problem loading movies

Mighty Pete · Post by **Mighty Pete** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 2:54 pm

I think the ultimate bottle neck is the dns servers..

See this post for a possible solution.

http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ... ight=#9529

Every time you download a new movie it goes and looks up the IP address. DNS severs on some ISP's are notoriously slow..

I just use a Hosts file..

There is a free program also called CIP that makes this all automatic if you have the places bookmarked already. It takes your bookmark file looks them all up and writes a hosts file for places you go all the time. Of course you must bookmark them first for it to work.. But it does work wonders..

I've used it over 10 years now problem free.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/cipfree.html

Very small 187 kb.

Instead of seeing " Looking Up ...." You get "Connecting to .... " on the bottom bar.

You must be aware though some IP addresses change from time to time so if for some reason you can't connect to some site just lookup that site again and update your hosts file.

jsmaje · Post by **jsmaje** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:22 am

Mighty Pete wrote:I think the ultimate bottle neck is the dns servers...

Thanks for the info. I got CPI as you suggested but it hasn't made any noticeable difference. For me (if a movie is slow to load) the delay is in "Waiting for s3.amazonaws.com" rather than "connecting".
I've tried pinging and pathpinging both the stardust site and s3.amazonaws.com (which I think they use as their primary interface - ?), but neither seems to like it!

Mighty Pete · Post by **Mighty Pete** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:28 pm

Then add s3.amazonaws.com to your CIP and look up it's ip address. If that server is slow though there is nothing much you can do. Or add this line to your hosts file.

72.21.206.80 s3.amazonaws.com

There should be a noticeable speed increase. Have you saved your CIP Hosts file from inside CIP?

Are you using IE? If you are, just for you, try something else. See if it makes a difference. Nothing to loose and more of your time to gain.

jsmaje · Post by **jsmaje** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:07 pm

Mighty Pete wrote:Then add s3.amazonaws.com to your CIP and look up it's ip address.

Yep, I already added it to CIP - still no difference.

But to be honest, I'm not sure I personally have a problem anyway! - as it is, most movies load within 10-15 seconds in Netscape/Mozilla, and only occasionally stutter or hang*. I'm perfectly comfortable with that, and really only posted here to help others such as elainekeefe who get really frustrated by download times.

As a matter of interest, what might be the fastest time one could expect with absolutely everything in the internet chain fully optimised with current (publically available) technology/apps

.

* in IE, remember to avoid touching the lowest focus bars while the first movie is finishing loading, or you'll have to wait till the second fully loads.

Mighty Pete · Post by **Mighty Pete** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:40 pm

How fast? At work it loads as fast as you can view them. Faster than this machine.

jsmaje · Post by **jsmaje** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:00 pm

Mighty Pete wrote:How fast? At work it loads as fast as you can view them. Faster than this machine.

"At work"? I hope you have your employer's permission to use their time and resources. If not, I'll tell them!
"Faster than this machine"? Yours, mine, which machine?
"As fast as you can view them"? You, me, who?

No actual timings in your response, I notice....

Mighty Pete · Post by **Mighty Pete** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:06 pm

Seconds. Like 2 seconds. The machine I'm using right now.. Work? What work ? Did I say work...? During breaks of course...