Virtual Private Network and YouTube. How to watch YouTube videos when it slows down?
According to the Telegram channel Mash, YouTube may slow down in Russia from July 12, 2024. Video download speed will decrease, and playback quality will deteriorate. According to officials and departments, the reason for this is technical problems related to the wear and tear of Google equipment in Russia. The volume of traffic is increasing, and the old CDN infrastructure, which has not been updated for 2.5 years, can no longer cope with the load. As Rostelecom confirmed, this situation will affect all users, regardless of the operator they choose. Rumors about the service slowing down or being completely blocked are also increasingly surfacing. However, so far all the problems are related to accidents at backbone providers.
We decided to find out how YouTube works in Russia now, and also to check whether using a virtual private network with a connection to a server located close to Google caching servers outside the Russian Federation will help to ensure comfortable video viewing. It was also interesting to check how the constant activation of such a connection will affect the operation of other services, since the use of virtual private networks often negatively affects the operation of services and software.
We tested watching YouTube videos over a virtual private network before server located in the Netherlandsfrom a small town in Udmurtia. We rented a VPS in a data center in the Netherlands, installed the software, and set up a server for a virtual private network. Installing the software on the server and setting up the laptop took about five minutes. The connection can be set up on both a desktop computer and a smartphone.
Spoiler: YouTube works fine when connected to YouTube servers via a virtual private network.
Rostelecom. Connection by default
First, let's evaluate the current connection speed and YouTube speed. A typical regional user of Rostelecom is connected via 100 Mbit “fiber to the entrance”. This speed is enough to view content in 4K at 60 frames per second. A modern video card will be responsible for displaying – the same as in your computer or laptop, so there should be no “slowdowns” in graphics due to local hardware problems. We take screenshots on a 1080p monitor, but no difference in values was noticed either in windowed/maximized mode or when testing on a 4K monitor, since the video card and its codec support are more important here.
SpeedTest
A speed test to the company's servers in the same region (in our case, the user lives in Udmurtia, the speed to Rostelecom servers in Izhevsk was measured, since there is no Rostelecom server in the city from which we are testing in SpeedTest) gives approximately 90 Mbit/s for downloading and 95 Mbit/s for uploading.
Checking the speed to the servers of another provider in Moscow (where the traffic exchange points are located and where the load is predicted to increase due to YouTube) shows similar values within the margin of error, which is associated with the parameters of the Internet channel.
YouTube
Let's take a test video (https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=gcsxAddFaoA) and we will gradually increase its quality, clearing the browser cache with each launch via Ctrl+Shift+R. We will look at the speed and other parameters via “Statistics for system administrators”, which can be called up from the menu by right-clicking on the video.
720p 60 fps (HD)
The connection speed is around 50–52 Mbps, and the downloaded cache is enough for an average of 25 seconds of video with a uniform buffer loading.
1080p 60 fps (FullHD)
The flow rate is higher (more data is needed) and stays around 65–67 Mbit/s. The cache loads for about 15 seconds. Speed drops by 5–10 Mbit sometimes happened, but were leveled out by the cache. At the same time, there were a couple of drops to the level of online broadcasting.
2060p 60 fps (4K)
Although the channel speed is high and reaches 75 Mbit/s, the video cache is only enough for 8-9 seconds with drops of up to 5 seconds. Frame drops begin (not critical, but there are some). For the current Internet speed, this is the limit, the 8K parameter is not available in the quality selection. When running the test in 4K resolution, there were several frame drops, since the video preload cache was exhausted without updating it. The screenshot shows that at that moment, YouTube automatically reduced the quality to 1440p.
Using a private network connected to a server in the Netherlands to watch YouTube
We connect to our server in Amsterdam and forward the connection to it. Now all traffic goes through the server, and we depend only on the connection speed (and content delivery) in Amsterdam and the speed of traffic from Europe to us.
We carry out the same tests.
SpeedTest
The speed to the server in the Netherlands is slightly lower than with a local connection. The ping has increased somewhat, but this is not critical for us, since we are not testing in an online shooter. Overall, according to the results of several tests, the speed fluctuates in the range of 85–95 Mbit/s.
There are no Rostelecom servers in the city we are testing from in SpeedTest, so we look at the speed to Rostelecom servers in Izhevsk. These values show how fast data will get from the Netherlands to Russia and back. And here we get an average of 75 Mbps for downloading and 95 Mbps for uploading. Ping doubles in this case.
We offer cheap VPS servers (from 300 rubles per month) in Europe, the USA, Turkey and Russia with root access. You can install the necessary software on your server yourself, or use our marketplace and get a server with pre-installed software. Payment is made in rubles, including MIR cards and through other Russian payment systems. Server readiness time is from 3 to 60 minutes, depending on the selected configuration.
