October 10, 2015

How to Boost YouTube Buffering Speed – Tips and Tricks

YouTube is an incredible source that enthralls many people with different kind of videos. YouTube is the best source for most of the people where one can watch desired videos. It is regarded as one of the best video streaming networks with billions of views per day. You can not only watch videos but also upload and share videos of your choice. Every minute, thousands of videos gets uploaded to YouTube. You can enjoy watching videos only when you have a proper internet connection. It’s just not enough to have a high-speed internet connection or good Wi-Fi Signal Strength. The video that you watch on YouTube must not buffer so that you will get good viewing experience. Buffering is one of the troublesome issues that hinders your joy of watching the video. In this article, I am going to guide you how to boost YouTube speed with simple tips and tricks. Just follow the tricks and enjoy watching videos without any barrier.

Factors that Affect YouTube Buffering Speed

The major factor which is responsible for YouTube Buffering is your Internet Speed. As you all know, the internet is the contemporary source for most of us to get our work done within no time. While watching a YouTube video and if it goes on buffering, then it is the most annoying part. So, YouTube Buffering speed depends on your Internet speed. Also, if you have a computer or PC with an old Hardware Configuration, then it will also affect Your YouTube Buffering Speed and it takes pretty much time to load or buffer videos.

Tips and Tricks to Boost YouTube Buffering Speed

Here, I am sharing simple and most useful tips and tricks that help you in increasing your YouTube buffering speed. Let us have a look at the tips and tricks so that you can use them whenever required.

1. Increase your Internet speed by 20%

This might be a very old trick but, it is a proven trick that works n the best way to increase your internet speed directly from your Windows device. This trick boosts your net speed by 20% that eventually increases your youtube videos buffering speed as well. If you are using PC or Laptop that runs on Windows operating system then, you can easily increase your Internet speed. Usually, Microsoft windows reserve 20% of your available bandwidth for their own specific purposes like updates and interrogating with your PC etc. You need to disable this immediately to enjoy full ISP Speed.

Just Follow the below Steps to increase your Internet Speed:

  • Click on start, select run and type “gpedit.msc”.
  • select to LOCAL COMPUTER POLICY>COMPUTER CONFIGURATION>ADMNISTRATIVE TEMPELATES>NETWORK> QOS PACKET SHEDULER>LIMIT RESERVABLE BANDWITH.

Increase YouTube Buffering Speed

  • Double click on “Limit reservable bandwidth” and then select “Enabled” and set the bandwidth limit to O.

Limit Reservable Bandwidth

  • This is an amazing trick that works on your PC or Laptop to watch YouTube videos without any lag.

Note: For some versions of windows like windows home and basic versions don’t have gpedit.msc command, in that case just ignore this trick not a big deal and follow the below tricks.

2. Block IP address used by CDN Networks

CDN, Content Delivery Networks is a system of distributed servers (network) that deliver web pages and other Web content to a user based on the geographic locations of the user. In the context of YouTube, when you watch a video, the video will be played from the server that the video was previously cached and stored, but not from the YouTube’s server. YouTube buffering speed might vary when different videos are played from different cache servers. You can block the IP addresses used by these CDN networks so that the video starts buffering from the original YouTube server itself which is comparatively faster than CDN servers.

Block CDN IP Addresses on Windows

  • Click on Start button and search for CMD. If you’re a Windows 8 or 8.1 user, then press Windows key and type “CMD”.
  • Simply, right click on CMD icon and hit Run as Administrator.
  • Just copy the below-given code in your CMD and press enter.

netsh add firewall firewall add rule name=”YouTubeTweak” dir=in action=block remoteip=173.194.55.0/24,206.111.0.0/16 enable=yes

  • Now, you can close the Command prompt windows and restart your browser and the internet connection.

3. Use YouTube DNS

You can increase your YouTube buffering speed by using internet connection through different DNS. Using Youtube open DNS will help you in speed up the youtube video buffering.

For Windows XP users:

  • Go to Control Panel from the Start menu.
  • Click on Network Connections from the Control Panel choices.
  • Choose your connection from the Network Connections window.
  • Click on Properties button.
  • Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click Properties.
  • Now, click the radio button. Use the following DNS server addresses and type in OpenDNS addresses in the Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server fields.
    • 208.67.222.222
    • 208.67.220.220

For Windows 7/8/8.1 Users:

  • Go to Control Panel. Click on Network and Internet then click on Network and Sharing Center.
  • Click on Change adapter settings.
  • Now, Right Click on Local Area Connection then select Properties button.
  • Double click on Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) (don’t change anything in IP address).
  • Click the radio button. Use the following DNS server addresses and type
    • Preferred DNS server: 208.67.222.222
    • Alternate DNS server: 208.67.220.220
  • Click Ok and you’re done.

4. Use SpeedBit Video Accelerator

Here is the best software that help you to speed up YouTube buffering speed which is called SpeedBit Video Accelerator. Not only for YouTube, the software works well with more than 165 video sites like Yahoo Video, Facebook, AOL Video, Myspace, ESPN, and many more.

SpeedBit Video Accelerator

You just need to install the software and it will take care of the rest. The free version works with all the normal videos but for accelerating HD (High Definition) videos you need to upgrade to premium version.

Download SpeedBit Video Accelerator

5. Clear Cache Data

Sometimes, you might forget to clear all your cached data or browsing data such as History, Saved Passwords, Cookies, Logs, etc, that eventually affects your Internet speed. You can make necessary changes of Cache settings. So, make sure that you have cleared all your unnecessary browsing history so as to optimize your Internet speed. There are many software available that cleans your internet cache data. You can use CCleaner which is one of the best software to clear your browsing history, cookies and other unnecessary data.

6. Increase the Cache Size for Flash Player

This trick might not work for Google Chrome users as the browser compels YouTube to use HTML5 for playing videos. However, the trick works well on Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. You can load videos faster on YouTube by increasing the cache size for the YouTube videos on your PC or Laptop which is nothing but increasing the virtual RAM for the videos. This can load videos faster as the flash player utilize more space from your device storage.
Steps to Increase the size of cache for flash player

  • Open Mozilla or Explorer browser and go to YouTube.
  • Start watching any video and pause it after a while.
  • Now, Right click on the video and click on Settings.

Increase cache size of flash player

  • A small menu pops up on the video screen. Just click on the small yellow folder icon at the bottom of the box.
  • Now take the slider all the way to right i.e. “maximum” and close the pop-up box.
  • Lastly, restart your browser and internet connection. You can observe some improvement in your YouTube buffering speed.

7. Change the Video Quality on YouTube

You can also speed up Youtube videos buffering by changing the high quality of videos to low quality like 240p, 360p etc. Use this when you have to do nothing with the quality of videos.

Change Quality of Videos on YouTube

8. Disable Ads on YouTube

It is really annoying that while watching any thrilling video, suddenly an advertisement starts by pausing your desired video. This is one of the reasons that can lag your video and eventually decreases the loading speed. To avoid that, you can install a plug-in in order to block ads on YouTube or any other website. Adblocker Plus is one of the best ad blocking technique.

9. Get a Good Internet Plan with good Net Speed

With the above tweaks, you can speed up your youtube videos  buffering more than thrice but if you really want a very good buffering then getting a good subscription plan with good net speed is a wise thing.

These are the possible tips and tricks that help you to increase YouTube buffering speed on your PC or Laptop. Just follow and apply the above tweaks that work well and you will definitely notice an increase in your youtube buffering speed. Hope this guide helps you in the best way to boost YouTube buffering speed.

About the author 

Imran Uddin


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