Described herein is technology for, among other things, improving playback of media streams by maximizing bandwidth utilization. The technology may be implemented via a remote playback device on a network. It involves monitoring requests for portions of streaming media content and the associated responses to the requests and then adjusting request parameters to more effectively utilize available bandwidth. The effective available bandwidth may be controlled by moderating requests in order to induce behavior favorable to media streaming in the flow control mechanisms which control the amount of data sent in response to a request.