Tricks We Can Use When The Internet Goes Bad On Television
In this guide, we’ll take a look at how to place a router in our home. We’ll also provide some basic tips for setting up your router. In any case, if the Internet still does not reach us well on television, we will explain what devices we can use to solve this problem.
Choose the best location for our router
Today, all of us connected to the Internet have a Wi-Fi router, either our own or provided by our ISP. When we hire the Internet, we decide where to place that router and we don’t always choose the most suitable site. Problems start when we decide to hide it, instead of thinking about its ideal location, so as not to get the fastest possible connection speed over Wi-Fi.
Fiber optic installers, if we know exactly where we want to place the router, they will place it there without any problem. This does not mean that this site will be the best possible. However, in order to do this well, we must follow some criteria, which I will explain below.
If we want to guarantee the best possible signal, the router needs to be as free as possible. The first criterion we must take into account is that we must place the router as close to the center as possible in our house. It doesn’t matter if it is a living room, a corridor or a room. We have to do it like this, except that for work reasons, we need to have it in a specific room in order to use it from a PC via a cable. Thus, the omnidirectional antennas of our router will emit a Wi-Fi signal, which will go about the same in all places in the house.
Once we determine the location, we explain how we can place this router. The first factor we have to consider is height. The router must be medium height rather than near the ceiling or floor. Second, place it on a table or piece of furniture, preferably wood, with as few obstacles as possible around it. In this sense, there is nothing to hide, put in a drawer or showcase that could interfere with the spread of our Wi-Fi. We should also not cover it or place it on or around objects, it should be completely free.
As much as possible, it is recommended to do one more thing: place our router as far away from walls and walls as possible … Another important point: you should avoid having other electronic devices nearby … They can also emit radio waves that can interfere with Wi-Fi signals. Therefore, it is better to place our router away from other electronic elements. We could highlight the microwave oven because it emits a signal in the same 2.4 GHz band that the router operates on. Other home appliances that should be kept away are cordless phones, Bluetooth speakers, and baby monitors. With this class of devices, it is recommended leave a distance of at least 1 meter …
We must also avoid placing it near metal surfaces … In case you don’t know, metal causes problems on wireless networks. In this case, any metal plate, metal objects that can cover it, is a very negative thing. We must avoid placing the router near this type of object.
relatively how to place antennas Considering that omnidirectional Wi-Fi antennas radiate in all directions horizontally and have a certain angle vertically, if we live in a one-story apartment, it would be advisable to put them vertically if we have several floors, It would be nice to arrange some of them at an angle of 45º. What is not a good idea is to place them horizontally, since then the signal goes up the floor and we have a ceiling.
Simple solutions if the internet doesn’t reach your smart TV well
First of all, if we have Smart TV and router very close to each other, it is best to use an Ethernet network cable. This basically gives you two benefits:
- You can use all the bandwidth, especially if you have a Gigabit Ethernet card. However, at 100 MB, we could watch Netflix without any problems, Amazon, HBO or Disney +. The problem is that manufacturers do not always indicate what type of Ethernet network card is installed in their TVs.
- Avoid interfering with your neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks.
This is usually not possible, so we will have to connect our smart TV over Wi-Fi. Here we will find two possibilities depending on the WiFi range we are connecting to.
Smart TV requires significant bandwidth to function properly. Watching streaming content from national channels or payment platforms is commonplace. In this case, we would recommend using 5 GHz Wi-Fi in cases where the router is in the same room or in one of the rooms next door. We can use it especially when watching 4K content as we get optimal performance.
Another option is to use a 2.4 GHz network if the streaming does not exceed the Full HD resolution, or if it is quite far from our router. We will also have the opportunity trying to change WiFi channels … If it crashes from time to time and works fine most of the time, you might be the solution. To do this, you need to enter the configuration of the router via the Internet, some more modern and branded routers already do this automatically.
If you don’t, you can use apps like WiFi analyzer, it is available in the official Android store, you can download it for free from here:
Here are the recommendations that the app will give for our 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network:
If, while still trying to change the band and channel, the Internet does not reach the TV well, you will most likely have to buy additional equipment.
Equipment we can buy to improve Wi-Fi signal on TV
When the internet goes down on our Smart TV, it’s time to improve our home network infrastructure. To solve the problem, one could resort to two types of devices:
- PLC with or without Wi-Fi
- Universal Wi-Fi hotspot or repeater.
In PLC devices, data will flow through our electrical wiring. The advantage of this technology is that it is not susceptible to interference, such as in Wi-Fi networks. To use it, you need a set of two PLCs. At one end, connected to the router with a network cable, there will be one, and on the other side, connected with a network cable or Wi-Fi, we will have a smart TV. The further apart the PLCs are, the more they lose in speed, and some of very good quality are almost equivalent to a network cable connection.
As an example wired PLC we have the following:
The NETGEAR PL1000 suite will offer a maximum speed of 1000 Mbps, which will gradually decrease with distance. In addition, it has a Gigabit Ethernet port for HD video streaming and a power saving system. Another highly recommended model is the Devolo Magic 2 LAN Triple, which has multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports and is more than double the speed of the previous model.
If you are interested in a PLC with Wi-Fi, the NETGEAR PLW1000 comes with a 1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet port. In addition to connecting to the network with a cable, it integrates the ac 1000 Wi-Fi hotspot. This, in addition to being able to connect our Smart TV, can allow us to use it with smartphones and other devices.
Another really good alternative is Devolo Magic 2 Next, which also includes Mesh Wi-Fi and advanced built-in technology.
Finally, this would be an example WiFi hotspot or repeater with excellent value for money
This model provides speeds up to 867 Mbps in the 5 GHz band and 400 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. In addition, it also has a 1 Gigabit network port for maximum speed data transfer. It also features color LED indicators to indicate wireless signal quality and is WPS compliant.
As you saw, the most important thing is to try to connect to the main router first, if our Smart TV is not working properly, we have to change the location and configuration of the router, and if you still have problems, you will have to buy additional hardware.
