Why buffering happens

Barb Gonzalez. Barb Gonzalez is a former freelance contributor to Lifewire and the Simple Tech Guru, an advocate for simple, understandable technology.

Updated on September 18, Michael Barton Heine Jr. Lifewire Technology Review Board Member. Article reviewed on Mar 07, Tweet Share Email. In This Article. How Streaming Video and Buffering Work. What Internet Speed Means. How to Connect Using an Ethernet Cable. How to Stop Buffering on Fire Stick.

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So your stock router is not of the highest quality. With that being said, over time these routers degrade in the speed they are able to broadcast. By simply unplugging the router for 30 seconds and then plugging it back in we have seen many customers internet speed double.

The second half of all of your video streams is the stream sources ability to give you data. You can have 1, Mbps down and be hardwired via Ethernet, but if the stream source cannot give you enough data you will get buffering.

This a fact that most people do not understand. Take as an example, you are browsing the internet on a fast PC with good internet connection. You click on a website link and the site is very slow to load, you click on another link within the same site and it also loads very slowly.

In this scenario your computer is working fine, your internet speed is fast, so why is the website loading slowly? Your computer? Internet connection? Graphics card? Operating system? It is none of these. What is causing the website to load slowly is the server it is using to deliver data for users to view its website.

This server is having at least one of many possible issues. It could be overloaded with users, It could have its main internet connection lost and is using a backup internet connection, It could have had a physical hardware failure, one of the many servers it needs to pass through to get to your internet connection is down.

These are just a few of the issues a server may encounter that will cause it not to be able to give out enough data to load a website or video stream. Video content files are stored on servers.

These servers have a limit in how much data they can transmit out to people. When these servers reach a level of users they get overloaded and are not able to give out as much data as may be needed for an end user to stream a file with no buffering.

Servers are not cheap to buy, rent or operate. Streams come from all over the world. Some are from multibillion dollar companies with massive data centers, some are from smaller operations and some come from free public servers that limit amounts of data and speeds.

The long story short is that sometimes servers get overloaded, fail or go down. Remember, the signal loses strength the further it travels and as it has to move through obstacles like doors, walls and ceilings. There are also other electrical devices that could be causing interference too. Physical Wi-Fi boosters are also an option but that can be an expensive rabbit hole to disappear down. You remember literally two steps ago when we said that all sites and applications on your device were taking up bandwidth?

Well, the same goes for your other connected devices too. From your phones and computers to your games consoles, smart TVs, Sky boxes and fridge-freezers yes, smart fridges are a thing , there are potentially dozens of devices connected to your network right now eating into your precious bandwidth. By disconnecting those devices that are not currently being used, you should be able to free up enough bandwidth to stream at lightning speed.

Because, at the end of the day, your router is a computer too. The better the video quality in terms of size and definition , the more bits are required to display it properly. So, if your setup is only able to stream a certain bitrate, you might have to lower the quality of the video to get a more watchable stream.

On most platforms, this is as simple as selecting the video player settings usually in the bottom of the display window and downgrading the definition from HD to non-HD or from to or You might also be able to select frame rate options, with higher frame rates such as 60 frames per second requiring significantly more bandwidth than standard frame rates the standard is either 24 or 30 frames per second.

If you want to speed up buffering time instantly, reducing video quality is always the most immediate option. There are dozens of reliable speed tests available online, including fast. Speaking of which, according to the streaming giant, these are the generally recommended video bitrates in megabits per second, though please note your mileage may vary depending on the multitude of factors outlined above. Aside from the obvious benefit of privacy, streaming with a VPN also offers a range of other fringe and not-so fringe benefits :.

Did Zoom just freeze again? You may need to troubleshoot your bandwidth, which is easy when you follow our simple guide. Net neutrality is a fundamental of how the Internet works, but what does it really mean, and how does it affect you?