How to fix Itunes slow movie downloads
For awhile I’ve known of the problem of slow Itunes (specially) movie download speeds. The problem is really well explained by Joe Maller in this post. The solution that he gives is pretty straight forward also, and fixes the problem if you are using a service like OpenDns or Google Dns. However if you still want to keep using any of those two dns services, you need to go back and forth adding, deleting and choosing one over the other.
The solution: Set multiple dns server addresses inside your network adapter
To fix your slow Itunes movie downloads, the solution is really simple, just make sure you get the dns server addresses from your internet service provider, choose OpenDns or Google Dns if you haven’t done so already. Then open your network connections, choose the adapter you use to connect to the internet on your computer, right click and select properties, then choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IP v4), click on properties which will open a new window.
At the bottom, you will have two radio buttons and above it will say “Obtain DNS server address automatically” if you are using a dns server address you will see their numbers in there. If not choose “Use the following DNS server addresses:”
Then click on advance, which will open another window with three tabs, choose the middle one that says DNS. If you didn’t have any addresses there before, now you can add them. If you had two addresses before you can still add more in there. With the arrows to the right you can give priority to one over the other.
Keep in mind that these addresses work in pairs, so for example the primary one for OpenDns is 208.67.220.220 and the secondary is 208.67.222.222, don’t mix them if you have others their, and remember that one is the primary and the other the secondary so don’t change their order.
By default Windows will use the first two of the list, so you can have a few different pairs in there, for example the ones for OpenDns, Google Dns and the ones from your ISP.
How to make it work for you?
For most users using a dns service like the ones mentioned above is the way to go, because they offer many benefits over your ISP’s dns. You basically want to have them running on your computer 99% of the time, for that moment that you decide you need to download a movie from Itunes or other services, then just open your network adapter and change the settings, open Itunes and start your download. Once you are done simply go back and change them again.
In that way you can have the best of both worlds and not have to choose one service over the other permanently.
Erin Symons says
December 5, 2011 at 11:10 amKen – What an awesome how-to post on using OpenDNS to speed up Internet connections. Thanks so much for including OpenDNS. We’d love to send you an OpenDNS t-shirt as a little thank-you. Email me your size and mailing address.
Thanks again!
Ken says
December 5, 2011 at 11:51 amHi Erin,
That is so cool that you guys saw this post, thanks for checking it!! A medium t-shirt would be great, I will wear it proudly!!
Ty Cox says
January 23, 2012 at 1:58 pmI’ve been using OpenDNS as my default DNS server for years. Recently, with increasing regularity, movie rentals using my AppleTV have been unreliable. Some intensive troubleshooting of the possible causes ruled out my broadband connection, home network configuration, my router’s health, and the AppleTV device itself. Switching from OpenDNS to my ISP’s DNS seems to have solved the problem.
My router was configured to use OpenDNS for all connected devices. I would like to continue using OpenDNS for general web surfing but have my AppleTV us my ISP’s DNS. Is this possible? Will manually configuring my AppleTV to use a different DNS address work with a router that has another DNS address?
Ty Cox says
January 23, 2012 at 1:58 pmI’ve been using OpenDNS as my default DNS server for years. Recently, with increasing regularity, movie rentals using my AppleTV have been unreliable. Some intensive troubleshooting of the possible causes ruled out my broadband connection, home network configuration, my router’s health, and the AppleTV device itself. Switching from OpenDNS to my ISP’s DNS seems to have solved the problem.
My router was configured to use OpenDNS for all connected devices. I would like to continue using OpenDNS for general web surfing but have my AppleTV us my ISP’s DNS. Is this possible? Will manually configuring my AppleTV to use a different DNS address work with a router that has another DNS address?
Ken says
January 23, 2012 at 3:54 pmHi Ty, I have a similar setup as yours, so I think it should work. Let me explain, my router is setup with the OpenDNS address, so all my hardwired and wireless devices go through OpenDNS.
However when I download movies from Itunes, what I do is normally download to my pc and then just stream them to my AppleTV. I find it to be much faster this way.
Each time I want to download anything, I make the switch to my ISP’s address just like in the video, doing that forces the adapter to use the address I choose, in this case the ISP’s.
In your case, even though you are using the wireless signal, from the router which is configured with OpenDNS, the AppleTV should use the dns that you manually added to it.
But I would recommend if you can to download to your computer via Itunes and then stream. Just a few days ago, by chance I was doing an update to my ps3 that was taking too long, I changed from wireless to a wired connection and the speed difference was 15mbps down with a wire, and 6.5 wireless.
A big difference, anyways try it and let me know if it works fine for you. And thank you for your comment.