why the need for a proxy?

[Ayres Rock]

Just after some advice from the boffins who may have come across this already.

my internet use to work fine, albeit sometimes a little slow. However i started having real problems with accessing any media streaming sites (i.e. you tube) where the video's would just not load and would buffer.

After some digging about, i found the resolution to use webcache.virginmedia.com as my proxy and that did the trick and streaming was fine and sites did appear quicker and was happy with that.

I am now once again getting frustrated by this as there are now 2 android phones in the house and as far as i am aware nowhere in the android os to set a proxy so i am once again struggling with the phones being able to access media content from sites such as youtube. I was also looking at tablets but until i get this resolved, i cant even consider an android tablet and quite possibly others as well

does anyone know why there is a need for the proxy and if there is a resolve to sort this once and for all (granted i have come here first before contacting VM).

Thanks in advance.

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by Ayres Rock

Just after some advice from the boffins who may have come across this already.

my internet use to work fine, albeit sometimes a little slow. However i started having real problems with accessing any media streaming sites (i.e. you tube) where the video's would just not load and would buffer.

After some digging about, i found the resolution to use webcache.virginmedia.com as my proxy and that did the trick and streaming was fine and sites did appear quicker and was happy with that.

I am now once again getting frustrated by this as there are now 2 android phones in the house and as far as i am aware nowhere in the android os to set a proxy so i am once again struggling with the phones being able to access media content from sites such as youtube. I was also looking at tablets but until i get this resolved, i cant even consider an android tablet and quite possibly others as well

does anyone know why there is a need for the proxy and if there is a resolve to sort this once and for all (granted i have come here first before contacting VM).

Thanks in advance.

i dnt think vrigin will be able to do anything, i aint sure howa proxy has improved streaming as a proxy is more used to get round dns blocks or to be annoymous

---------- Post added at 14:58 ---------- Previous post was at 14:55 ----------

the onyl thing i coudl think it migth be doign is usinga differnet router, i think i would need you to run quite a lot of tests so i can try help or poitn you in the right direction

am i right in assuming oyu havea wired or wireless router? if so which make and model?

Regarding DNS servers (not for phones), you may find this site of interest.

Namebench

Try out namebench. It hunts down the fastest DNS servers available for your computer to use. namebench runs a fair and thorough benchmark using your web browser history, tcpdump output, or standardized datasets in order to provide an individualized recommendation. namebench is completely free and does not modify your system in any way. This project began as a 20% project at Google.
namebench runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and UNIX, and is available with a graphical user interface as well as a command-line interface.

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Regarding DNS servers (not for phones), you may find this site of interest.

Namebench

if he hasa rotuer which i think he does he jsut put the dns servers onto the router and teh rotuer will give the phoens the dns servers

[Kymmy]

A proxy can also be used to bypass certain routing issues, unlike DNS

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

A proxy can also be used to bypass certain routing issues, unlike DNS

yeah that what i mean to put when i post to my origianl reply but i put router

[Ayres Rock]

Thanks for the quick reply Andrew. I have Linksys Wireless-G Router (Model WRT54G) and this is connected to a Virgin Modem (E080C013).

As i said all was originally fine until i started to notice the problems that the kids were getting when using the kids sites for videos and myself using youtube. This was where i saw a reccomendation to try the proxy and even though i couldn't understand why the proxy would resolve it i gave it a go anyway and it did.

it wasn't just a slight lag either, it would not play any video on youtube at all and would just continue to buffer constantly. I tried a laptop using the wireless, a PC which was cabled (do confirm not just a fault with the wireless) and also an iPad. i tried different Operating systems (Vista and 7 and obviously iOS) and also different viewers (ie, firefox, chrome, safari). All were the same once i entered the proxy the video's worked fine.

[Andrewcrawford23]

ok.... lets start from teh begining then

can you connect the pc that you used wired to the modem directly, then power off the modem for 20 seocnds and then power it back on

once oyu have done that can you check if playing video is any better or not, if not leave it conenct like that and come back here ill get your to run some mroe tests

edit: i forgot to say remove the proxy before checking as i want to see how the conenction works hardwired to the modem with no proxy

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

A proxy can also be used to bypass certain routing issues, unlike DNS

Yeah, my suspicion is VM is feeding the normal/unproxied connection through a congested route.

If your internet connection is so bad it won't do basic things properly (i.e. youtube) then you should be complaining to VM about it or switching provider.

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Yeah, my suspicion is VM is feeding the normal/unproxied connection through a congested route.

i suspect so to but until tracert is done cant say for sure

[craigj2k12]

even with a tracert how are you going to know??

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by craigj2k12

even with a tracert how are you going to know??

tracert to say youtube with and wihtout proxy if it usinga different route it should be obvious, but i suspect how will i be able to tell virign are doing it i cant but at least the use rknow what going on but not sure techincally suport coudl fix it, th best ould be to try get new ip by turning it off for 3-5 days

[qasdfdsaq]

You can't tracert through proxy. HTTP proxies only operate on layer 7 connections. ICMP (ping/tracert) is a layer 3 connectionless protocol.

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

You can't tracert a proxy.

im not saying tracerotue the proxy!!!!

ok...

the user tracert to youtube without the proxy on

then repeat it with the proxy on the route used should change, in thoery in fact i want to oduble check that for ymself im now odubting myself

im a idiot i just realised it the browser that use it command pormpt doesnt i think

[qasdfdsaq]

Proxies cannot change the route of data that cannot go through a proxy.