YouTube has been a firm favorite of video lovers for a long time. Its name pops up in our mind almost simultaneously when we decide to catch on the most awaited movie trailer, a football match we somehow missed out on watching live, a current affairs show which was stiffly debated and is being widely shared on social media, a behind the scenes combo of our favorite blockbuster, and the list goes on.
Fix YouTube Buffering, Freshen Up the Browser
Reginout follows Google Software Principles
Today we will be looking at a particular issue that often kills the fun while streaming a video over YouTube. Users can be often heard complaining about the infamous buffering issue associated with YouTube on a Windows 10 computer system. One of the must-haves for a buffer free YouTube experience is a decent enough Internet connection that provides you with a low ping value. But these factors are pretty obvious, and hence widely known. Today we will be looking at a slew of other factors that must be tried out to ensure your YouTube experience is buffer free. So let’s switch to the solutions without wasting any more time.
And if you’re wondering the buffering might be due to an issue at YouTube servers, yes technically speaking, that can’t be ruled out. However, given the vast financial resources and the technical expertise YouTube is blessed with, this will only happen in a galaxy far away. So let’s first focus our attention towards the more probable factors that might lead to this.
Solutions
Switch to a Better Browser
The web browser you are using will highly affect the YouTube experience you will get. To emphasize it well, the browser can be loosely termed as the bridge that connects you to the website. So if the browser isn’t well designed, or if it’s full of bugs, your YouTube experience will take a hit. This is why we strongly suggest you switch to either of the 2 browsers we will mention shortly, as well as keep your browser up-to-date at all times.
Disable Unneeded Extensions/ Add-ons
These are tools that are meant to speed up various routine tasks for your convenience. For example, an extension/ add-on for your email will take you directly to your inbox at a single click rather than requiring you to type in a whole web address. These gems are really helpful when they have been programmed by the right people and in the right way. However, if it is a problematic bit of coding, or not done well, it can turn out to be a villain and create performance related issues for you (including the YouTube buffering issue).
We recommend typing in about:addons in Firefox Quantum and More tools | Extensions in Chrome to check the stuff falling in this category you’ve installed. Look for any suspicious ones and remove them right away. If you’re not sure, you can always Google them up to check if they should be installed on your computer.
Go for an Alternative DNS Server
The Domain Name System, or the DNS, is responsible for converting the domain name of the website you are trying to access into the IP address, which is in a numerical format. This practice takes place in a hassle-free manner most of the times, but there can be issues with the DNS allocated to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). In this case, you can use up the default DNS used by Google to obliterate the buffering on your Windows 10 computer.
- Open up Control Panel and click on Network and Internet.
- Select Network and Sharing Center on the next page.
- Locate Change adapter settings in the left pane and click it.
- Right-click your currently active Internet connection and select Properties.
- Look up for Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), select it and click the Properties button located underneath it.
- Now select the radio box for Use the following DNS server addresses.
- Enter 8.8.8.8 for both Preferred DNS server as well as Alternate DNS server.
- Click OK | OK to save the changes.
Clean the Brower History
As you browse different websites over time, cookies and various other kinds of junk data get piled onto your computer. These tiny files are very helpful for a seamless browsing experience. As the quantum of these bits of information increases, they start impacting your browsing experience adversely. Sometimes these files get corrupted over time and cause big time trouble.
You must clean them up to decrease the load on your web browser as well as finish off the old, corrupt ones.
Simply press the Ctrl + Shift + Delete keys to bring up the History deletion window. Simply select all the checkboxes and opt for the relevant option in the dropdown menu that translates to deleting history from the start of time. This cleaning up operation will help improve matters with regards to the YouTube buffering issue.
Employ the YouTube Buffer Trick
This is a very handy trick not many people are aware of. Basically, many ISPs have put into practice what is known as ISP throttling, which is a restriction imposed by ISPs so that users can only download cached content from video sites. This helps reduce any likelihood of network congestion to a great extent. Here is how you can bypass this.
- Click Start and search for cmd.
- Right-click Command Prompt from the Best match section and select Run as administrator.
- Type in the following command and press Enter to execute it:
- netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”YoutubeBufferTrick” dir=in action=block remoteip=173.194.55.0/24,206.111.0.0/16 enable=yes
Don’t Overburden Your Computer
You might be using a low-end or mediocre computer system to view videos in HD or above. This means that the CPU has to perform some extra bit of labor to downsize these videos so that they can be displayed on your computer screen. In this scenario, what you can do is opt to view the videos in a toned down mode. Another neat tip, in this case, will be to close down all the extra tabs and apps that you can quit for the moment.
Side Tips
These are some other bits of handy tricks that can help you out sometimes. These are:
- Using an Ethernet cable rather than Wi-Fi
- Restarting the router
- Change the video quality