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YouTube is unusable with the fastest connection. Is Cox responsible for this?
After having problems for weeks of not being able to stream YouTube videos, I decided to do some research. The link below shed the most light on the subject, and I would like to know if Cox is having peering agreement issues or any other type of business deal that would be making YouTube unusable for me.
If any Cox customers are having trouble streaming YouTube, I suggest taking a look at this article:
I pay $100 a month and my most recent speedtest.net results were great, 92 Mb/s down, 23 Mb/s up, but I CANNOT stream a 60 second YouTube clip at 240p resolution without it buffering 10+ times and taking 15+ minutes to play a 1 minute video clip.
While AT&T U-Verse may not offer the same speeds, if I can't watch YouTube it is a deal breaker for me. From this great article (linked above), it says AT&T is one of the best behaved ensuring problems like this don't happen.
"Schaeffer said this is true of all the big players to varying degrees, naming Comcast, Time Warner, CenturyLink, and AT&T. Out of those, he said that 'AT&T is the best behaved of the bunch.'"
I was a U-Verse customer for 4 years and never had problems streaming YouTube videos. This is absolutely unacceptable that it is not working, and I really hope that it isn't because Cox is trying to get payments for upgrading their equipment.
Considering the fact that I'm waiting on a proposal for fiber service at my work from Cox, I find this very disappointing and I would love some answers, especially after taking a look at the article on this. I would like to know if Cox participates in Google's Peering or Caching programs. https://peering.google.com/about/
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tvmaster
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66 Messages
I've been having this problem in Orange County, Ca. as well, BUT mainly with HD content only, AND primarily during prime time hours (approx 5pm - Midnight).
And VPN services supply perfect playback of HD Youtube material when tested this way. So that's interesting, isn't it?
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bryaninphx
Valued Contributor
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914 Messages
Only during evening prime-time do my traceroutes go through the XO network, this is when I cannot use YouTube at all.
9:00pm MST 12/15/2013
C:\Users\Bryan>tracert r2---sn-mv-ab5z.googlevideo.com
Tracing route to r2.sn-mv-ab5z.googlevideo.com [206.111.13.45]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 7 ms 7 ms 9 ms 10.39.120.1
3 9 ms 13 ms 15 ms 172.21.0.130
4 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms 70.169.73.196
5 15 ms 9 ms 9 ms 70.169.75.157
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 87 ms 86 ms 89 ms 216.156.65.41.ptr.us.xo.net [216.156.65.41]
8 115 ms 132 ms 120 ms 207.88.13.82.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.13.82]
9 119 ms 131 ms 120 ms vb15.rar3.dallas-tx.us.xo.net [207.88.12.45]
10 117 ms 118 ms 120 ms te-4-0-0.rar3.atlanta-ga.us.xo.net [207.88.12.1]
11 123 ms 117 ms 120 ms te-11-0-0.rar3.washington-dc.us.xo.net [207.88.12.10]
12 117 ms 122 ms 111 ms 207.88.14.186.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.14.186]
13 125 ms 122 ms 123 ms 206.111.13.68.ptr.us.xo.net [206.111.13.68]
14 125 ms 133 ms 122 ms p5-1.ir1.nyc-ny.us.xo.net [206.111.13.45]
Trace complete.
=============================================
C:\Users\Bryan>tracert r6---sn-mv-ab5s.googlevideo.com
Tracing route to r6.sn-mv-ab5s.googlevideo.com [206.111.13.17]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 7 ms 8 ms 7 ms 10.39.120.1
3 9 ms 12 ms 15 ms 172.21.0.130
4 17 ms 11 ms 11 ms 70.169.73.196
5 8 ms 10 ms 9 ms mcdldsrj01-ae2.0.rd.ph.cox.net [70.169.76.225]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 85 ms 87 ms 100 ms 216.156.65.41.ptr.us.xo.net [216.156.65.41]
8 129 ms 116 ms 119 ms 207.88.13.82.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.13.82]
9 125 ms 117 ms 119 ms vb15.rar3.dallas-tx.us.xo.net [207.88.12.45]
10 121 ms 121 ms 120 ms te-4-0-0.rar3.atlanta-ga.us.xo.net [207.88.12.1]
11 116 ms 118 ms 120 ms te-11-0-0.rar3.washington-dc.us.xo.net [207.88.12.10]
12 * 114 ms 114 ms 207.88.14.186.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.14.186]
13 * 133 ms 125 ms 206.111.13.68.ptr.us.xo.net [206.111.13.68]
14 124 ms 133 ms 123 ms p5-4.ir1.nyc-ny.us.xo.net [206.111.13.17]
Trace complete.
