Web Video Slowdowns

[Guest Dan]

Apparently, there have been reports of web video slowdowns. I recently

experienced this on my Nintendo Wii Game System last night and noticed how a

video was playing and then stopping. My dad, Ivan in New Mexico also has

Comcast cable. This was via a wireless connection so I did not think much

about it. I noticed it again today on my computer here with both Mozilla

Firefox 2.0.0.16 as well as Internet Explorer 6 and then contacted Comcast

Cable. I talked with the technician and he had me update flash which helped

but it was still slow. However, the slowdown was on the Tree Man video in

Yahoo.com and I have read about reports about slowdowns on CNN as well.

Perhaps this has to do with the amount of bandwidth that is being used to

host the Olympics. I did not notice any slowdowns on the msnbc.msn.com

videos on that site so I must conclude the slowdowns are originating with the

providers not providing enough bandwidth to accommodate all the new Web Users

who are watching the Olympics on the Web. The problem seems only to affect

videos at least for now on some sites. Just an FYI and it was indeed nice to

know that it was not on my side for a change.