can’t watch Youtube without it freezing every 10 seconds or so. Obviously other sires are limited accordingly, but Youtube is a good measuring stick for comparisons.
Am I right to be concerned that my service is not what I’m paying for? I know there are speed-testing sites, but I don’t know how to rationalize 100 Mbps to what they report.
What do you think? How do I really determine what I’m getting, versus what I’m paying for?
Often the browser itself can cause freezing. For me, after Chrome has been running for a while, I will get regular pausing in videos. Restarting Chrome fixes the problem. Also, even while Chrome is still running, I can launch IE and not see problems.
YouTube often has weird problems with their video caching. I’ve often found that unpopular videos will have very serious bandwidth problems, to the point where even 240p video takes 10x as long to buffer as it does to play. This is on a 600 Mb/s connection at work.
The problem isn’t on your end, it is YouTube that is the bottleneck, for any of various reasons, be it demand or slow servers (I doubt the latter, unless it is due to the first, or maintenance, etc). To put it another way, 100 Mbps connection on your end won’t help if the server has a 56 k modem (not that you’ll find any these days, I would hope).
Depending on the operating system you are using, prolly windows 7, go to resource monitor (just type it at the start menu) and youll get a list of processes that are currently uploading and downloading information. Keep an eye on flash or some other browser executable you use.
Long story short: at 100 megabits per second Youtube should load lightning fast.
Windows XP, actually.
YouTube and most any video site should be sending single digit mbps, tops. Your ISP would have to be screwing you pretty hard if it was their fault you were buffering. 100 mbps is fast enough that, assuming your provider is actually providing it and your hardware and software isn’t flaky, any speed issues with a popular service are the service’s fault.
What were the results of the speed tests you ran?
At http://www.testmyspeed.com/ my download speed is 1.02 Mbps.
At http://www.speedtest.net/ it’s 0.65 Mbps.
How does this compare to the rest of you?
Frankly I think I’m paying for a service that is lacking in performance.
Those are low for what you should be getting. I get 4.64 on the first and 7.46 on the second. Both of are about what I’d expect for my standard cable connection.
Thanks Mithras. What speed are you paying for?
How about the rest of you? Could you please check your speeds and let me know how that compares to your plan?
Thanks!
Weird.
On testmyspeed.com, I get 4.4 Mb/s download.
On speedtest.net, I get 25.1 Mbps.
Why is there such a huge discrepancy?
I have Comcast cable, and I think my plan is supposed to be 20 Mbps.
I pay for 10Mbps and usually get 9.5 or so during “prime time.” Right now, I’m getting 25Mbps, and YouTube tells me I averaged 21Mbps over my last 30 days of viewing with them. My ISP is RCN and I’ve been pretty happy with them. I stream a lot of HD content and there’s no cap as far as I can tell.
While viewing a YouTube video, right click on the vid itself and select “take speed test.” It will give you your average over the last 30 days with a graph, plus how your speed compares to the averages of other providers in your area. Should be useful for finding out what you want to know.
Speedtest.net is so well known that I sometimes wonder if ISPs somehow prioritise its test traffic in order to look good. I have even had the experience, which no doubt is due to my paranoia, where I have found my broadband running slow, gone to speedtest.net to check the speed and lo and behold, broadband suddenly starts working better.
One thing I’ve noticed about YouTube is very poor error correction. If the stream gets messed up, the download will completely stop.
I’ve always assumed the problem is because of my poor line quality. My ISP almost didn’t upgrade me to 6Mbps due to the problem, but I convinced him to let me try it. It works most of the time, but there are occasional problems.
I also accidentally stumbled upon a Google forum page about people who were having problems. A solution proposed there was to change your DNS server to one of Google’s. This seemed to work for some people. Try it.
Those are way lower than you should be getting, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it is your services fault. What is your set up like, i.e. how old is this computer, are you using a router/which model, wired or wireless connection?
One thing to try would be to connect the computer directly to the model if you are using a router.
Note that that Google forum page was about people having the same problems with YouTube as the OP. Buffering took a really long time.
A DNS you can try is 8.8.8.8.
The computer is wired to the router. The computer is old: about 7 years.
I have a new work laptop that I’m on right now. I’m connected wireless(ly). My speeds are about the same as above. That pretty much confirms it’s the ISP, no?
I did the Youtube speed test. I’m at about 1 Mbps and Ottawa averages 8. I’m not in the city though; I’m rural with a line-of-sight antenna thingy.
And I just looked at my plan and the speed I’m paying for is 1 Mbps. So, in other words, never mind… Looks like it’s all I can expect for about $42 a month.
I was just coming to this forum for the same exact reason!
I have a fairly new computer (bought 4th quarter '11) and 17mbps. My computer swims through the net effortlessly. Everything works perfectly around the net (downloads,etc.) except Youtube! Videos are choppy and buffer when they shouldn’t…its turning to a real mess over there.
It seams as though since Google took it over it is in steady decline.
And that testmyspeed site is crap. I get a 6ish on that and 16.5 on speedtest. Neither site looks reliable but Ive used speedtest for a long time. Its more accurate. Testmyspeed looks like garbage…like one of those lyrics sites 
I get 1.23 and 1.31 and I use a medium speed DSL. Don’t remember what service I chose but it wasn’t the fasted available. Normally don’t have much trouble with you tube. I use firefox 12.0 on a Windows 7 platform.
After reading this and other comments, it sounds like the 100 Mbps you quoted was for the local network connection speed; I see the same number under local connection status in Control Panel, while Speedtest gives my real speed as 4.63 Mbps, which is consistent with my actual connection. 100 Mbps would be the maximum speed if you had two or more computers connected together at home or in the office. In any case, sites can be slower due to factors not related to your download speed.