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YouFibre and YouTube

UrbanSlayer

Casual Member
This is going to be a long one, so apologies!

I recently had YouFibre installed, coming from Virgin Media (still have VM for a couple of months). All is good, had the 1GB up/down service (so around 900mb up and down, ish) and is generally very good, apart from one issue - YouTube. For some reason, since switching to Youfibre, YouTube is REALLY slow to start videos. In fact, sometimes they never start, other times they will but at much lower quality and then buffer constantly. Occasionally there is no problem and it all works great, but this is not the norm. It never happened on VM, doesn't happen on 4G on my phone etc, but Youfibre is really consistent in this.

I am reasonably confident it is YouFibre itself, for the following reasons -

As I still have Virgin, I plugged back into that, and Youtube worked as expected. I also used two different VPN services, while on Youfibre (Surfshark and the built in Opera browser one), and on both, once connected, the Youtube video that wouldn't start on Youfibre itself, works fine.

I do use an OPNsense router in place of the Eero 6 (which is in bridge mode for the wifi) for access to Youfibre, but I used this on Virgin as well with no issues, and all other video streaming works fine - Amazon, Twitch (I know it is technically Amazon), Netflix and Floatplane all work perfectly, it is just Youtube. This has also been tested on multiple computers, phones and operating systems (Linux, Windows, Android and iOS). I have also tested this using the Eero 6 as the router and the issue is the same, but again, not a surprise.

DNS wise, I use Cloudflare DNS servers (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1) but have also tested against Google's own and OpenDNS. This is how it was configured on VM as well, without a problem. I do also have a static IP from YouFibre.

Running a traceroute to Youtube on Youfibre and not brings different results, particularly compared to VM. While the final endpoint is different (not a huge surprise), the number of hops to get to Youtube is much higher on Youfibre. VM it is around 8 but with Youfibre, it is usually around 12.

I have run speed tests and connectivity tests while Youtube is having a blip on Youfibre and can see no extra dropping of bandwidth and as before, all other streaming works fine at high (1080p or above) quality.

After doing some extensive Googling and I am not seeing anyone mention this at all, so before I call YouFibre (who I doubt will be able to do much), has anyone else had this issue?

Thanks!
 
If you open up a Youtube clip on your PC/laptop and right-click then open "stats for neds", do you see any difference in the stats compared to Virgin?

Choose a long video clip, 4K if you can, so it spends a long time buffering it.
 
If you open up a Youtube clip on your PC/laptop and right-click then open "stats for neds", do you see any difference in the stats compared to Virgin?

Choose a long video clio, 4K if you can, so it spends a long time buffering it.
Also, try to do a speed test against Youtube.

Here's how I do it using yt-dlp (on Linux):
Code:
yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHxbMa2RVTQ

You can also use the --get-url parameter of yt-dlp to get a direct download link you can then use in another program such as "wget", to get a better idea on speeds. See attached.
 

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  • Selection_377.webp
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Hmm potentially is something they can do. IPv6 is going to London, IPv4 to Amsterdam:

Tracing route to youtube-ui.l.google.com [2a00:1450:4009:827::200e]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2a0e:1d40:1e12:8f00:1afd:74ff:fe7b:288d
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms youfibre-wakefield.ipv6.wan [2a0e:1d42:0:56::1]
3 5 ms 5 ms 6 ms 2a0e:1d42:0:16:1::117
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 2a0e:1d40:0:16::212
6 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 2001:4860:1:1::26be
7 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 2a00:1450:8168::1
8 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms 2001:4860:0:1::862
9 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 2001:4860:0:1::73c9
10 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms lhr48s49-in-x0e.1e100.net [2a00:1450:4009:827::200e]


Tracing route to youtube-ui.l.google.com [216.58.212.238]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 25glan-study-chr.local [192.168.1.2]
2 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms youfibre-wakefield.wan [45.92.47.33]
3 6 ms 5 ms 5 ms 172.16.1.117
4 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms 172.16.2.17
5 11 ms 10 ms 11 ms 172.16.2.16
6 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 172.16.0.89
7 10 ms 10 ms 11 ms 172.16.0.212
8 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 72.14.223.160
9 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms 209.85.249.149
10 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 216.239.41.241
11 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms ams16s22-in-f14.1e100.net [216.58.212.238]
 
Interesting, thank you! I quickly tested a Youtube video I had tried earlier, this is what I got (had never seen that stats for nerds thing).

