Solutions For Buffering

Buffering


Buffering will literally be the death of me. It is one of the hardest things to diagnose, because there could be so many outside factors causing the issue. Internet in your house. Internet in your neighborhood. Internet at the host. How many people are logged on at once? How many people are watching that exact same stream? Are you using a paid or free service to watch the stream? And even then, is it ISP related (aka throttling)?

There's a couple things you can try to remedy your buffering issues though. 

1) Run a speed test. With the bandwidth required for streaming nowadays, the slower internet options sometimes just don't hold up for what is needed to suit your needs. Check out fast.com to test your speeds. The bare minimum you want to be at is 15mbps. 25mpbs or better if you want to stream any sort of HD content. Now, I have streamed on 5mbps before, but I wanted to pull my hair out, and any feeds above 480p were non-existent. Obviously, the faster the better, but 15mbps is going to be your bare minimum. 

2) Whole network reset. Unplug your modem/router for up to 5 minutes. In most cases, this will clear the onboard memory of the device, and should help stabilize your internal network. Also don't forget to reboot your other devices during this time. 

3) Try a DNS. Blokada v4 (available from my Unlinked) does offer customized DNS settings along with ad blocking. I recommend connecting to the CloudFlare DNS. You can also download CloudFlare 1.1.1.1 application from your app store as well, if Blokada is not an option for you. 

4) Try RD. If you're streaming on-demand content, RD is a great add-on to have in your arsenal. RD is an unrestricted downloader, offering high bandwidth access to prededicated hosting services, which eliminates 99% of buffering issues in most cases. 180 days of service, costs less than $30 Canadian. You can sign up here. 


5) Try a VPN. This is literally going to be your final option, and it's going to cost you. While I don't recommend them for long term use, try a free VPN temporarily like ProtonVPN, just to see if it does solve your issues. If you're successful and your buffering issues do disappear, then you've just been subject to throttling by your ISP, and you're going to need to run one during any of your streaming ventures. I personally recommend SurfShark, as they keep no logs, and have unlimited device logins. 


I hope this helps some people out!
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