What is i4.ytimg.com? Why is my browser waiting for it while on this site?

[Dean]

i4.ytimg.com/

?

I go to that site and this shows up:



It could easily be my firefox browser bing confused, but thought I would ask.

 

[Dean]

3) Do a tracer to the target server to determine who's router is dropping the ball.

The last hop is the problem, that is why everyone I've talked to is having problems accessing it:
9 * * 181 ms nuq04s01-in-f118.1e100.net [74.125.19.118]

Since other dns providers resolve i4.ytimg.com to IPs that work better, I am seeking some way of finding out how to use another dns. I was using ATT dns, and how I believe I am using open dns, but do not know how to test that. If there is a way to force a different dns resolution, then when my members have issues with xf in the future, I could help them.

I am aware that serving content from other service providers can cause these types of issues and that is why I do not do that on my own site at this time. No facebook, twitter, google-analytics, google ads, etc.

 

[ENF]

I get a 38% loss from that address you mentioned above.

A tracer from my side uses a different path and is free and clear since it's a different server and geographical location.

That last hop is either having problems or it's clearly overloaded.

 

[Dean]

I get a 38% loss from that address you mentioned above.

A tracer from my side uses a different path and is free and clear since it's a different server and geographical location.

That last hop is either having problems or it's clearly overloaded.

Thank you for confirming that. Most problem urls seem to stem from resolving google content. I will try to use the google dns if that is possible, I saw a link somewhere about it.

In the mean time I found a way to confirm which dns server I am using at this time:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>nslookup
Default Server: resolver1.opendns.com
Address: 208.67.222.222

 

[Dean]

This is ridiculous.

I have used ATT dns (68.94.156.1 & 68.94.157.1), open dns (208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220), and now google dns (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4).

For all of them i4.ytimg.com resolves to 74.125.19.118, which has some significant connection issues. And it seems the problem might resolve itself in about 3 hours at midnight, if the theories on the internet have any substance. So time is a bit short.

If anyone would like to ping i4.ytimg.com and post what IP that resolves to, I would really appreciate it.

 

[ENF]

Changing the DNS won't change your network path... you're going to get the same server (I believe) which is relevant to your geographic location.

For Japan, I get this IP for that DNS address you posted: 74.125.153.118 (PTR resolves to: ytimg.l.google.com)

If you want force your PC to resolve this address instead, for testing, make a manual entry in your hosts file (if you're using Windows) and then flush your DNS. (ipconfig /flushdns)

 

[Dean]

I really appreciate you helping

I believe the same url goes to different IPs & different servers when a company as large as google is involved, but I could be wrong.

I understand that a dns will resolve to the appropriate IP for an individuals location. And you confirmed that the url resolved to a different IP than what the 3 dns servers I tried resolved to, which is problematic at this time.

The IP you got (74.125.153.118) works much better for me than the one I got. I don't think I need to test whether using that in by computer will make the operation of this site better, I am fairly sure it will.

I keep thinking of ways to avoid this situation in the future, I strongly believe it has been an issue for me many times over the last few years.

 

[Shadab]

I pinged i4.ytimg.com and it resolves to 74.125.19.118
The latency isn't great. But I'm not experiencing any packet loss as such.

Pinging ytimg.l.google.com [74.125.19.118] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.19.118: bytes=32 time=281ms TTL=52
Reply from 74.125.19.118: bytes=32 time=283ms TTL=52
Reply from 74.125.19.118: bytes=32 time=278ms TTL=52
Reply from 74.125.19.118: bytes=32 time=280ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 74.125.19.118:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 278ms, Maximum = 283ms, Average = 280ms

If you want to override the domain resolution, go to: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\
and open the hosts file with notepad or wordpad. Insert this on a new line:

74.125.153.118    i4.ytimg.com

Save it. And now try pinging the domain to see if it works correctly.
Of course this isn't a long term solution to the network problems you are facing.