Re: Problems with install - TV right next to satellite is very slow and won't stream HD

orbfusion · ‎2017-03-05

Hello.

I installed Orbi yesterday to upgrade from an airport extreme. I have the base unit in the living room and the satellite in the office. My home is shaped like an "L", with the outside bottom of the L being the living room and the middle part of the L.

I get a 300 Mbps speed in the living room from base station. I get a 200 Mbps speed in the far, top bedroom. However, I get a 120 Mbps in the office, on a computer that is one foot from the satellite. That seems odd that the far bedroom is getting faster speeds from the satellite than the computer right next to it. This isn't a deal breaker though.

The real problem is my new samsung ks8000 4K TV (the entire reason for upgrading connection speed, modem and buying the Orbi). My TV sees the network and joins it. However, when I check the network it says that its not connected to the internet. BUT, it IS connected to the web. However, it gives a speedtest (via netflix test) of only 23 Mbps. This TV is right next to the satellite.

I also can't connect via orbilogin.com. I have to go direct to 192.168.1.1.

I have confirmed that the devices are connected to the satellite directly. I have done a factory reset on the Orbi and the TV. Its running the latest firmware. I can't figure out why the office, with the satellite in it, is getting worse speeds than the far bedroom (30 feet from satellite and multiple walls). I'd really appreciate any help or ideas.

My modem is a brand new Netgear CM700.

st_shaw · ‎2017-03-06

If your TV has a wired Ethernet connection, you should really be using that to stream video. Best to wire the TV to the router. If that's not possible, then wire the TV to the Orbi satellite.

You problem with wireless could be that the Orbi is too close to the TV. Move them apart and see if that helps. But, like I said you should wire the TV. This will give better performance for the TV and everything else on your WiFi network.

Mikey94025 · ‎2017-03-06

Can you get a little more debugging info so we can better understand this strange situation, where your TV only gets 23 Mbps?

Connect a computer via ethernet to the satellite near the TV and run a speedtest.
Connect the same computer via wifi to the satellite near the TV and run a speedtest (if your TV is connected to a different satellite than the 120 Mbps test you've already done).
As already suggested, connect your TV via ethernet and run a speedtest.

This will tell us whether the issue is wifi to the satellite or something specific to your TV. Is there also a reset method you can try for the TV?

orbfusion · ‎2017-03-06

So I spent 2 hours on the phone last night with tech support and the issue appears to be fixed. Turns out there were several issues with both the router settings and my assorted hardware. I'll list the fixes to hopefully help out someone in the future with the same problem:

1. Hard reset of routers to turn back to factory setting

2. Checked the boxes for beamforming and MIMO

3. Changed 2.5Ghz to "11" and 5Ghz to max setting (I think 48).

These steps increased the speedtest on my laptop from 40Mbps to 330Mbps. However, the speed on my Windows desktop and Mac desktop actually got worse. The following steps fixed each:

Windows PC

1. run "devmgmt" and find your wifi card.

2. Delete the wifi card.

3. Then reboot the PC. This will reinstall the drivers.

After rebooting my Windows went from 5Mbps to 300Mbps.

Mac desktop (Hackintosh)

1. Mac wasn't showing the Orbi network. A simple reboot allowed it to find it.

The speed test on this increased, but capped at 100Mbps. After reviewing my specs, I realized that I was using an "n" wifi card. As the other two computers increased speeds to 300, and both have "ac" wifi cards, I think this is the bottleneck.

Finally, after all this, my damn smart TV was still not streaming 4k from Netflix. I was about to return the Orbi when I thought to try 4k on youtube. It worked flawlessly and the TV is clearly pulling in more signal than the 20Mbps shown on the Netflix network test. So I double checked on Netflix and confirmed that I had the box checked for HD content quality. BUT, then I checked the membership plans. I've been a member for years so I didn't know that they had added a new plan. Apparently my plan at 9.99 is only to stream 1080p. UHD requires the new 11.99 plan. So be sure to check you actual Netflix plan if this happens to you.

I hope all that helps somebody else. Thanks for the responses.

Mikey94025 · ‎2017-03-06

Thank you for your detailed reply and explanation of what solved things for you. There are unfortunately so many possible client configuration issues that can cause network performance degredation after changing routers. It's scary to think how regular customers, who don't read these boards and do such detailed tech investigation, can possibly know about solve these kinds of problems.