The Youfibre one I had left running for quite a while, and wasn't even 4k. I'll attach the VPN one in a separate post (VPN running over Youfibre). Will also test and post the yt-dlp/wget stats as well. Although right now it looks like Youfibre is being cooperative at the moment!
 

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  • Virgin.webp
    Virgin.webp
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  • YouFibre.webp
    YouFibre.webp
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Hmm potentially is something they can do. IPv6 is going to London, IPv4 to Amsterdam:

Tracing route to youtube-ui.l.google.com [2a00:1450:4009:827::200e]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2a0e:1d40:1e12:8f00:1afd:74ff:fe7b:288d
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms youfibre-wakefield.ipv6.wan [2a0e:1d42:0:56::1]
3 5 ms 5 ms 6 ms 2a0e:1d42:0:16:1::117
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 2a0e:1d40:0:16::212
6 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 2001:4860:1:1::26be
7 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 2a00:1450:8168::1
8 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms 2001:4860:0:1::862
9 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 2001:4860:0:1::73c9
10 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms lhr48s49-in-x0e.1e100.net [2a00:1450:4009:827::200e]


Tracing route to youtube-ui.l.google.com [216.58.212.238]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 25glan-study-chr.local [192.168.1.2]
2 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms youfibre-wakefield.wan [45.92.47.33]
3 6 ms 5 ms 5 ms 172.16.1.117
4 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms 172.16.2.17
5 11 ms 10 ms 11 ms 172.16.2.16
6 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 172.16.0.89
7 10 ms 10 ms 11 ms 172.16.0.212
8 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 72.14.223.160
9 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms 209.85.249.149
10 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 216.239.41.241
11 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms ams16s22-in-f14.1e100.net [216.58.212.238]
All my traceroutes for Youtube via Youfibre, on both the normal youtube.com url and youtube-ui hit London (LHR - assuming that is near Heathrow), for IPv4.

I don't get an IPv6 address from them, I am sure I read they only provided those in some places at the moment.
 
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Sorry, can't understand how You using that Eero.

Maybe somewhere routing goes wrong in Eero
Try to remove that Eero from your network, plug cable from ONT straight in Opnsense if not doing that way already. Will need to clone Eero Mac address, but internet have manuals.

I would put in a bin that Amazon spyware or, if need for wifi, then put it behind Opnsense not in front. .
If You need it for wifi, plug lan cable in Eero Lan port and will get wifi.
 
Sorry, can't understand how You using that Eero.

Maybe somewhere routing goes wrong in Eero
Try to remove that Eero from your network, plug cable from ONT straight in Opnsense if not doing that way already. Will need to clone Eero Mac address, but internet have manuals.

I would put in a bin that Amazon spyware or, if need for wifi, then put it behind Opnsense not in front. .
If You need it for wifi, plug lan cable in Eero Lan port and will get wifi.
Yeah it's worth testing without the Eero, but by the sound of it it's not that tbh.

And to go a bit offtopic, yeah Eero (along with all the Amazon devices) are examples where "if you pay for it you're still the product". It's known Eero collects telemetry and sends it to mothership and it's likely the devices will soon join the likes of Echos and Ring bells to power Amazon Sidewalk network.
 
The Eero is in bridge mode, so only working as an access point for Wi-fi, it is not doing any routing - https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/208276903-How-do-I-bridge-my-eeros- While I can remove it, it is only actually plugged into the LAN side of the network, the Youfibre ONT is connected directly to OPNsense, as is Virgin.

I did some testing with wget and youtube, and for all 3 - Youfibre, Virgin and Surfshark on Youfibre the result was the same, 1.27MBs. yt-dlp was significantly faster, and was again very consistent on all three. In fact I am able to use yt-dlp to download a video faster than I can make it play on any browser on Youfibre.
 
