Netflix or YouTube slow? Tell us your strategies for speeding them up

Netflix or YouTube slow? Tell us your strategies for speeding them up

Feb 24th 2014, 17:25, by Jon Brodkin

Aurich Lawson

There has hardly been anything more controversial in the tech world recently than streaming video. Netflix performance on Verizon and Comcast has been dropping for months, perhaps a result of financial disputes involving ISPs, Netflix, and the companies Netflix pays to distribute its copious amounts of traffic.
Netflix yesterday announced a deal to improve performance of the video provider's streams for Comcast subscribers. However, Verizon is still locked in a financial battle with Cogent, one of Netflix's Internet providers. Cogent's CEO says Verizon's refusal to upgrade infrastructure has resulted in Netflix packets being dropped every day.
YouTube has also been a source of frustration for many people on a variety of Internet service providers, but savvy video watchers have sought technical solutions to their streaming problems. As we recently explained, using a VPN or third-party DNS service can sometimes improve Netflix or YouTube quality by routing traffic around bottlenecks.