Ever settle in for movie night, hit play, and thirty seconds later, the picture dissolves into a blurry mess of pixels? You restart the app.You restart the router.
You're paying for a fast internet plan, so what gives?Before you spend forty minutes on hold with your provider, there's something you should know: the problem might not be your connection speed at all.It might be your internet provider putting the brakes on certain types of traffic.The good news is that one tool may help, especially when your provider is slowing down streaming traffic that it can recognize.Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportTRAVEL MISTAKE PUTS PHONE, LAPTOP AND STREAMING ACCOUNTS AT RISKBuffering during streaming may not always be caused by slow internet speeds.
ISP bandwidth throttling could be reducing video quality, and a VPN may help in some cases.(Photo by Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images)Internet service providers handle enormous amounts of traffic.
When their networks get congested, they look for ways to manage the load.One of the handiest tools in their bag is a technique called bandwidth throttling.
It means deliberately slowing down certain types of traffic to ease the pressure on their infrastructure.Streaming video is one of the first things they may target because it eats up a lot of bandwidth fast.Here's the part that most people don't realize: your ISP can often see what kind of traffic you're sending and receiving.
When they detect a steady stream of traffic flowing from a streaming platform, they may put a speed limit on that traffic specifically, even while your overall connection seems fine.You won't always get a warning, but you will notice a dip in video quality.That's why you can load a webpage in a blink but still have to sit through buffer wheels before your show even gets going.
The issue may not be your speed.It may be what your ISP does with it once they know how you're using it.Travelers can run into an additional wrinkle.
Hotel networks ...