=============================================
C:\Users\Bryan>tracert r4---sn-mv-ab5l.googlevideo.com
Tracing route to r4.sn-mv-ab5l.googlevideo.com [206.111.13.175]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 5 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 10.39.120.1
3 9 ms 7 ms 9 ms 172.21.0.130
4 8 ms 11 ms 11 ms 70.169.73.196
5 17 ms 10 ms 8 ms mcdlcorc03-te-0-3-0-0.ph.ph.cox.net [70.169.72.205]
6 69 ms * * langbprj02-ae2.rd.la.cox.net [68.1.1.19]
7 * 93 ms 88 ms 216.156.65.9.ptr.us.xo.net [216.156.65.9]
8 123 ms 117 ms 121 ms 207.88.13.82.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.13.82]
9 126 ms 118 ms 118 ms vb15.rar3.dallas-tx.us.xo.net [207.88.12.45]
10 116 ms 114 ms 114 ms te-4-0-0.rar3.atlanta-ga.us.xo.net [207.88.12.1]
11 113 ms 120 ms 119 ms te-11-0-0.rar3.washington-dc.us.xo.net [207.88.12.10]
12 119 ms 110 ms 113 ms ae0d0.cir1.ashburn-va.us.xo.net [207.88.13.61]
13 113 ms 112 ms 114 ms 206.111.13.194.ptr.us.xo.net [206.111.13.194]
14 118 ms 113 ms * 206.111.13.175.ptr.us.xo.net [206.111.13.175]
15 115 ms 113 ms 113 ms 206.111.13.175.ptr.us.xo.net [206.111.13.175]
Trace complete.
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tvmaster
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66 Messages
that confirms what I've been observing for over a week now...it's very frustrating, isn't it? Why pay for faster service.....
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bryaninphx
Valued Contributor
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914 Messages
At Midnight (MST) tracert to the very same video content changes and no more issues, no XO.net
C:\Users\Bryan>tracert r2---sn-a5m7ln7k.googlevideo.com
Tracing route to r2.sn-a5m7ln7k.googlevideo.com [173.194.26.135]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 3 ms 1 ms 3 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 12 ms 13 ms 10 ms 10.39.120.1
3 214 ms 11 ms 12 ms 172.21.0.128
4 14 ms 12 ms 13 ms 70.169.73.90
5 11 ms 12 ms 12 ms chndsysc01-te-8-4.ph.ph.cox.net [70.169.72.201]
6 24 ms 25 ms 26 ms 68.1.5.139
7 24 ms 24 ms 26 ms 72.14.215.221
8 25 ms 24 ms 26 ms 209.85.248.185
9 25 ms 23 ms 23 ms 72.14.234.44
10 24 ms 25 ms 25 ms 209.85.248.225
11 25 ms 25 ms 24 ms 173.194.26.135
Trace complete.
============================================
C:\Users\Bryan>tracert r12---sn-a5m7lne7.googlevideo.com
Tracing route to r12.sn-a5m7lne7.googlevideo.com [173.194.26.241]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 10.39.120.1
3 12 ms 13 ms 12 ms 172.21.0.130
4 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms 70.169.73.196
5 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms 70.169.75.157
6 76 ms 24 ms 23 ms langbprj02-ae2.rd.la.cox.net [68.1.1.19]
7 23 ms 25 ms 25 ms 72.14.215.221
8 39 ms 25 ms 30 ms 209.85.248.185
9 25 ms 31 ms 26 ms 64.233.174.30
10 25 ms 26 ms 26 ms 209.85.248.59
11 24 ms 34 ms 25 ms 173.194.26.241
Trace complete.
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tvmaster
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66 Messages
what time zone are you in?
