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[Spazznid]

Okay, so, this is my first Off-Topic post, but bear with me, as I have been afflicted by this issue for the longest time and my hate for Youtube grows with every passing day.

We may not love YouTube, or how it 'Works', but I think we can all appreciate what it is, and what it does....or what it's supposed to do...

For quite some time, during 'Peak' hours, I can't watch 90% of Youtube videos on my computer. This is because it loads unbearably slow. I have Fios and I have (I believe) tone of their highest speed plans and I download at an average rate of 18MB/s. Needless to say, I have very fast internet. However, this problem still persists, even after moving multiple times. (Not because of internet...)

I've long looked for solutions online, Forwarded Ports, Cleared Cache/cookies/etc, Restarted my PC, Tried Chrome, Firefox, Waterfox, Ie, Opera. I've Disabled Chrome's built-in Flash and use the up-to-date plugin, I uninstalled Real Player, I turned off my Firewall, I've changed to 240p. I've done just about everything I could possible do, and nothing worked...


Apparently, some say that it's because YouTube uses multiple servers and throughout the day, they turn some off to update them and the remaining ones are being stressed... Which totally explains why I get the issue, but my friend has no issues at all...


Well, that never stopped me from checking every now and then for any new ways to fix it.

Upon seeing a new Yahoo Answers post (at least, one I've never seen before) I found this little gem.

If your YouTube is slow, stuck or weird, and people suggest
you either change or install stuff....DON'T TOUCH A THING.

Please don’t mess with java scripts, firewall settings, flash
players, anti-virus utilities, activeX controls, popup blockers
or different browsers. And definitely avoid any software that
people on this page are trying to get you to buy.

None of those things will help you, because your computer
and YouTube were working perfectly fine at one point, right?
The first rule of thumb and best option should ALWAYS be:
don't disable, erase, uninstall, switch, download, alter, add,
change or install anything. That'll only make matters worse.

Every day, YouTube often shuts down many of their servers
in order to update stuff. Be patient if your YouTube is slow,
stuck or garbled. Transmissions from YouTube's servers to
you are actually done in small chunks of "Flash" at a time.
That's why sometimes you may only get bits and pieces of
either video, text, the spinning circle and/or a blank screen.
Your problem may fix itself in a few hours or by the next day.

If your YouTube continues to behave slow, stuck or strange,
it's very possible that your directories of "temporary internet
files" and memory (often tmes called "cache") are full to the
maximum and just can't take anymore, the end result being
that YouTube videos either A) start/stop/start/stop, B) grind
to a halt, or C) never even make it onto your screen.

"Temporary internet files" are tiny bits of webpages that get
permanently put on your hard-drive. They'll stay there forever
and ever, slowly plugging up your computer (much like hair
will slowly clog up a sink drain) until you get rid of them, or
"clear your cache" including "cookies" and "history".

If you're not sure how to clear your "cache", or if you would
like extra tips on making YouTube run even better (without
having to buy or install anything), click my avatar and send
send me a message -- ideally with your YouTube or regular
email address. I will guide you step-by-step through "cache"
clearing plus my tips in plain English with full explanations.

Note 1: if you have Google Web Accelerator (or something
similar to it), dump it, burn it, trash it, disable it, uninstall it;
-- do all that you can to get as far away from it as possible,
even if this contradicts my advice. Not only does it conflict
with YouTube, clicking on "Don't Accelerate This Website"
will not help you whatsoever.

Note 2: longer videos only require "Flash" and "Shockwave"
in order to play smooth. Other than that, avoid all the sales
pitches that some Yahooers are shilling, because they are
really disguised salespeople and peddlers. Their "answers"
have nothing to do with your question, and their wares may
actually worsen your problem. Besides, what kind of stupid
answer is:....[my paraphrase] "Although you can't watch or
access videos properly, get this downloader."

Note 3: an unusual fix that once worked for me was altering
the URL "www . youtube . com" to simply "youtube . com",
(or you can even try "ca . youtube . com").

Regardless of his other answers, I decided to try this last one because it would only take a second to see if it worked, and to my surprise, IT DID.

Now, I can't say I've tried it on more than a few dozen videos, but what I can say is that whenever I use the full address of www.youtube.com, the video stops and loads multiple times. Whenever I delete www. from the address of the same video, I can change it to 1080p and it loks blazing fast. WTF?

I even replaced my Bookmark with a version missing the "www." and everything is better, if not perfect. Just something I thought might make someone's day a little brighter.

:::::TL;DR:::::

If your video stops multiple times to load and you know your connection is way too fast for that crap, try deleting "www." from the address, so you are left with "Youtube.com/Watch....."