How To Make YouTube Streaming Faster On Windows

[tezza]

I do not know about you, but in recent times, YouTube has been acting agonizingly slow across all my computers. I have a 1mbps connection, which should technically provide smooth streaming of 480p video, but it regularly has trouble even with 240p video. Thankfully, we have come across a very simple hack that will significantly improve your YouTube video-viewing experience.

The hack comes from Mitchell Ribar’s personal blog. It involves running a one-line command in Command Prompt. So let’s get right to it.

Launch Comamnd Prompt as Administrator on your Windows PC. To do so, hit the Windows button, type ‘cmd’, right-click Command Prompt’s icon and click ’Run as administrator’. Make sure to click on ‘Yes’ on the User Account Control (UAC) window if it pops up.

Now copy the following command exactly as it appears:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="YouTubePerformanceHack" dir=in action=block remoteip=173.194.55.0/24,206.111.0.0/16 enable=yes

Now, go ahead and load a YouTube video in your browser (remember that this will cause the stream to take 1-2 seconds to start because of the IP block handling). You should see significantly improved buffering performance. I was successfully able to stream videos in 480p resolution without any hiccups after implementing this hack. As a matter of fact, 720p videos that were completely out of reach for me also work now, albeit with a little buffering.

So, how and why does this command work? Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throttle downloads from servers that host cached videos, such those by YouTube. Running this command forces YouTube’s servers to push the video to you directly instead of the cached version, bypassing your ISP’s throttling.

Since this command blocks a massive range of IP addresses belonging to Google and XO’s content delivery network, it may cause issues with connecting to some random website in the future that uses these IP addresses. With that in mind, you can easily remove Ribar’s hack by running the following command in command prompt again:

netsh advfirewall firewall delete rule name="YouTubePerformanceHack"

Original http://mitchribar.com/2013/02/how-to-stop-youtube-sucking-windows-guide/

Article http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-make-youtube-streaming-significantly-faster-on-windows/#more-147646

[ASIO]

use speedbit video accelerator

[nanana1]

Really ? :wtf:

[stylemessiah]

I tried testing this (despite thinking blocking entire ip ranges is a REALLY bad idea)

First i tried with the original command line

Then tested 5 different, and previously unwatched videos (i run a squidnt proxy)

Result: No difference

Next, thinking maybe theres a different IP range at work because im in Oz, i ran nirsofts currports and set refresh to 6 seconds, then started a youtube clip, switched to currports and copied the source ip of the youtube stream ip to clipboard

Then i added this IP to the original rule created by the original command line (dont rerun the original command line and just add a new IP, or you will end up with two rules)

Then tested 5 different, and previously unwatched videos

Result: No difference

Next i installed Speedbit Video Accelerator

Then tested 5 different, and previously unwatched videos

Result: Definite difference, in fact i was rather impressed as usually i think of any program that claims to speed up anything is taking the mickey.

In view of this, i have uploaded the latest version and patch here:

http://mir.cr/0RRQVJD9

Final summary: As i had to seek out the IP range for my area, and even then it didnt work, i think this shows the flaw in the IP range approach, there isnt a universal fix, and over time, at any time, the ranges could change. I can think of many things id rather do than keep checking ip address ranges for what i think is a placebo (user imagined) effect

[mazigh]

Speedbit video accelerator works fine, tested

[Dopeyness]

ISPs don't throttle streaming. Lol. Why would they?? They only throttle downloads...