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Why is that Netflix is SO much faster for me than YouTube. I am on a shitty ~5Mbps DSL connection so on YouTube I have to watch 240p (360p on a good day) video

by habosa 14y ago

Why is that Netflix is SO much faster for me than YouTube. I am on a shitty ~5Mbps DSL connection so on YouTube I have to watch 240p (360p on a good day) video to get it to load in anywhere close to real time. On Netflix, my video goes to what looks like 480p-720p quality within the first minute of my watching and the initial 240p-360p quality video loads nearly instantly. Is it just that Netflix has a smaller library and has more caching available for popular content, or are they doing something totally different with video delivery?

jemfinch 14y ago
The Internet is a really complicated place. There could be any number of reasons Netflix is faster for you than YouTube: your ISP might have better peering with Netflix than Google, or it might have a wider transit pipe to Netflix's preferred transit provider(s) than Google's. Netflix content could indeed be cached closer to your location than YouTube content. With more details I could find out exactly what's happening when you visit YouTube, but I wouldn't be able to share the explanation, and it would probably just be an exercise in frustration for you. What I can say is that this is definitely something you should let your ISP know about. Tell your ISP that you're unsatisfied with YouTube performance: while some will just brush off the complaint, conscientious ISPs are constantly bringing issues like these to our attention and we have entire teams devoted to making sure all users have a good YouTube experience.
- ithkuil 14y ago
  You are right. Of course a "wider transit pipe to Netflix than to Google" also means "more available bandwidth towards Netflix than towards Google". There is probably more users using google than netflix at the moment, and thus is more probably that that bandwidth gets saturated.
illuminate 14y ago
"Why is that Netflix is SO much faster for me than YouTube" https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect/guidelines https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect/guidelines ?
SoftwareMaven 14y ago
Your DNS may play havoc if you aren't using your ISP's DNS. Instead of getting a short-route optimized for your ISP, you could be getting bounced who-knows-where. I use OpenDNS, but set my home theater up to bypass my local DNS and go straight to my ISP's DNS and saw a significant improvement. I understand why companies use DNS to facilitate routing, but I wish they didn't.
- habosa 14y ago
  I've never messed with any DNS settings at all. Does this mean I'm using my ISPs DNS? And what are the benefits of something like OpenDNS?
  - SoftwareMaven 14y ago
    You are almost certainly using your ISP's DNS. I use OpenDNS for the filtering. I've got four kids and dozens of devices scattered through the house. OpenDNS keeps most of the crud that I'd rather they not see out of my network and it requires zero administration when a friend comes over or a new device shows up. The other benefit of using a provider like OpenDNS is a (supposed) reduction in the time it takes to do a DNS lookup. Given how many DNS lookups I do in a day, this could add up to real time (but I've never actually tested whether it is faster or not).
eurleif 14y ago
What I want to know is, why the hell is Netflix faster than Xfinity's video service through my Comcast connection? I get minutes of buffering every time I use Xfinity. It's ridiculous.

by habosa 14y ago

jemfinch 14y ago

The Internet is a really complicated place. There could be any number of reasons Netflix is faster for you than YouTube: your ISP might have better peering with Netflix than Google, or it might have a wider transit pipe to Netflix's preferred transit provider(s) than Google's. Netflix content could indeed be cached closer to your location than YouTube content. With more details I could find out exactly what's happening when you visit YouTube, but I wouldn't be able to share the explanation, and it would probably just be an exercise in frustration for you. What I can say is that this is definitely something you should let your ISP know about. Tell your ISP that you're unsatisfied with YouTube performance: while some will just brush off the complaint, conscientious ISPs are constantly bringing issues like these to our attention and we have entire teams devoted to making sure all users have a good YouTube experience.

ithkuil 14y ago
You are right. Of course a "wider transit pipe to Netflix than to Google" also means "more available bandwidth towards Netflix than towards Google". There is probably more users using google than netflix at the moment, and thus is more probably that that bandwidth gets saturated.

illuminate 14y ago

"Why is that Netflix is SO much faster for me than YouTube" https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect/guidelines https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect/guidelines ?

SoftwareMaven 14y ago

Your DNS may play havoc if you aren't using your ISP's DNS. Instead of getting a short-route optimized for your ISP, you could be getting bounced who-knows-where. I use OpenDNS, but set my home theater up to bypass my local DNS and go straight to my ISP's DNS and saw a significant improvement. I understand why companies use DNS to facilitate routing, but I wish they didn't.

habosa 14y ago
I've never messed with any DNS settings at all. Does this mean I'm using my ISPs DNS? And what are the benefits of something like OpenDNS?
- SoftwareMaven 14y ago
  You are almost certainly using your ISP's DNS. I use OpenDNS for the filtering. I've got four kids and dozens of devices scattered through the house. OpenDNS keeps most of the crud that I'd rather they not see out of my network and it requires zero administration when a friend comes over or a new device shows up. The other benefit of using a provider like OpenDNS is a (supposed) reduction in the time it takes to do a DNS lookup. Given how many DNS lookups I do in a day, this could add up to real time (but I've never actually tested whether it is faster or not).

eurleif 14y ago

What I want to know is, why the hell is Netflix faster than Xfinity's video service through my Comcast connection? I get minutes of buffering every time I use Xfinity. It's ridiculous.