Interesting, thank you! I quickly tested a Youtube video I had tried earlier, this is what I got (had never seen that stats for nerds thing).
Apologies if you've done this - I couldn't see it in the thread - On the "settings" on the YouTube video - can you set the quality directly to 1080, turn it off auto? (if you haven't already) your attachments here have the res extremely low on YouFibre. Just wondering if the delay is it detecting quality, ramping down and back up.
 
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Sorry, yes, I have. I have fiddled with so many settings it is madness. But this is a video I explicitly chose 4k, and it did that. The second one (Youfibre3) is after refreshing the page.
 

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  • Youfibre3.webp
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All that pinging and pictures are useless, they just proof that youtube is slow or fast.

How about change IP? As Ip attached to MAC addr, change MAC address.
If not using Opnsense with Multi Wan. Try to restart it when changing ISP's

Try to use that Eero only, bypassing Opnsense. Maybe wrong settings.
I messed up it with "SYSTEM: SETTINGS: TUNABLES", but had different problems.

In browser, clear cache, browsing data e.t.c.

For testing leave only 1 device connected to router as someone in home network may use youtube.

Try different hardware setups.
 
I have, from what it appears, resolved this. For some reason, the Youfibre ONT did not like being plugged into a Realtek 2.5GB port (that Virgin had no issue with). It would work, and the biggest issue was Youtube, but when I switched it to an Intel 1GB PCI-E nic, everything worked perfectly. Virgin is back in the 2.5GB port and now I have failover.

Why a VPN 'fixed' the issues with Youtube, we will probably never know.

Thanks all!
 
Quite possibly, although MTU in OPNSense is the same for both nics (default - 1500). Likely some weird bug with the Realtek nic (shock horror).
 
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This is going to be a long one, so apologies!

I recently had YouFibre installed, coming from Virgin Media (still have VM for a couple of months). All is good, had the 1GB up/down service (so around 900mb up and down, ish) and is generally very good, apart from one issue - YouTube. For some reason, since switching to Youfibre, YouTube is REALLY slow to start videos. In fact, sometimes they never start, other times they will but at much lower quality and then buffer constantly. Occasionally there is no problem and it all works great, but this is not the norm. It never happened on VM, doesn't happen on 4G on my phone etc, but Youfibre is really consistent in this.

I am reasonably confident it is YouFibre itself, for the following reasons -

As I still have Virgin, I plugged back into that, and Youtube worked as expected. I also used two different VPN services, while on Youfibre (Surfshark and the built in Opera browser one), and on both, once connected, the Youtube video that wouldn't start on Youfibre itself, works fine.

I do use an OPNsense router in place of the Eero 6 (which is in bridge mode for the wifi) for access to Youfibre, but I used this on Virgin as well with no issues, and all other video streaming works fine - Amazon, Twitch (I know it is technically Amazon), Netflix and Floatplane all work perfectly, it is just Youtube. This has also been tested on multiple computers, phones and operating systems (Linux, Windows, Android and iOS). I have also tested this using the Eero 6 as the router and the issue is the same, but again, not a surprise.

DNS wise, I use Cloudflare DNS servers (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1) but have also tested against Google's own and OpenDNS. This is how it was configured on VM as well, without a problem. I do also have a static IP from YouFibre.

Running a traceroute to Youtube on Youfibre and not brings different results, particularly compared to VM. While the final endpoint is different (not a huge surprise), the number of hops to get to Youtube is much higher on Youfibre. VM it is around 8 but with Youfibre, it is usually around 12.

I have run speed tests and connectivity tests while Youtube is having a blip on Youfibre and can see no extra dropping of bandwidth and as before, all other streaming works fine at high (1080p or above) quality.

After doing some extensive Googling and I am not seeing anyone mention this at all, so before I call YouFibre (who I doubt will be able to do much), has anyone else had this issue?

Thanks!
I had same issue and it turned our to be a bandwidth issue which they sent me a booster that didn't make any difference and the location is more to do with it as in my old house youfibre was perfect
 
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