Something interesting about YouTube

[Hígh Treason]

KCom? I wonder how this all works, presumably it's some kind of local cache for YouTube, implemented to improve speeds and balance network load. Just thought this was interesting... Wonder if there is any way to change it.

[Scotty]

!

I don't understand why that is happening?
Does Kcom cache video's that have been watched in an external location, then when the people of Hull go to them, we download them from their cache?

Explain please

[Hígh Treason]

I assume the server is owned by Google (YouTube) as it is a subdomain on their network, it is possible, however, that it is located with the servers that KCom use for other purposes.

In short, yes, it appears the server is located nearby and it's purpose is to cache videos so that they load faster with less traffic on the wider network (Outside of the Hull Area it will probably use another server), this is, presumably, why popular videos load much faster than those which are less popular, as they are likely cached here already.

It isn't a new thing for a site to do this, but the last time I payed any attention it was loading from a generic address, v1.lscache.c.youtube.com, as opposed to the new one, o-o.preferred.kcom-huy1.v1.lscache2.c.youtube.com. I have no idea how long it has been in place.

[commandergc]

HT is correct. Youtube has setup a lot of peering arrangements with ISPs lately, most likely to avoid the traffic management that a lot of ISPs are using.

KC is very likely to be the one hosting the cache server, how its kept update i have no clue. maybe some kind of syncing or just saving videos as they are streamed for the first time.

[richardmyers]

KC said about doing something like this a year or two ago, finally it's happened it would seem.

[Scotty]

Cool!
I think this can only be a good thing, to improve video loading speeds.
Although saying that, the video still has to be downloaded, so how fast it is will still depend on your DL speed.
Either way, well spotted.

[gusgormen]

It would be interesting to find out the size (TBs) of the unit that they are using,  how long it stores the cache for.   ie If i watch a youtube clip at 10am, and it caches it for everyone else, how long would that item stay in cache, hours or days?

[Hígh Treason]

My guess would be hours, seeing as the rule in business seems to be "Always appeal to the lowest common denominator!" it would only store videos for a short time to save on space (therefore money as well), if the video is watched again, the timer would be reset, so, it is presumably full of Lady Gaga videos and Hollyoaks or whatever the current fads are, I'd put money on there being no good stuff cached on there (Like The Zombies and Murun Buchtstansangur) because nobody watches it often enough for the counter to be reset.

If YouTube didn't have a cap on the speed you could stream videos from it, this cache would make it all very fast indeed, given that the cache is probably on a higher tier than we are, or at least has more bandwidth available to it, for example, it could probably download an hour of HD video in seconds, leaving the whole thing cached so that we could get it faster, of course, it may not download something of that size in one go - time, bandwidth and disk space = money, after all.

All speculation of course, I could be entirely wrong.

[Mardoxx]

Code:

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% Information related to '83.100.221.224 - 83.100.221.255'

inetnum: 83.100.221.224 - 83.100.221.255
netname: KAROOGOOGLECACHE-KCOM
country: GB
descr: Karoo Google Cache(Clancy #75)
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tech-c: KR2955-RIPE
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role: KINGSTON ROLE
address: Kingston Communications
address: Telephone House
address: Carr Lane
address: Kingston-upon-Hull
address: HU1 3RE
phone: +44 800 138 4858
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% Information related to '83.100.128.0/17AS12390'

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http://83.100.221.240/
5 hop google, not bad eh?

[David]

Anyone else noticed heavy throttling of youtube traffic now? ever since this kcom cache went up it seems..
and the cache sucks btw, im not into lady gaga or justin bieber so go figure kcom