YouTube
720p 60 fps (HD)
We get about 30 Mbit and a cache for 35-40 seconds. Although the speed is lower, it is more than enough, and the cache itself is updated evenly, the video buffer is always full.
1080p 60 fps (Full HD)
The connection speed is around 28 Mbit/s, the buffer is filled a bit saw-tooth-wise, but the next 20 seconds of video are constantly loaded into the cache. There are no dropped frames, watching videos is comfortable.
2060p 60 fps (4K)
The speed also stays around 28 Mbps, the video is cached for 8-10 seconds with small drops of up to 6 seconds, there were a couple of frame drops. However, during repeated runs (we ran the test five times for each resolution), the video quality did not decrease even once.
What about other Russian resources if there is a virtual network?
Let's check other video hosting sites in 4K mode.
“VK video” (https://vk.ru/video-194963909_456239935)
The network speed is 30 Mbit/s on average, but the cache is a disaster. It loads for 2-3 seconds, then quickly runs out, causing the video to stop for a couple of seconds. Watching such a slideshow is very unpleasant. When turning off the virtual network, it allows you to buffer about 25 seconds of video, and you can already watch it in 4K. VKontakte itself also becomes less responsive when the virtual network is turned on.
RuTube (https://rutube.ru/video/1cc5e01b1808d7189cb40706700dd3a1/)
Here, 4K requires a channel width of 20 Mbps, so the cache is loaded with a reserve of 20 seconds. Disabling the virtual private network increases the video buffer to 30 seconds, the video quality remains the same.
What about “non-video” services?
Banking apps, taxis, online stores work fine. So even if you are “virtually” in Amsterdam, it will not affect the operation of most services (unless, of course, you depend on the connection ping).
Just in case. We check servers in the USA, Finland and Turkey
Let's check the speed of work with servers in other locations. We will test YouTube video in 1080p and 4K resolutions, and the speed – through SpeedTest, when connecting to local servers and to the Rostelecom server in Izhevsk.
SpeedTest in USA, Finland and Turkey
USA: 25 Mbps download and 95 Mbps upload with a ping of 145 ms. When connecting to the Rostelecom server in Izhevsk, the connection speed drops to 19 Mbps, and the ping increases to 285 ms.
Finland: 60 Mbps download and 90 Mbps upload with an average ping of 75. Before Izhevsk, the speed drops to 37 Mbps, and the ping increases to 145 ms.
Turkey: 25 Mbps download and 95 Mbps upload with ping 100 ms. Before Izhevsk the speed drops to 19 Mbps with ping increasing to 190 ms.
YouTube in the US, Finland and Turkey
USA: 1080p has a buffer of about 25 seconds, no dropped frames; despite the relatively low video transfer rate (10 Mbps), it works great. In 4K, everything is bad. Half of the frames are dropped, the video is jerky for a maximum of 0.5 seconds with pauses of 1-2 seconds. YouTube recommends 1080p.
Finland: 1080p is watchable, no drops, but there are small frame drops. The buffer is on average 10-12 seconds. 4K drops about 15-20% of frames, there is almost no buffer, the video regularly slows down due to lack of speed, since the transfer speed is about 24 Mbit/sec. YouTube itself offers 1080p.
Turkey: Minor frame drops of 1% with a 15-16 second video buffer for 1080p. 4K is at its limit, the bit rate fluctuates between 16 and 20 Mbps, and the buffer empties every 1-2 seconds, slowing down the video to load. The maximum watchable resolution is 1440p.
As you can see, the geographic location of the server also has an effect, but it seems that the connection to a remote server is much more important for a private network. The north in Helsinki is closer than the server in the Netherlands, but the latter works better. However, if you are not a fan of watching videos in 4K, 1080p will be available in all locations, but 2K may not be for everyone.
What's the bottom line?
As tests have shown, connecting to YouTube servers via a virtual private network will help with possible degradation of caching servers in Russia. However, so far the problem is observed only with resolutions of 4K and higher, when the connection speed is no longer a panacea, so if you watch videos in 1440p or even 1080p, you may not notice the problem in the near future. But if you find that your provider “gives” you YouTube videos in 720p or 480p, or does not give them at all, you know what to do. We checked – a virtual private network works great!
We offer cheap VPS servers (from 300 rubles per month) in Europe, the USA, Turkey and Russia with root access. You can install the necessary software on your server yourself, or use our marketplace and get a server with pre-installed software. Payment is made in rubles, including MIR cards and through other Russian payment systems. Server readiness time is from 3 to 60 minutes, depending on the selected configuration.