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bryaninphx
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914 Messages
Mountain Time (Arizona)
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tvmaster
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66 Messages
so that pretty much seals it then....my speed returns after 11pm, pst - whatever they're up to, they're only doing once. See what time it starts - the slowdown in Orange County, Ca begins around 5pm PST daily
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billvsd
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12 Messages
So I thought I'd provide yet another update. The problem has continued to happen even after they said XO's capacity issues were upgraded and that they said they did participate in Google's GGC program. I have now come to learn that Cox was participating in a trial with GGC which ended 'a few weeks' ago. I have a feeling these problems started as soon as their trial with Google's GGC ended.
"We participated in a limited trial of the program that ended a few weeks ago and the engineer may not have been aware that the trial period had ended. As previously mentioned, Google is not advertising the route to the streaming destination (9r6.sn-mv-ab5z.googlevideo.com [206.111.13.49) to Cox in LA, hence the path to the destination is via XO. Google has indicated that they are in the process of upgrading capacity in their LAX POP (their Los Angeles facilities). We are continually requesting status of their efforts and will relay same to you as frequently as possible."
The technical team can't give me any answers to my questions as to why the trial ended. From my understanding Google pays for the servers and the only logical reason would be Cox may have an interest in intentionally degrading those services so customers elect their streaming services and movies. I hope not, and I await an answer from Cox, but this without a doubt puts an end to me recommending Cox's network until they decide that it's important to make sure their customers have a good experience with Google related content. What's next, refusing Netflix's caching servers?
Like another person said, what is the point of paying for faster Internet, if Cox doesn't seem to think their customers experiences are important enough to work with Google. 25 Mb/s on AT&T U-verse seems slow, but they have no problems streaming YouTube content while Cox does. I've personally tested this at peak times while Cox was having issues.
It seems to me that if Cox was participating in Google's GGC program, that Google's LAX POP would be less overloaded and it'd help everyone out. As things currently stand, Cox is blaming Google while Google says this is the reason they developed the GGC program to begin with.
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Health_Edge
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4.2K Messages
Very good update, thank you.
I think its possible they tried GGC over here(RI) starting about 4 months ago and ending about 1 month ago. It actually CAUSED my problem. And then my problem went away when Cox stopped the GGC problem, but right around then people in AZ and CA started having a problem. That would explain why my Tracert changed about a month ago when the problem went away, from a on Cox network, to a off Cox network.That would also explain why the problem didn't effect everyone equally. Some were effected by GGC and some were effected when GGC turned off.
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billvsd
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For me, the technical issue can be pinpointed to Google's LAX data center not providing the correct route. Even though that is Google's fault, I do not blame them for this problem because that is why they have the GGC program in the first place, if I understand things correctly. These issues very well could be caused by the removal of the GGC server, so the traffic attempts to go there and when it can't, it finds whatever route it can usually through Texas, Washington DC, and New York over XO's network - but I have tracert of many different paths and networks.
Any Cox Communication customers, I highly recommend you start demanding Cox's participation with Google's Global Cache program. If they were participating, I would think that it'd only help Google's overloaded LAX data center.
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PNWSon
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9 Messages
I canceled Cox TV due to failure to provide a steady signal, and now I'm beginning to experience the same issues with Cox broadband internet. It seems that Cox simply is a failure no matter what they try to provide.
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PNWSon
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9 Messages
I'm paying over $69.30 a month for "Preferred Internet Service"; and I still can't watch a Youtube video without constant freezing and stalling. UFB.
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tvmaster
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66 Messages
but, if you're like us, you're getting one full-page color advert in your mailbox and several junk emails every week to your 'private' Cox, email address.
It's surprising what they CAN do when they put their minds ($$$$$$) to it....
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PNWSon
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Cox is definitely responsible for it. I pay for 12MB/Sec, yet tonight I get 6.31MB/sec, and that is the best of three tests.
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billvsd
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@PNWSon - I'm getting great speeds, as advertised. You not getting 12 Mb/s is not related to Google's capacity issues or Cox's decision to end the GGC trials. Even at 6 Mb/s you should be able to stream, even if not at full HD. That loss may be due to other factors, such as internal wiring issues in your house among others. My connection is solid, 92 Mb/s and can't stream, which clearly shows there is an issue with YouTube while on Cox's network.
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