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Netflix is really, really slow

S

sethypoo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 8, 2003
1,583
5
Sacramento, CA, USA
I just signed up for a Netflix account and was accessing it from my university's wireless internet network. It was loading fine on my 12" PowerBook Rev. A running Firefox 1.5, but now that I'm at home on my lower speed broadband connection, it's taking over 20 minutes to load.

So I went to www.broadbandreports.com/stest to run a speed test of my internet connection. I did so, and I got a result of 231 kbps download and a 235 kbps upload! That's equivelint to a 28.8k modem! Does anyone know what gives, or what I can do to remedy this? Thank you!

Seth
 
Sounds like you've got a problem on your end.. You should contact your ISP and see what the deal is. It should be noted that you should take all speedreport info with a grain of salt. There can be many variables that can effect your results, that may not directly have any effect on what your speed is.

Also, it should be noted that 231Kbps is (nearly) 10x faster than a 28.8Kbps modem.

Try using this site as a speed test:

http://miranda.ctd.anl.gov:7123/
 
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 406.61Kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 2.11Mb/s

What do these numbers mean? Upload 406.61KB/s and download 2.11Mb/s? :eek: I feel stupid.
Anyways, those are what I got..... but I'm not the person who started the thread. Maybe I should just get out of here. :eek:

Oh, and on Netflix, I'd suggest trying Nexfllix Freak! It sounds good! :) And I love the litlle AppFactory!
 
Yes. 2Mbps download speed and 400Kbps upload.

Just tested and got:

Code: 
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 14.71Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 14.41Mb/s
 
There's easy solution for that.. just get some movies and hold onto them for a while. And they will start shipping to you quickly again.
 
ieani said:
And if you stay with netflix in a year or so your delivery times will be slow as well, throttling bastards. :mad:
Click to expand...

I've been a Netflix member since 2000 and have never had an issue with delivery times. In fact, they're noticeably faster since they added a local distribution point than in the old-days when the mailings were going halfway across the country.
 
dejo said:
I've been a Netflix member since 2000 and have never had an issue with delivery times. In fact, they're noticeably faster since they added a local distribution point than in the old-days when the mailings were going halfway across the country.
Click to expand...

Wel, your lucky then. I have always had a local one and new releases went from coming day of release/within two weeks to being two months or more.
 
ieani said:
Wel, your lucky then. I have always had a local one and new releases went from coming day of release/within two weeks to being two months or more.
Click to expand...

Two months? Wow, that must suck. What has Netflix said about this to you in their defense?
 
Rumor is, if they deem you to be a "heavy user" of their service, they will artificially cap you by slowing down the ship times of your movies. Meaning they will hold a movie for 24-48 (or more) hours before shipping it.
 
sethypoo said:
That's weird, because the speed test site I used said that it is equivalent to a 28.8k modem.
Click to expand...

Their mistake.

Your speed (at that time), 231Kilobits per second is nearly equivalent to 28.9KiloBytes per second. But a modem is 28.8Kilobits per second, not KiloBytes per second.

Their mistake.

If modems were 28.8KBps.. well dial-up wouldn't suck as much as it does!

sethypoo said:
Does Netflix watch how much you access your account, or how many movies are in your queue to deem you a "heavy user"?
Click to expand...

Neither. They know how many movies they ship to you in a month. And that's what they base their "throttling" on.

There's a bajillion sites on throttling and how to (maybe) circumvent it.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=netflix+throttle&btnG=Google+Search

IMO, it's kinda lame since you pay for a service that they offer. AFAIK, they don't warn you ahead of time that if they deem you to be a threat to their bottom line that you will be punished.
 
sethypoo said:
Does Netflix watch how much you access your account, or how many movies are in your queue to deem you a "heavy user"?
Click to expand...

It's not how many are in your queue that counts, it's your total rented/week.

Ive had Hustle and Flow in position 1 since it was released, and i still haven't gotten it. My friend who always forgets to send his back and leaves them in the back seat of his car, got his on friday of the release week. Same zip code, same distro center.
 
I rent anywhere from 16 to 20 discs from Netflix a month. I NEVER wait more than 1 day for shipping. (So, for example, if I send a disc in on Monday they mark it received on Tuesday, and I have a new disc on Wednesday). Now, I do have to wait awhile to get some new releases, but it's not usually toooooo bad.

Here's a tip for you, though. Set up a second queue, which they let you do for another family member in the same household, etc. Designate that queue to get 1 disc at a time and your main queue to get the other two. Now, put ONLY a couple very new releases onto that queue (seriously, put like 1 new movie that you've been waiting for ONLY on it - after it ships, add another). Since they HAVE to send you a disc from that queue now (otherwise you won't be getting the 3 discs at a time you are paying for) and you only have one movie on there you will get it really fast.

This seems to work for most people. I haven't tried it much, I don't watch a lot of "popular" new releases...

EDIT: have to add that if you are getting more than 20 discs a month you must do nothing but watch movies. In the winter I will get 20 discs, and that's mainly because my wife and I will watch TV shows on DVD that we missed last year, etc. 16 is still a movie every other day!

It costs Netflix something like 33cents per movie just in postage, not to mention the envelope and the processing. I read that if you get more than 21 DVDs a month then they start to lose money. This is plenty for MOST customers, and while I agree this should be mentioned in the fine print at least, I don't think it's really that big of a deal. The price is pretty amazing, say 16 movies (keeps you off the heavy user list) would go for +/- $50 at most video stores and we're paying $20! You could always upgrade to a 4 or 5 at a time plan... or watch less movies!
 
yellow said:
Just tested and got:

Code: 
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 14.71Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 14.41Mb/s
Click to expand...
What kind of internet are you using?? :eek: :)
 
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