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USA ISP Speed Index

ispspeedindex.netflix.com

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Re: USA ISP Speed Index

#41

Post by vxxzy »

saadullahsaeed wrote: post #33
tinbad wrote: post #17

I have Comcast home internet in the bay area (Speedtest is around 30mbit down/8 mbit up) and every time I try to watch anything on Netflix it buffers for a minute and the resolution usually stays unacceptably low (320p?!) while usually having to buffer again every 2-5 minutes, sometimes for the whole run time of the show. Meanwhile, Comcast's own XFINITY streaming service delivers instantly (no buffering) at full HD…

I live in San Francisco and I have exactly the same issue, it started happening more recently. Speedtest is 35mbit down/10mbit up

I wonder if some form of traffic obfuscation would help in your endeavor? For instance, setup OpenVPN on a VPS or something, and tunnel to connect to Netflix. It would be a shame if you end up with better quality.

Re: USA ISP Speed Index

#43

Post by ploxiln »

cydonian_monk wrote: post #31
tinbad wrote: post #17

I have Comcast home internet in the bay area (Speedtest is around 30mbit down/8 mbit up) and every time I try to watch anything on Netflix it buffers for a minute and the resolution usually stays unacceptably low (320p?!) while usually having to buffer again every 2-5 minutes, sometimes for the whole run time of the show. Meanwhile, Comcast's own XFINITY streaming service delivers instantly (no buffering) at full HD…

I've had the exact same experience in Houston with Comcast + Netflix at slightly faster speeds. Eventually I dropped Netflix because it was unusable everywhere except my phone. Oddly I don't have the same issues with Amazon Prime, YouTube, or MLB/MiLB streaming. Given that Prime is also a direct competitor to Comcast streaming I'm not entirely convinced this experience with Netflix is the result of some deliberate pl…

You'd be wrong. About 2 years ago, Netflix switched to using Level3 as their primary ISP. The peering between Comcast and Level3 became saturated, and Comcast declined to increase bandwidth at the peering point without being paid, and also declined to install netflix's CDN boxes somewhere on their network without being paid. The question of "who pays who" is kinda complicated between ISPs, payments are rather high, and comcast managed to reverse it's position/relationships in that space, because they have a monopoly on the users in their territory. They also hate competition from netflix more than from the others you mention, it's a more complete replacement for their video offerings.

Re: USA ISP Speed Index

#44

Post by antsar »

vxxzy wrote: post #41
saadullahsaeed wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in San Francisco and I have exactly the same issue, it started happening more recently. Speedtest is 35mbit down/10mbit up

I wonder if some form of traffic obfuscation would help in your endeavor? For instance, setup OpenVPN on a VPS or something, and tunnel to connect to Netflix. It would be a shame if you end up with better quality.

I've had streaming issues with both Netflix and Youtube while using Verizon FiOS in the past. I then connected to my University's VPN and instantly enjoyed smooth-as-butter streaming on both sites.

There's a good chance you'll have the same experience with a VPS, depending on what networks the VPS's traffic routes through.

The problem is that traffic from you to Netflix travels through several networks, and at each link between networks it will face varying amounts of congestion depending on the size of that link. There is a link somewhere between $BAD_ISP and Netflix that, due to political/business reasons[0], hasn't been upgraded to accommodate more traffic.

By connecting through a VPN, you may be able to circumvent this as long as the route from you-->VPN-->netflix doesn't travel across the problematic peering point.

[0] Screwing you over; Promoting the ISP's own competing services (TV, for example); Attempting to extract payment from Netflix since its "their traffic"[1], despite the fact that you are already paying them for this connection.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=comcast+level3

Re: USA ISP Speed Index

#45

Post by virtue3 »

geraldcombs wrote: post #24
RKearney wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is because latency is not relevant when it comes to streaming videos from Netflix. A consumer will not be able to notice their video took 40 milliseconds longer to start streaming. They will, however, notice when the video stops to buffer every 10-15 minutes because their ISP can't keep up with the throughput.

