Youtube / Netflix etc Throttling by Country - way around it ???

[Dylan Beckett]

Hello

If you didn't already know - Many countries around the world have 'asked/told' the biggest/most popular streaming sites/companies like Youtube, Netflix etc to aggressively Throttle the hell out of their services - for their entire countries citizens ever since the COVID pandemic started and it hasn't stopped since!

I'm so sick of this because I have 100mbit internet and have recently finally upgraded our Family TV's from dumb 1080p TV's to new Sony Bravia 4K Android Smart TV's!
However, this Uber Aggressive throttling makes this long awaited upgrade completely moot/pointless for streaming most the time.


Most of the Youtube content I watch - I know for a fact is brand new and made in 4K or atleast definitely well above just 1080p - that's why It's so frustrating.

Instead - we get as low as 480p-720p sometimes for absolutely no reason even though we have 100mbit internet and there is nothing else hogging any bandwidth.

Similarly, the apps keep defaulting to AUTO - and they keep scaling it back down to 720p or lower even if you repeatedly select 1080p (which is the maximum almost all the time).

There is just no excuse for any of this !



It is extremely rare that I ever see any video listed as anything above 1080p.

I get the feeling that on those rare occassions it has only been temporarily allowed because of the day/time frame and because it's a channel that's popular enough to warrant it (I assume it has something to do with caching the most popular videos to save bandwidth?)

However, again - this is now incredibly rare!


This is a problem for lots of countries not just ours....

I'm in Australia and I know our government has done this, and I'm pretty sure the UK and USA have done it too.

I say that; because I use NordVPN when watching Youtube and it doesn't seem to make any difference which of the three aforementioned countries I set the VPN too.... either way it's all throttled/crippled in the same way.

My understanding is that; if it was only Australia that was being throttled... using the VPN should have gotten around all that even set as Australia or at the very least it should have gotten around it all when the VPN is set to UK or USA - assuming they weren't being throttled in those countries too?

But it makes not difference as I said.


So do I understand how it should all work right?


Or can my ISP somehow still throttle EVERYTHING even when using the VPN?

Any advice on how to get around this - specific instructions to disable or get around it for each of the three countries independently?

I say that because sometimes I want to set it to Australia - but most the time I prefer to leave it as UK or USA as you don't get so much Geoblocked stuff plus I loathe the Australian ads they put on Youtube.
Plus I swear the amount of ads and forced watch duration before you can skip them is much much longer/worse for Australia than UK, USA etc?


To throw an extra spanner in the mix - I've heard people say that they think that the Country wide throttling has mainly been applied via the Gmail accounts used to log into Youtube?

Eg some say that you should set/change the Country/Location setting for your Gmail/Youtube account to some non throttled country and that'll fix it?

But I've tried that in the past and it didn't fix anything?
Or maybe it didn't work because I forgot to do something else?

Anyone found this to work? If yes - instructions please!


For example - I know that if I completely log out of Youtube - everything is still throttled.
Doesn't seem to matter if I have the VPN on or off, or what country!

Tried all three mentioned.


BTW - am I right in thinking that you can only use Gmail accounts to log into Youtube? Eg not hotmail etc ?


I wonder if the Countries' Governments and/or the Steaming Companies themselves have also forced and/or bribed the major VPN's to throttle them too? That might explain why using the VPN doesn't fix it?


Anyway - I really hope someone has some answers as this has driven me nuts for ages!



Thank you for your help

 

[punkncat]

I am not personally aware that YT is being throttled in the US.

I found this article from 2020:
YouTube throttling streaming quality globally as coronavirus forces people indoors - ABC News (go.com)

Makes a bit of sense based on the instant demand at the time but don't see anything particularly recent saying such is still going on. Even in the article above, it appears you can manually select the higher quality, but that default was changed to 'standard'.

 

[hotaru.hino]

ISPs in the US may throttle streaming traffic, but that shouldn't matter if you're not using a US based ISP.

I wouldn't put it past ISPs to figure out that you're streaming in large amounts of data, even if they don't know what that data is, however.

