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Jayc1976

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I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on the issue I'm facing currently. I have broadband with Vodafone and it's currently syncing at 38.2 mbps and a wired test shows 35mbps and Wi-Fi 32mbps. Whenever I try to stream twitch at 1080/900p source I get buffering every 10 or so seconds this is on WiFi and wired connections. This is over various platforms. Nvidia shield app,Samsung mobile app,xbox one app and desktop. Today I tried watching over 4g on my mobile(not vodafone) and it plays flawlessly. I then tried a VPN on my phone and also Nvidia shield(wired) and this worked great no buffering. As soon as I switch the VPN off it just buffers again. I've spoken to my ISP who say it's nothing to do with my connection and speeds aren't being throttled or managed in anyway. Unsure what is going on. They suggested changing my dns to 8.8.8.8 - 8.8.4.4 but that made no difference at all. Having looked on other isp forums this problem exists in one way or another. Does anyone know what could be going on. Thanks
 
Sounds like something going on upstream of you (and your ISP.) By definition, this is beyond your control and there's nothing you can do about it. If the traffic is being routed through a path that is congested somewhere, then it may be getting delayed (just like the road network) or dropped which can cause your client to request re-transmissions and is one of the causes of "buffering."

By switching to a VPN you could effectively cause the traffic to be routed to you by an alternate path potentially avoiding the (upstream) blockage. The fact that it get's to you from your ISP via VPN OK suggests the problem is not with them in terms of traffic, though one cannot assert that with complete authority.

DNS makes no difference to traffic flows - it's just a name-to-IP lookup mechanism and cannot in and of itself "fix" congestion problem. I'm afraid DNS isn't the silver bullet.

It would seem using your VPN service is the solution.
 
Thanks for the explanation. Am I right in saying that by using a vpn traffic goes to the exchange then routed differently than from using no vpn, so with that being said it's not directly the isp issue as after the exchange it then becomes outside the isp? It's strange as I have no issues with gaming or YouTube viewing in different definitions be it 720p or 1440p.
 
Basically yes, sort of. VPN's are often conceptualised as a "tunnel" with a tunnel mouth at each end. With the sort of VPN service I suspect you are using, one end of the tunnel is on your LAN (say in your router) and the other end of the tunnel is wherever your VPN service provider presents itself onto the public Internet.

Thusly, when transiting the VPN tunnel, the point at which traffic to/from you changes from where it otherwise would be if you just used your ISP's point of ingress/egress from the Internet to wherever your VPN service provider is hooked in. (Hence a lot of people use VPN services to evade geolocking.)

Imagine you drove your car off the end off the drive, but instead of turning left onto Acacia Avenue London, instead you drove into the "magic" (VPN) tunnel mouth, proceeded along the tunnel, then emerged from the other end somewhere else, say Birmingham. Thence wherever else you want to travel, your journey effectively starts in Birmingham instead of London. As a consequence, If your intended destination was (say) Exeter, then by first proceeding through theVPN tunnel and effectively "starting" you journey over the public highway in Birmingham instead of London means you avoid the M25 and the inevitable queues thereon. Though, of course, you might then encounter other "congestion" elsewhere.

Of course, the "rub" with VPN's is that the VPN tunnel, at least in part, passes through your ISP - the one is conveyed "within" the other, so sometimes VPN will help, sometimes they won't. At it can change over time as routing on the public Internet changes - it's not fixed for all time.

This is all highly speculative though, there's no hard evidence to know what's going on for sure.
 

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