Would latency affect the non-streaming parts of Netflix, e.g. browsing titles?

of course. but not greatly. Generally (depending on the client implementation). The actual download of the data (and the images) far eclipses latency issues.

30ms vs 160ms delay is irrelevant when it takes you 3 seconds to download all the image tiles :D

Re: USA ISP Speed Index

#46

Post by JPKab »

brownbat wrote: post #34
tinbad wrote: post #17

I have Comcast home internet in the bay area (Speedtest is around 30mbit down/8 mbit up) and every time I try to watch anything on Netflix it buffers for a minute and the resolution usually stays unacceptably low (320p?!) while usually having to buffer again every 2-5 minutes, sometimes for the whole run time of the show. Meanwhile, Comcast's own XFINITY streaming service delivers instantly (no buffering) at full HD…

I had similar issues with Verizon, others have reported similar issues with Time Warner and YouTube, but had some success by blocking one of the IPs in midroute: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/196170/how_to_st... It's hard to tell how often this is getting messed up by content delivery partners in the middle, versus intentional traffic shaping, but it sucks either way.

I have Verizon Fios. When I go to watch a Youtube video on my Android, I often notice the video won't load. I then turn WiFi off, and the video streams flawlessly over 4G. I don't know when Net Neutrality died, but it did.

Re: USA ISP Speed Index

#47

Post by harshpotatoes »

tinbad wrote: post #17

I have Comcast home internet in the bay area (Speedtest is around 30mbit down/8 mbit up) and every time I try to watch anything on Netflix it buffers for a minute and the resolution usually stays unacceptably low (320p?!) while usually having to buffer again every 2-5 minutes, sometimes for the whole run time of the show. Meanwhile, Comcast's own XFINITY streaming service delivers instantly (no buffering) at full HD…

I have a similar issue using Brighthouse in Florida. For the longest time I was able to stream HD quality from netflix through my roku, until recently. I always suspect that my ISP is somehow the cause, the only problem is I can't imagine how I would prove it, or what I could do even if I could prove it.

Re: USA ISP Speed Index

#48

Post by cowsandmilk »

rosser wrote: post #38
tinbad wrote: post #17

I have Comcast home internet in the bay area (Speedtest is around 30mbit down/8 mbit up) and every time I try to watch anything on Netflix it buffers for a minute and the resolution usually stays unacceptably low (320p?!) while usually having to buffer again every 2-5 minutes, sometimes for the whole run time of the show. Meanwhile, Comcast's own XFINITY streaming service delivers instantly (no buffering) at full HD…

Contrariwise, I have Sonic's "Fusion" bonded ADSL in SF. My modem and Speedtest.net report around 12/2 Mbits down/up, and both Netflix and Amazon Prime consistently stream flawless HD for me.

poking around, it seems Sonic is part of Open Connect. I would expect that to explain a lot.

Re: USA ISP Speed Index

#49

Post by jwatte »

tinbad wrote: post #17

I have Comcast home internet in the bay area (Speedtest is around 30mbit down/8 mbit up) and every time I try to watch anything on Netflix it buffers for a minute and the resolution usually stays unacceptably low (320p?!) while usually having to buffer again every 2-5 minutes, sometimes for the whole run time of the show. Meanwhile, Comcast's own XFINITY streaming service delivers instantly (no buffering) at full HD…

I'm in exactly the same boat. I'm >14000 wire feet from the xo, so dsl barely works, either. Net neutrality is needed as long as consumers don't have real, competitive choices.

Re: USA ISP Speed Index

#50

Post by acousticcoupler »

jwatte wrote: post #49
tinbad wrote: post #17

I have Comcast home internet in the bay area (Speedtest is around 30mbit down/8 mbit up) and every time I try to watch anything on Netflix it buffers for a minute and the resolution usually stays unacceptably low (320p?!) while usually having to buffer again every 2-5 minutes, sometimes for the whole run time of the show. Meanwhile, Comcast's own XFINITY streaming service delivers instantly (no buffering) at full HD…

I'm in exactly the same boat. I'm >14000 wire feet from the xo, so dsl barely works, either. Net neutrality is needed as long as consumers don't have real, competitive choices.

VPN?
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