 

[Dylan Beckett]

@punkncat
@hotaru.hino

I am not personally aware that YT is being throttled in the US.

I found this article from 2020:
YouTube throttling streaming quality globally as coronavirus forces people indoors - ABC News (go.com)

Makes a bit of sense based on the instant demand at the time but don't see anything particularly recent saying such is still going on. Even in the article above, it appears you can manually select the higher quality, but that default was changed to 'standard'.

If you're in the US - check out the max bitrate you can get on various channels - you might be surprised?

For us - 99% of the time - there is litereally no option listed above 1080p.

I've asked my ISP about what the governement is forcing them to do exactly but they claim their not allowed to tell us.

Even in the article above, it appears you can manually select the higher quality, but that default was changed to 'standard'.

Yeah the way they word that means that it's a total lie. It means you can select the 'higher' quality option instead of the default 'lower quality' option. But both are still crippled as the article says.

ISPs in the US may throttle streaming traffic, but that shouldn't matter if you're not using a US based ISP.

I wouldn't put it past ISPs to figure out that you're streaming in large amounts of data, even if they don't know what that data is, however.

In that case re US or UK - it's not about their ISP it's about the actual Streaming Sites/Companies throttling IP's for the US or UK.
So when I tap into Youtube pretending to be from the US or UK - it's throttled for that reason.

And re the second part - streaming 4K is not a large amount of data - not worth throttling normally compared to someone with 24/7 torrenting.

In that case it's the Governement who ordered the throttling by both the Streaming Companies/sites and the ISPs.



Cheers

 

[hotaru.hino]

And re the second part - streaming 4K is not a large amount of data - not worth throttling normally compared to someone with 24/7 torrenting.

It doesn't really matter what you think is "not a large amount of data."

The way ISP networks are set up is that they have several trunk lines. These are then distributed down the line into basically smaller, multiple trunks, before reaching your neighborhood. See:

The thing is, the point servicing your neighborhood doesn't actually have the capacity to give everyone the ISP's advertised maximum bandwidth. So if there's 50 homes connected to your neighborhood's trunk and your ISP advertises a maximum of 100Mbps, the neighborhood network isn't going to be capable of 50,000Mbps. It'll be a lot lower than that because likely that not everyone is going to hammer the network at the same time. A similar thing was done with phone lines:

While I don't know what maths are used to determine how much bandwidth would adequately service a neighborhood, I am certain that the bandwidth capable of the neighborhood's network node is nowhere near everyone's connection multiplied by the advertised speed. That's why ISPs will want to throttle streaming traffic, especially during peak hours.

 

[Dylan Beckett]

So if there's 50 homes connected to your neighborhood's trunk and your ISP advertises a maximum of 100Mbps

I hear what your saying but that's not quite what I mean...

I have the distinct feeling that it is clearly the overriding "Throttle it directly from the Streamers" that is really having the biggest impact; not broad spectrum local ISP throttling (if any).

It's not like I can't stream Youtube at 4K because I don't have the bandwidth at the time due too many other local users. My available bandwidth is pretty consistent most the time and I still can't stream the quality I should be able to get.


From what the ISP told me; I think they pretty much confirmed that (though they had to kind of speak in code as they weren't allowed to speak freely about it).

Just my feeling.


cheers

 

[hotaru.hino]

I have the distinct feeling that it is clearly the overriding "Throttle it directly from the Streamers" that is really having the biggest impact; not broad spectrum local ISP throttling (if any).

Well yes, if the ISP can determine what kind of traffic you're pulling from, they may adjust the priority of the data stream (something called Quality of Service). In the overall scheme of things, streaming services can be lower on the totem pole because:

• The data is considered temporary (it doesn't get saved on your computer)
• You can still technically consume the content
• During peak times, it's a low hanging fruit to target

 

[PsychoPsyops]

It can be a number of things really.
Your ISP, your browser, your browser extensions, your router configuration and your internet speed/signal.
Though if you are convinced it is server side, maybe try a vpn of some sort.