When streaming video, getting the most out of your Wi-Fi network (the backbone of your entertainment system) is critical. The following are suggestions on how you can get your streaming media flowing swift and smooth throughout your home network.
Table of Contents
- Use Your Own Router
- Use the Latest Technology
- Find the Best Place for Your Router
- Adjust the Antennas
- Choose the Right Channel
- Avoid Interference from Other Appliances
- Enable Security
- Lower Bandwidth Requirements of Other Apps
- When You Can, Use Ethernet
- Avoid Mesh Networks
Use Your Own Router
ISP rental routers are typically several years old and, therefore, unlikely to offer the latest features or technology.
With rental fees averaging $10-15 per month, it's often more cost-effective to buy your router than rent it, especially if you’ll be staying with your ISP for several years. Make sure to check with your ISP before choosing a new router, as they may not support the one you have your eye on.
If your ISP requires that you use one of their routers but you still want more control over your home network, you can sometimes bridge the two devices.
Use the Latest Technology
Router technology has come a long way in the last few years. Newer routers will offer upgraded internal components and stronger external antennas which can increase performance and range.
Make sure yours runs either the 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) or the newer 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) standard, both of which are designed to handle the speeds streaming requires. All are billed as ‘dual-band’ and can transmit data over both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio frequencies - more on that later.
If you already have a newer router, make sure you periodically check for firmware updates.
Find the Best Place for Your Router
While most routers won’t win any awards for being beautiful, you should resist the urge to hide it away. To get the best performance from your router, it should be as high as possible in a central location in your house, away from walls or other obstructions.
Adjust the Antennas
If you think all of your router’s antennas should be pointing up for the best reception, think again. According to those in the know, it’s actually best to have one pointing up and the other pointing horizontally as the WiFi antennas on your devices like your smartphone, your laptop or streaming device can have differing orientations.
Choose the Right Channel
If you live in an urban environment, there are likely multiple Wi-Fi signals all competing for space on the popular 2.4 GHz frequency which can cause interference. You may be able to combat this by choosing a different 2.4 GHz channel than your neighbor or moving some of your devices to the less crowded 5 GHz spectrum, which will require a dual-band router.
For more details, see here.
Avoid Interference from Other Appliances
Another reason to take a close look at your router’s channel and frequency settings is there are appliances interfering with the 2.4 GHz frequency that you might not even think about like microwaves, baby monitors and cordless phones. While you can buy things like cordless phones on other frequencies, if you want to avoid buying all-new gear, just make sure to keep your router away from these types of appliances.
Enable Security
If your Wi-Fi password is ‘Wi-Fi’, ‘Password’ or ‘1234’, your neighbor (or someone even more unsavory) might be using your internet and reducing your bandwidth. Make sure to change the default credentials and the network name from the standard (like Linksys) to something new that doesn’t identify you (IE: Sparrowhawk Network).
Ensure You Have Good Coverage
If you’ve got a larger house or are trying to stream to devices in your basement, bonus room or garage without success, you may need a Wi-Fi extender. These devices will boost the reach of your existing router to ensure you get the speeds you need in those hard-to-reach spots.
Lower The Bandwidth Requirements of Other Apps
There are many apps on your network that eat up bandwidth. Tweaking their settings may make your video-streaming smoother:
- Stop Autoplaying Videos: Apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram may play videos automatically when you scroll past them. Set your home devices not to. That way, you'll only watch video on your terms and save bandwith.
- Make Items Available Offline: Music apps like iTunes and Spotify can eat up bandwidth streaming music while you watch TV. In that regard, it may be handy to save your favorites on the devices in question. That way, bopping to tunes won't slow down other Wi-Fi tasks.
- Lower Video Settings: Certain web apps allow viewing video at lower settings. If you're fine with such, it may be worthwhile to set up your streaming apps and maybe even your Legacy Tablo to stream at a lower quality. 4th Generation Tablo, however, must always stream at its highest quality.
Advanced users might want to set up Quality-of-Service (or QoS) rules on their router, which allow them to give some devices bandwidth priority over others.
When You Can, Use Ethernet
While you can do a lot of things to improve your W-iFi network, nothing can really beat the speed and stability of a wired Ethernet connection. If you can, hook up your Tablo via Ethernet.
Avoid Mesh Networks
Mesh Networks comprise of multiple wireless access points that share the same SSID, aka network name. Your Wi-Fi devices may connect to any of these access points and seamlessly jump to others should their current location's signal degrade.
While handy for some, they have to be setup perfectly to be useful for over-the-air streaming.
As such, we do not recommend a mesh network for casual users. In this regard, it's often better to simply get a single, more up-to-date router.