Fix buffering: wifi fixes for streaming

Before you blame the service, the stick, or the broadband company, read this. Most stalls, spinners and “sorry, something went wrong” screens come from the last ten metres: the gap between the router in the hall and the telly in the sitting room.

Work down the list. Each step is cheaper than the next, and most people stop at the first or second.

1. A cable, if you possibly can

An Ethernet cable is the boring, correct answer. No interference, no dropouts, no arguing with the neighbours’ routers. A ten-metre Cat 6 cable costs about the price of a sandwich and a flat one tucks under the carpet or along the skirting.

Plug it into the TV, or into any streaming box with an Ethernet port: the Google TV Streamer, the current Apple TV 4K, the Nvidia Shield and most smart TVs have one. Fire TV Sticks don’t, but Amazon sells a small Ethernet adapter for them. There’s more than one version with different plugs, so check the adapter’s listing names your exact stick.

If the router is in the wrong room entirely, ask your broadband provider whether the socket can be moved. It’s often free or cheap when you’re switching provider.

2. Move the router, and stop hiding it

Routers live in the hall because that’s where the cable comes in, then get shoved into a press because they’re ugly. Every wall, door and cupboard costs signal.

• Get it out of the cupboard and up off the floor. Shelf height, in the open.
• Keep it away from the microwave, the cordless phone base and the fish tank. All three interfere.
• If your router has a 5 GHz network and a 2.4 GHz one, put the TV on 5 GHz. It’s faster but shorter range. If the TV can only see 2.4 GHz, that’s your problem, and the next steps fix it.
• Reboot it. Genuinely. Once a month.

Free, and it fixes more than anyone admits.

3. Powerline adapters

Two plugs. One goes in the wall beside the router with a short Ethernet cable into it. The other goes in the wall beside the telly with an Ethernet cable into the TV or box. The internet travels through the house wiring in between.

It sounds like witchcraft and it works in most Irish houses, especially older ones with thick walls that murder wifi. A few rules from the makers’ own guides:

• Plug straight into the wall socket. Extension leads and surge protectors cripple them.
• Both plugs on the same electrical circuit works best. Upstairs and downstairs are often on different circuits and it may still work, just slower.
• Keep them away from phone chargers and other noisy plugs.

4. Mesh wifi

When the whole house has bad wifi rather than one room, replace the router’s wifi with a mesh kit: two or three pods that talk to each other and hand your devices between them as you move. The first pod plugs into your existing router; the others sit where the signal was weak.

What to look for:

• Wi-Fi 6 kits are the value point. Wi-Fi 7 costs a lot more and nothing on your telly will notice.
• An Ethernet port on each pod. Then the pod beside the TV can feed it by cable, which is the best of both worlds.
• Two pods for a normal semi, three for a big or long house. More pods is not better; each hop costs speed.

TP-Link Deco, Amazon eero, Google Nest Wifi and Netgear Orbi are the usual names. They all work; buy on price and on how many pods you need.

5. Only then, the broadband

If a cabled TV in the same room as the router still buffers, the problem is upstream. Check what you’re paying for against what you’re getting on a wired speed test, then ring the provider. Irish fibre packages now start well above what streaming needs, so the cure is rarely “a faster plan” and more often “a plan that actually delivers”.

Quick wins on the stick itself

• Close apps you’re not using. Fire TV and Google TV both let you.
• Update the software. Then update the apps.
• If the stick is wedged behind a big metal TV, use the short HDMI extender in the box to move it out from behind the panel. Metal blocks wifi.
• Restart the stick. Same logic as the router.
• If it’s an old no-name box, or a stick with no Ethernet option, it may simply be the weak link. Our streaming stick guide compares the certified ones, including which have an Ethernet port.

A word on VPNs

You’ll see VPNs advertised beside every streaming article on the internet, so let’s be clear about what they’re for.

A VPN encrypts the connection between your device and the VPN company’s servers. That is useful on networks you don’t control: hotel wifi, the coffee shop, the airport, a holiday rental. On those, a VPN stops whoever runs the network, or whoever is sitting on it, from seeing what your laptop or phone is doing. That’s a real privacy benefit and a sensible thing to have on a phone that travels.

At home, on your own broadband, watching Irish services on a stick, a VPN does very little for you. It won’t make the stream faster (it adds a hop, so if anything it’s slower), it isn’t a way around any service’s terms, and it certainly isn’t a way to make a dodgy box safe. Nothing about the legal or security problems on the risks page is fixed by a VPN.

If you want one for the privacy reasons above, pick a reputable paid provider with a clear no-logging policy and apps for your phone and laptop.

When it’s not the wifi at all

Sometimes the buffering is the service having a bad night, particularly at kick-off when half the country logs in. If the news plays fine and only the match struggles, check the service’s own status page or social account before pulling cables out of the wall.

And if the service you’re paying for does this every week, the finder will show you what else covers the same competition, and for how many months you actually need it.