# Why do some sites stream faster than others?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 29, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506 "2013-08-29T16:22:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506/1 "2013-08-29T16:22:12Z")

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I can watch a complete movie on YouTube without interruptions. Yet a 20 second video from Yahoo will start and stop and start and stop. The internet connection is the same, the computer is the same. All I can figure is the different sites are sending a different speeds, or using a different code. What gives?

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**Author:** ![babygoat666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@babygoat666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/babygoat666)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506/2 "2013-08-29T16:46:00Z")

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Google probably has much faster servers than Yahoo.

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**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506/3 "2013-08-29T18:03:04Z")

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Thank you **babygoat666**. And these faster servers cost big bucks, and Yahoo chooses not to invest in them?

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**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506/4 "2013-08-29T18:09:29Z")

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You’ll also find YouTube speeds sometimes vary greatly depending on which particular server the video is on.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506/5 "2013-08-29T18:13:18Z")

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> [@harmonicamoon](#):
>
> I can watch a complete movie on YouTube without interruptions. Yet a 20 second video from Yahoo will start and stop and start and stop. The internet connection is the same, the computer is the same.

No, it’s not. Do a tracert to each of those two sites and you will see how differently they are routed. Only on your end is it the same, and for just a few hops.

> [@](#):
>
> All I can figure is the different sites are sending a different speeds, or using a different code. What gives?

All of the above are culprits. There are many variables that affect speed and you have listed some of them. It also may be traffic or congestion anywhere along the route. There are sophisticated traffic analyzers available, but they are expensive and take considerable training to know how to use them and interpret the data.

If you are watching a very popular movie, it may be cached locally or in a high-speed server in order to handle several people at once. Less popular flicks won’t have that advantage. It’s possible your YouTube videos are popular and the Yahoo ones, not so much.

Doesn’t hurt to complain to Yahoo, though.

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**Author:** ![sweet\_chemist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@sweet\_chemist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweet_chemist)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506/6 "2013-08-29T18:20:17Z")

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This [Ars Technica](http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/why-youtube-buffers-the-secret-deals-that-make-and-break-online-video/) article shows another potential cause. The short version is that your ISP makes business deals with content providers such as Google. If the relationship breaks down your ISP can degrade the connection meaning that your video streaming takes a massive hit.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506/7 "2013-08-29T18:30:47Z")

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Here are the results from a tracert to three locations from my computer. Note that only the first 11 hops are the same (in this case, at this time). Also note that the YouTube route is 4 hops shorter and more than twice as fast from end-to-end than the Straightdope or Yahoo route.

