Streaming question

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I've never been able to stream movies etc. before now. At present I'm streaming via wireless. It's been iffy so far. Would I get better streaming via an ethernet cable??
 
What is the speed coming into your home? An Ethernet cable will always be faster than wireless.

But wireless should be fast enough to stream.

Do a network speed test using a Ethernet cable attached PC to get a baseline do the same on wireless.

You can kind of stream at 5Mb. But more like 10 Mb is needed. More if you go to UHD.

You need a good wireless router not older than say 2 years.
 
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What's your speed? Run a speedtest on your device via wireless and see what it says. Your connection speed is probably too slow. You'd have to get closer to the router to get higher speeds.
 
Speed is between 20-30 mbps. The router is beside the tv. My Dish dvr is frozen at the moment. I tried to switch from watching a movie back to live tv and it froze. Will unplug it and see what happens.
 
Do a jitter and packet loss test and run periodic seed tests. If you see a lot of gaps (typical in a wireless connection) , wide variations in bandwidth, or a lot of variability in ping times, that indicates that the wireless connection is over capacity. You will probably get a better quality connection from cable.
 
Originally Posted by loneryder
Speed is between 20-30 mbps. The router is beside the tv. My Dish dvr is frozen at the moment. I tried to switch from watching a movie back to live tv and it froze. Will unplug it and see what happens.

Is that 20~30mbps wireless? If so, that's more than fast enough to stream.. unless, you have multiple other devices streaming videos or gaming at the same time, then things can get iffy. If you're getting a lot of buffering then check your device buffer and router settings or call your service providers tech support because something's not right. You should be able to stream a video seamlessly at 20~30mbps.
 
You might be getting interference if you're on 2.4GHz. We were having tons of issues at our previous house, turns out most of my neighbors were using one of the same 2 or 3 channels. Switched to one where there was no other WiFi and no more issues!
 
Yes, unless you have a red herring in your network, you will get far better, consistent and higher performance using wire over wifi.

This will always be true. Wifi will never, due to science, be faster than wires if you have an apples to apples comparison of the contemporary standards for both.

The DETAILS on the other hand, that's the devil.

Long story short, never use wifi if you have a reasonable/tolerable option of using a cable. Not only will that link be faster and more consistent, it will also free up your wifi bandwidth for devices that need it.
 
Try the wire to see if it improves things as a test, but 20 mb should be more than enough. I think Netflix says bare minimum is 3 mb, so youre well above that. What are you using to stream? Could the device be older and not up to more recent streaming standards? ie older smart tv, or roku box.
 
Originally Posted by loneryder
Speed is between 20-30 mbps. The router is beside the tv. My Dish dvr is frozen at the moment. I tried to switch from watching a movie back to live tv and it froze. Will unplug it and see what happens.


You have WAY MORE than enough speed. My last house had 10 mbps and streamed perfectly fine. My current house has 15 mbps and we were ecstatic to have 50% faster internet, and of course, it streams HD perfectly fine. We stream over WiFi.
 
What are you streaming the movies on? Laptop, Fire Stick, something else?

As others have said, do a speed test. There is an app from the App store to test Wifi signals on your smart phone. It's called Netgear wifi analytics. It tells you if your Wifi settings are optimal such as Wifi assigned channels. This may help you change your wifi settings to increase performance.
 
There are some apps on the app store to tell you what other WIFI routers are around you from neighbors.

The Unfi controller will send me an email when it detects interference.

Also I am unimpressed with the smart TV portion of the smart TV I have. Went to a Roku vs using the smart TV portion of the TV. Still use the TV.
 
Originally Posted by loneryder
Speed is between 20-30 mbps. The router is beside the tv. My Dish dvr is frozen at the moment. I tried to switch from watching a movie back to live tv and it froze. Will unplug it and see what happens.


20-30? Not even close to being fast enough. I am at 227 which is more than enough. TV, computer, multiple devices are always in use. Having said that, you should be at at least 60 to make it work OK.
How old is your router/modem? Have you unplugged them lately and let them reset? My ex's likes to dip below 50 after a couple months of use and it's noticeable when I'm there with the kids.
 
Ethernet cable into a router will mask wireless problems due to home or a junky router and give you nearly full speed of internet connection. If they persist then it potentially your internet itself.

You don't need 60Mbps as state above. At a motel I was able with 30Mbps to repeat thru a travel router plugged in outdoor outlet for my entire family (5) to stream Netflix, Xfinity, Amazon etc.

Recommend: https://speedtest.xfinity.com which will give you some info of your wireless connection.
 
Originally Posted by Chris Meutsch
20-30? Not even close to being fast enough.

I'm at 30 with router 15 ft from tv and have no problems.
 
Originally Posted by Chris Meutsch

20-30? Not even close to being fast enough. I am at 227 which is more than enough. TV, computer, multiple devices are always in use. Having said that, you should be at at least 60 to make it work OK.
How old is your router/modem? Have you unplugged them lately and let them reset? My ex's likes to dip below 50 after a couple months of use and it's noticeable when I'm there with the kids.

Now that's funny...

You can stream HD video on as little as 5mbps if I'm not mistaken. Check out what your Netflix settings says, they know better than anyone about how much bandwidth you need. And I believe if you lower the definition to SD you can stream on as little as 2mbps.
 
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Originally Posted by loneryder
Speed is between 20-30 mbps. The router is beside the tv. My Dish dvr is frozen at the moment. I tried to switch from watching a movie back to live tv and it froze. Will unplug it and see what happens.


Yes something is wrong possibly with your router it's impossible to say so many variables. But without question in my opinion 20 to 30 is plenty
If you hook up an ethernet cable that will help figure out if it's your router your connection or whatever device you use to stream
 
Here ya go..20~30mbps is more than enough. The OP's issue isn't his bandwidth.

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Thanks for all the good info. I'm using ISP DSI communications. It's a line of sight deal that connects into fiber. I'm using their router which is a small cube. It is 2 channel. There are no buttons on it. Speed tests give me between 20-30 mbps.
Streaming with a year old Samsung tv. Will get an ethernet cable to try that. Everything is wifi right now.
 
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