UPDATED on 2015-10-17: I updated this post with the host name for live streams. Changing where it points to might help with the stream randomly blacking out. I did not test it.

UPDATE: If you like the Streaming option in the player then the host name used is hdv.giantbomb.com.

The problem

With the start of the new site (in 2013) the CDN provider has been changed to Akamai. This change made the .

Today I got pissed for not being able to watch new mailbag with close shots of Vinny in HD in HTML5 - it randomly stops and crashes. Why are download speeds lower and inconsistent now? I don't know (edit: are we directed to far away servers?), but the thing with CDN, which is a network of servers located in many countries, is that you are supposed to download stuff from a server located close to you. If you're in California, then you download from servers in California, if you're from Belgium you probably download stuff from somewhere in The Netherlands. Either way, there may be a situation when the server that's close to you simply sucks, or you're being directed to an overloaded server.

Now you might have though: Hey, so can I try using another server from say, Germany? Maybe it will work better? I'm on the Internet, I can download stuff from wherever I want, right? Yes, this is a fantastic idea! So how do you do that?

The solution

Note: CDNs IP addresses change often because of load balancing. Because of that it's a temporary solution, but you can repeat the process whenever the connection is slow. I have to change it every week or two.

First you should check from what IP address (of the CDN server) you are actually downloading with these bad speeds. Open cmd and type:

ping v.giantbomb.com

or for live streams:

ping gamespothdflash-f.akamaihd.net

Press Enter and see what this address is:

Checking v.giantbomb.com [ip address] <-------

or for live streams:

Checking gamespothdflash-f.akamaihd.net [ip address] <-------

Leave that window open and go to a website which does the same thing, but from many locations. That way you will have IP's of other servers, maybe other one will be much better (it usually is)?

http://www.whatsmydns.net

for live streams check this one:

http://www.whatsmydns.net

Pick one from that list and make sure it's not the one from last step. I've got a good one on first try, I tried one from California and I live in Poland!

So what do you do with that address?

Here is a way to do this on Windows: hosts file located in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\. This file is a common way to override an IP address of a given hostname. I'm not lying, look it up on the Internet!

Open this file in Notepad and at the end, in a new line type an IP address you chose from that site and v.giantbomb.com or gamespothdflash-f.akamaihd.net, separated by a space. Like this:

123.123.123.123 v.giantbomb.com <--- this is a fake one, don't use it.

Save the file and restart your PC, or type ipconfig /flushdns in cmd and restart your browser (actually, Chrome picks up the change automatically after a few seconds), and try if it works. Use cmd and ping v.giantbomb.com or gamespothdflash-f.akamaihd.net again, it must point to the address you picked.

Now test the download performance from Giant Bomb. If it still sucks, try a different IP.