The last two days my PC has begun to act strangely during specific tasks.
The two that stand out are 1) YouTube and other video streaming sites. The page containing the video will load as quickly as expected, but then the video will take maybe 10-20 seconds to begin. 2) speedtest.net, basically the same problem, 10-20 seconds before my ping begins to measure. Then it's fine, 19ms + 220Mbps, as advertised.
Neither of these things were happening a couple of days ago and I'm clueless as to what it could be.
Well beats my scenario, I have super slow speeds, I live in Britain and in the countryside, I'm lucky if I can get 800 KB/s. But on a more serious note, I personally don't know why that's happening, have you looked it up? - Although I can't imagine you'd find a tonne of useful feedback from doing a few quick searches.
Yeah I've tried a few searches, I'm just not sure what to search for - "YouTube page loads fine but video doesn't start for a while" - surprisingly, doesn't throw up anything :D.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking, hmmm.... Try something like: "delayed video on youtube" ? - I don't know.... I'm trying to help but I can't give you a solid answer, I am sorry.
Have you tried clearing cache? Cookies? All the maintenance kinda stuff? Tried different browsers?
Problem only exists in Chrome, yeah I've tried clearing everything - no difference. I noticed the chrome menu GUI has changed, maybe one of those annoying updates Google performs automatically is causing the issue.
Would a data cap cause this? - Only reason I have my doubt is due to the fact that he's able to load the video fine once it's started, and as he stated, it's on the one machine. But then again, he could have some networking management software installed on the router that does limit devices to make the load equal for all devices. No idea really, this is me taking a shot in the dark really.
@xeon have you tried uninstalling Chrome and reinstalling it? Or doing a virus scan or anything like that? - Maybe that would do it?
Yeah, it isn't a data cap, virgin manage data caps very well, loading a 1080p youtube video on 200Mbps wouldn't be affected by it in the slightest. Yeah I'll try uninstalling Chrome...brb.
I have done some non-scientific testing with my computers while using a vpn. I discovered that, especially with Youtube once each individual machine hits a given amount of data usage it will start to slow down and buffer all the time. This normally happens towards the end of the month. If you use that machine to run a speedtest.net test, it will show great results, as if nothing is wrong. However, if you turn your vpn on and try to watch the same video on youtube the buffering issues will go away.
My HTPC rig uses more data than any other rig in my house, without the vpn on it it will buffer videos towards the end of each month. My gaming rig will never have any issues with buffering. Turn the vpn on and all the buffering stops and both machines play the video fine.
I have tested this each month for almost a year now, and its always the same thing. Sometime, around the 20th of each month everything starts buffering, turn the vpn on and no more troubles. Once the first of the month rolls over, no buffering even without the vpn.
I had issues one time before. My ISP said that by law I should receive 85% of the speed that they told me I would get with my connection. Keep in mind that was about 10 years ago and I was on DSL, but I made them come out and redo my stuff twice before it was right.
My package at the time was like 10mg and I was getting like 4 or something. Anyway it was just below the next package down from what I was paying for. The stupid phone tech people tried to tell me that it was because I was so far away from a box yada yada. My argument was if I am pay for 12mg then thats what I expect. If you can only deliver 4mg then I should only be charged for the lesser package.
I've just accepted it's my location or something, I mean my ISP has sent out engineers to my house about 100 times, maybe not literally, but you get my point, they've held their end of the bargain to say the least.
Yeah I've always thought this re charging for actual speed rather than advertised.
My problem isn't with buffering per se, it's that the YouTube page will load no problem, but the video player is unresponsive for 10-20 seconds, then it plays perfectly. The symptoms suggest the initial stream connection is slow to be made.
Apologies, the post's title isn't a fair representation of the problem, I didn't know how else to summaries it.
EDIT
Or should I say "my problem wasn't with buffering per se."
Also no VPN, interesting it's so predictable for you, could it be a cap VPN side?
not true and it is an real issue for some here in the last couple days. I honestly think it is a service providers having issues but i would not rule out a tech change that has deployed recently.
