Bandwidth Restrictions on Video Streaming

[holadebob]

First of all, I have 1MB/s service and it has been, according to the System Monitor and other sources spot on.

When I download a video, whether it be USTVLive, YouTube, or any Television Station stream, my download changes immediately to right on 32KB/s.

I've talked with techs at the video sites, and also my ISP (Mobilnet de Panama) and they haven't been able to determine why it's so slow. The tech at Mobilnet told me that they have no restrictions and never limit bandwidth. Every video stream I download is the same - 32KB/s. I think someone isn't coming clean here, but have no way to find out who, I think it's Mobilnet, but I can't prove it.

Can anyone tell me how I can determine where the problem is? 32K just don't work.

Thank you

[xenopeek]

1 MB/s or 1 Mb/s? The latter is just 128 KB/s.

ShaperProbe might be something to try. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... haping.ars

[holadebob]

1 megaBYTES per second or 1000 Kilobytes per second. Every video source I connect to gives me only 32KByte of speed. What's REALLY strange to me is that it is always EXACTLY 32KB/s, and that includes, youtube, googleearth, ustvnow, etc. There has to be a lock up at 32KB/s out there somewhere - is it possible my Mint 9 computer could be optioned out to do this? I don't think so, but ya never know unless ya do. I really think it is my ISP or someone down the line, but they are saying no. Although I do have a trouble ticket with the ISP on this problem that hasn't been cleared yet, and I reminded them today and they said they'd get back to me. Maybe it is the ISP. Maybe THEY don't know it? hahahaha

[holadebob]

Oops, got that backwards, I have 1Megabits/sec. 128Kbyte sounds about right. 32Kbyte limit is not.

Sorry for my mental state.

[xenopeek]

Well, there is a lot of overhead in streaming video. For each small packet of bytes to be fetched, there is a all kinds of transport control overhead. This is also eating up some bandwidth. So you would never see 128 Kib/s on video streaming. If you have any other active internet connections (browser open, etc.) this also eats up. I'm not sure how to improve this...

[holadebob]

Well, I have no other browsers open. What is the rough percentage of "overhead" should I figure on. 128KB/s down to 32KB/s is 96KB/s+ overhead. Does that sound reasonable to you? My ISP tech think not, but can't find the problem. They said they would give me a new address next week, although I don't understand why, but I'm sure they know a whole lot more than I do about this problem.

[xenopeek]

No, overhead would be a percentage of the total download speed, not multiples of it Have you tried with different websites?

[holadebob]

I've got a list of 42 websites so far that are locked on 32KB/s. It's as if there's some equipment out there in the loop that senses the video download and then the speed goes from 110k down to 32K and just locks on to 32Kb. It is as predictable as anything I've seen. I can download files all day at 110K or so with no problem, but when they become video streaming files, my speed goes down to 32B/s.