There are many sites taking a very long time to load
There are many sites taking a very long time to load
I was looking for an answer about why some websites are really slow, especially YouTube, because it makes my PC very sluggish. I tried everything I could think of and still couldn't find the real cause. My first guess was that my internet company (ISP) was cutting off my speed on certain sites, but after testing again, I think something else is going on since only my computer seems to be slow. When I say it's slow, it means even a low quality video like 144p causes constant buffering. I tested this by opening many different browsers without any extra extensions installed. I also ran several antivirus scans on the whole hard drive and tried blocking some internet paths that others use for fast loading (CDNs). Even when I checked my actual internet speed with YouTube playing, it stayed at 1GB per second no matter what else was happening in the background. I tested this on both my own computer and my girlfriend's PC, which sits right next to mine; hers didn't have any buffering problems at all. We are both plugged directly into the main router using ethernet cables for the most stable connection. I called my ISP through BBB and they strongly denied that they cut off my speed or used a slow lane path just for me. Tried switching between different ethernet ports on both my PC and the router, checked the router settings to see if my computer was being limited by its own bandwidth, looked at webplayer stats which says my average speed is about 50kbps, and finally changed my DNS settings to use Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 It turns out that this problem goes away with a VPN, but I know that logically it means the issue isn't really something they did on their end. However, since only my computer has this problem at all in our whole house, I am still confused about what is actually happening. This is not the most serious thing because I do have a fix, which is just using a VPN, but it is annoying and makes me feel very lost. Even if they cut off speeds like that, I don't think my 1GB/s plan should be so slow because I pay for gigabytes of internet. I am also running Windows 11, and this problem happens with watching or downloading videos on various sites like YouTube, but it does not happen when I play games (which use more bandwidth).
Which computer is this, and do any apps seem to be slowing things down?
Start by turning off IPv6 on your computer. While this isn't usually an issue, it often causes problems later on.
I'm not sure why IPv6 is causing issues, but internet service providers should be ready for this change after ten years. It's like they didn't know what they were doing.