Problems with my Streaming Device, where do I begin?

You recently cut the cord and you’re having problems? Not enough bandwidth? 5G signal is fine? Your other TV’s are fine? Firestick no longer works but your Roku device is fine? Where do I go from here? You’re not going to find a Silver Bullet but we can help shed some light and point you in the right direction.

It’s not about 5G or GBps or Roku vs. Firestick or if “all of my other tvs are working” or deleting/reloading apps… If you’re not semi-technical then yes, you’re going to go through major pain trying to get your streaming services to an acceptable level of stability. Trust me, I’ve suffered through all of these issues but my goal was to understand WTF I was doing by doing lots of research and tons of testing. If you’re just going to complain then cutting the cord is definitely not for you. I have some blog entries specifically on how to troubleshoot streaming issues but it’s clear that there aren’t many resources to the new cord cutters so here are some tips to check first:

1. Everyone’s home network is different. Some houses are wood, some are brick, some are plaster and lathe with metal mesh.. Wifi is not great at getting through any of them but it’s very simple to test the signal. You must test at your tv/device – and the result with be either poor, good, or strong .. If it’s not at least “good” then start there. Go to youtube and search on how to test your signal strength. To improve it at that tv, you’ll find yourself playing with the antenna/ears on your router .. yes – technology hasn’t advanced that far where this no longer applies.

2. 5G sucks! Yes, I said it. The 2.4G band covers my entire house.. The 5G band will not even reach outside of my office where my router sits. Always try the 2.4G band before anything else that you do!

3. All devices, including your router should be rebooted once per week. If not, don’t ask why you are having problems.

4. Other devices interfere with your wifi, whether it’s a neighbors router, your own cordless phone, a tv antenna etc. Go to youtube and search on Wifi analyzer, walk through the steps to see if your wifi network is configured on the best Channel to avoid interference.

5. Make sure that you have enough memory on your streaming device. If you use a Smart TV and you are having problems then buy a Firestick or Roku. Smart TV’s suck for many reasons, I won’t go into more details here but you can learn more on Google about this topic. Make sure that your streaming device has at least 25% free memory. Go to youtube and learn how to check, if you don’t know how.

6. Clear the cache on your streaming device and locally installed apps.

If you follow the steps above (over and over) it should address your problems almost every time. If you don’t follow the steps above and you ask why you are having problems then you should go back to cable. If you do follow the steps above and you are still having issues then there are a few other steps that you can follow but it will be more making sure that your device has the latest updates or about buying new hardware and or moving/testing devices closer to your router. Please contact us if these steps do not help you make your streaming service much better – and please contact us with any comments, good or bad!