Can't Stream?

[puretoon]

I've been having difficulty in streaming music vids from YouTube especially tonight-29/5/09. It's driving me nuts as I want to watch my fav group, but seem only to get a second or so before stopping.

I live in Newcastle upon Tyne- has anyone else had/having this same problem at all? I see there's upgrading in a few exchanges down south, would this have any barings on thing up here?

All O2 do is blame my own equipment, but I've had a telephone engineer who checked everything and says there's absolutely nothing wrong at my end of things so its got to be O2. It seemed like a good idea migrating from Sky, but have been having doubts for some time now-slow speeds etc. I didn't have any problems at all with Sky, but have had issues most of the time with O2.

[Saturday]

Originally Posted by puretoon

I've had a telephone engineer who chekced everything and says there's absolutely nothing wrong at my end of things so its got to be O2.

Maybe, maybe not. Did your telephone engineer test your home wiring? Your PC (in other posts you talk about finding viruses)? Your router? Did he/she try different connection points/methods?

Unless you're talking about a mate, then the answer is going to be no because, unless you pay BT a lot of money then all that gets checked is the BT line and that's just the voice side of things. Then there's Youtube of course - maybe they're having problems. In other words, what I'm trying to suggest is that O2 is only one factor and until you've eliminated the many other possible causes, no, it's not "got to be O2" as you suggest.

First off reboot your router. Then, if you're still getting the same problems, please post your router stats, how your router is connected to the phone socket (e.g. master etc), whether the affected PC is on a network and whether you're seeing these problems wireless or wired. Also, please confirm you're on O2 Standard and not O2 Access,

[puretoon]

Hi Saturday-thanks for the reply.
I had an authorised telephone engineer to check. I phone BT to find out how much they charge for doing the same thing and they're far too dear. The engineers used authorised equipment and checked everything.
My stats are as follows (as much as I know how to get them anyway):
Uptime: 0 days, 3:06:50

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 975 / 8,188

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00

O2_ADSL

Link Status: Disconnected

Type: PPPoA

Last Error Message: None

O2_ADSL2plus

Type: ETHoA

Uptime: 0 days, 3:06:47

IP Address:

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 3.18 / 69.51

I've only one pc wired with router upstairs and checked connection is fine. I'm running XP Home Ed, Avast AV, Zone Alarm & Ad-Aware.

It seems to have settled now, but I can honestly say never had any bother at all with Sky, but have had quite a few issues with O2. Don't ask as I'm not into tech side.

I know sites like YouTube have down times due to mass usage, but when you're trying to watch a video and keeps stopping its infuriating. This went on tonight for hours.

O2 have blamed everything but themselves, so I decided to get my home side checked and its fine-as previously mentioned. I never had any bother with Sky and sometimes feel like returning to them.
Thanks

[Saturday]

I need to see your attenuation before I can comment on your relative router sync but in absolute terms a downstream of 8meg and upstream of a little under 1meg doesn't suggest major problems (the upstream figure is a little low though).

I'd also need to see your noise margin to be sure that hadn't dropped too low.

To get more meaningful stats please see the tutorial section on this site.

From your uptime it doesn't look like you rebooted as I suggested.

Then there's your wiring. I know you say you've had it checked but frankly, the average telephone engineer knows just that, telephony, not broadband. You say your router is upstairs - that doesn't sound like it is plugged into the master, more likely an extension.

I know you think O2 must be at fault but in all honesty, that's the least likely scenario, not impossible but from what you've described, least likely. Having looked on all the other O2 related sites no-one is reporting streaming problems so it's not likely to be an O2 network issue.

[puretoon]

I have tried to obtain the info you're asking for by using the tutorials but the relevant info isn't showing on my system-I wished it did! I can quite agree with those who say Netgear's router page is by far the better-I found that.

I did reboot my router but forgot to add that. Yes, I'm on an extention which (again) was checked. I can quite appreciate where you're coming from regarding having my line etc checked by BT, but why should I pay over £100 to them when I haven't got that kind of funding??????? (you don't by any chance work for BT do you?)

As you seem very pro O2 Saturday, and although I appreciate your help (?) so far, I'm not going to continue with this thread as it's getting too technical for me-I wished I could find the info, believe me.

If I for one minute thought it was going to continue like this I'd never have started it.

[Retro Gamer]

i have 15mb down, 1.5mb on torrents no problem 24/7 but i have the same youtube issue, its been going on for 4 weeks and the best answer 02 gave me, was you area is congested.( lots of new build) so expect it to slowly get worse.lol good times.

[Saturday]

Originally Posted by puretoon

If I for one minute thought it was going to continue like this I'd never have started it.

That's a curious comment. All I've tried to do is offer you clues to what may be causing the problem you describe, backed up by more than two years supporting thousands of broadband customers on this forum and Skyuser. As you posted a problem, I assumed you wanted help. My mistake - sorry.

No I don't work for BT and I wasn't suggesting you should pay BT to look at your wiring - that's easy enough to do yourself if you are able to follow some simple guides.

That said, as I suggested before, I doubt your connection/wiring is the problem unless your noise margin was pushed too low at the time you were having problems. It's more likely to be a transient issue with the YouTube servers or something on/with your PC.

Yes I'm pro O2 (and don't work for them either) but that doesn't mean I'm biased against any other ISP.

If you are sure that the problem is with O2 then you should move - simple.

[Saturday]

Originally Posted by Retro Gamer

the best answer 02 gave me, was you area is congested.

Pretty odd contention/congestion that only affects YouTube. I think maybe the agent you spoke to was clutching at straws

As far as I'm aware YouTube uses HTTP/TCP to stream so if there was congestion you'd see it on practically everything you used your connection for.

I guess it's possible there's an odd routing issue but if there is then I'd have though the O2 forums would be flooded with complaints.

Do you have the latest Flash player on your system?

[puretoon]

Yes, I've decided to ask again I think what threw me was all the tech info you asked for, whereas all I was asking was if anyone else was experiencing streaming problems with YouTube and it seems I'm not alone.

Funnily enough, when streaming football today I've had the same problem again. It's so frustrating when you're trying to watch something but your connection won't let you. Browsing isn't a problem.

By the way, I was told by O2 that they can see drops in my signal which could be causing the problem, that's when I decided to eliminate my side of things by getting the telephone guy out. I never suffered from dropped signal when with Sky, which is why I keep referring to them, but don't think I can move back for quite some time yet.

I did manage to find my stats you asked for after much searching (O2's box site doesn't 'put them in your face' lol) so I'd appreciate your views? thanks.

DSL Connection

Link Information


Uptime: 6 days, 0:47:55

DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 433 / 1,413

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 18.5

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 18.0 / 31.5

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 14.5 / 29.5

Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM

Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 22 / 0

Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 2 / 0

Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

Loss of Link (Remote): 0

Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 15 / 0

FEC Errors (Up/Down): 22 / 503,072

CRC Errors (Up/Down): 22 / 7

HEC Errors (Up/Down): 24,089 / 6

Thank you.

[Saturday]

Originally Posted by puretoon

By the way, I was told by O2 that they can see drops in my signal which could be causing the problem, that's when I decided to eliminate my side of things by getting the telephone guy out.

Your connection is extremely heavily capped with a downstream noise margin of 29.5db against a default target of 6db - as a consequence your sync speed is a fraction of what it should be.

This means that either O2 have done something stupid or they've found that your line condition (which includes your home wiring) is so poor that the only way to get a stable connection is to severely limit your speed.

As a consequence your sync speed is barely fast enough to stream anything without danger of buffering.