Of course, this will change over time, and even sequential packets may not take the same route. That’s the way the Internet works.

```auto

Tracing route to youtube.com [74.125.225.137]
  1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.treg [192.168.1.1] 
  2 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms 10.137.248.1 
  3 7 ms 7 ms 8 ms dtr01jcptwi-gbe-9-28.jcpt.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.66] 
  4 9 ms 53 ms 12 ms csw01twrvwi-tge-3-4.twrv.wi.charter.com [96.34.22.184] 
  5 12 ms 10 ms 9 ms dtr01nwhlwi-tge-4-3.nwhl.wi.charter.com [96.34.20.240] 
  6 14 ms 16 ms 15 ms crr03fdulwi-tge-0-0-0-0.fdul.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.80] 
  7 24 ms 23 ms 23 ms crr02euclwi-tge-0-4-0-3.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.17.240] 
  8 19 ms 23 ms 23 ms bbr02euclwi-tge-0-1-0-3.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.1.246] 
  9 30 ms 31 ms 32 ms bbr01chcgil-bue-1.chcg.il.charter.com [96.34.0.9] 
 10 27 ms 26 ms 30 ms prr01chcgil-bue-2.chcg.il.charter.com [96.34.3.9] 
 11 27 ms 26 ms 27 ms 96-34-152-30.static.unas.mo.charter.com [96.34.152.30] 
 12 26 ms 26 ms 27 ms 209.85.254.128 
 13 26 ms 47 ms 31 ms 209.85.240.152 
 14 35 ms 28 ms 26 ms ord08s09-in-f9.1e100.net [74.125.225.137] 

Trace complete.
Tracing route to yahoo.com [206.190.36.45]
  1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.treg [192.168.1.1] 
  2 9 ms 7 ms 12 ms 10.137.248.1 
  3 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms dtr01jcptwi-gbe-9-25.jcpt.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.212] 
  4 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms csw01twrvwi-tge-3-4.twrv.wi.charter.com [96.34.22.184] 
  5 11 ms 11 ms 12 ms dtr01nwhlwi-tge-4-3.nwhl.wi.charter.com [96.34.20.240] 
  6 14 ms 15 ms 12 ms crr03fdulwi-tge-0-0-0-0.fdul.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.80] 
  7 27 ms 24 ms 23 ms crr02euclwi-tge-0-4-0-2.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.17.232] 
  8 23 ms 23 ms 24 ms bbr02euclwi-tge-0-2-0-2.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.1.140] 
  9 30 ms 31 ms 32 ms bbr01chcgil-bue-1.chcg.il.charter.com [96.34.0.9] 
 10 31 ms 30 ms 28 ms prr01chcgil-bue-2.chcg.il.charter.com [96.34.3.9] 
 11 27 ms 27 ms 37 ms ge-0-3-5.pat2.pao.yahoo.com [216.115.100.77] 
 12 90 ms 89 ms 74 ms ae-5.pat1.dnx.yahoo.com [216.115.96.34] 
 13 161 ms 83 ms 84 ms ae-8.pat2.gqb.yahoo.com [216.115.96.204] 
 14 83 ms 83 ms 80 ms ae-0.msr2.gq1.yahoo.com [66.196.67.23] 
 15 84 ms 83 ms 83 ms xe-4-0-0.clr2-a-gdc.gq1.yahoo.com [68.180.253.133] 
 16 85 ms 88 ms 85 ms et-18-25.fab7-1-gdc.gq1.yahoo.com [98.137.31.190] 
 17 90 ms 81 ms 85 ms po-15.bas2-7-prd.gq1.yahoo.com [206.190.32.41] 
 18 87 ms 86 ms 87 ms ir1.fp.vip.gq1.yahoo.com [206.190.36.45] 

Trace complete.
Tracing route to straightdope.com [209.104.5.198]

  1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.treg [192.168.1.1] 
  2 8 ms 7 ms 7 ms 10.137.248.1 
  3 8 ms 8 ms 7 ms dtr01jcptwi-gbe-9-25.jcpt.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.212] 
  4 9 ms 10 ms 10 ms csw01twrvwi-tge-3-4.twrv.wi.charter.com [96.34.22.184] 
  5 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms dtr01nwhlwi-tge-4-3.nwhl.wi.charter.com [96.34.20.240] 
  6 12 ms 15 ms 11 ms crr03fdulwi-tge-0-0-0-0.fdul.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.80] 
  7 20 ms 19 ms 23 ms crr02euclwi-tge-0-2-0-4.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.22.240] 
  8 26 ms 23 ms 23 ms bbr02euclwi-tge-0-2-0-6.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.1.250] 
  9 29 ms 31 ms 31 ms bbr01chcgil-bue-1.chcg.il.charter.com [96.34.0.9] 
 10 27 ms 28 ms 27 ms prr01chcgil-bue-2.chcg.il.charter.com [96.34.3.9] 
 11 26 ms 26 ms 37 ms 96-34-152-22.static.unas.mo.charter.com [96.34.152.22] 
 12 85 ms 86 ms 85 ms 68.1.5.211 
 13 84 ms 83 ms 83 ms 70.169.76.230 
 14 97 ms 84 ms 85 ms tucssysc01-te-9-2.ph.ph.cox.net [70.169.72.159] 
 15 85 ms 93 ms 85 ms tucssysc01-te-9-2.ph.ph.cox.net [70.169.72.159] 
 16 89 ms 88 ms 87 ms wsip-184-183-155-170.ph.ph.cox.net [184.183.155.170] 
 17 86 ms 86 ms 85 ms tus6.login.com [209.104.10.6] 
 18 86 ms 87 ms 85 ms straightdope.com [209.104.5.198] 

Trace complete.

```

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**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506/8 "2013-08-29T18:52:22Z")

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Be grateful this voodoo works at all.

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**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-sites-stream-faster-than-others/667506/9 "2013-08-29T19:43:55Z")

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Thank you **musicat and sweetchemist**! There is more than meets the eye. I never knew this world existed behind the scenes. Thanks again for your replies.