Problems with streaming to Apple TV

[Growltiger]

You lot have it easy! My house is 300+ years old and has many internal solid stone walls over 5 feet thick. Wifi doesn't go through them.
I live in a remote rural location and am incredibly lucky to have my own gigabit fiber running to the access road at the edge of the property.
Here is what I had to do to provide a good internet service including wifi throughout the house.

1. Using a spade I personally dug in 500 feet of fibre through the garden from the road to the house, got the fiber company to do the fiber splicing, and brought it into the house to the fiber modem.
2. Connected a Vonage VOIP box to give me phone service.
3. Cabled the house with network cables running from the fiber router to the main rooms and places such as behind the TV.
4. Installed a central gigabit switch so all those network sockets were working.
5. Added three more gigabit switches in key locations to support multiple cabled devices (e.g. satellite box, computers, CCTV NVR, network printers etc.)
6. Added three more WAPs (wireless access points - I used TP-Link gigabit routers) to give a good wifi everywhere.

I then found that despite having a total of four wifi transmitters there was still one place that didn't have good wifi access. This was when I was in the bathtub. I had failed to cable to upstairs as the wifi from below went easily vertically through the ceilings. But to get to the bathroom it also had to go through a wall. The solution was to add a pair of powerline adapters to create an additional wifi access point upstairs. An ugly solution but good enough for this purpose (I like to read in the bath and my Kindle can now look up things in Wikipedia).

None of the equipment has needed to be rebooted since being installed.

 

[Pa]

I've also seen this same kind of issue with my ATV 4k's and HD's,

"ATV" => ??

 

[Palouse]

"ATV" => ??

Apple TV.

 

[Pa]

If you went this route, only the router would be broadcasting the wifi signal as the phone modem would no longer need to (the radio would get turned off).

If it's the same XFinity modem I have now, I don't think I can turn off the wifi.

 

[Pa]

Apple TV.

Gotcha. Should have been obvious, but not for us in the slow group.

 

[Pa]

Jim

I've also seen this same kind of issue with my ATV 4k's and HD's, iPhone XR, Mesh Network and a 300mb Comcast line ... I think it's basically pushing a lot of info over a simultaneous wifi (radio) connection. Probably, in the long run, there's no perfect solution. However, I have found the following helps:

1) A lot of folks that stream things are REALLY using YouTube embedded in their websites. If so, can you get the YouTube app and watch directly on the ATV?

2) On your phone or iPad, try to reset the network settings (General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings). After this is done, you'll need to rename your device to what it was (the reset process renames it to just "iPhone" or "iPad". You can change it by going to General -> About -> Name) and login into your wifi again. I've found that this often clears a ton of issues, both with your own network at home but on the cell network as well!!

Hope this helps.

Ken

Thanks for the suggestions, Ken. Since streaming worked well last night I'm not going to make any more changes unless I have problems again.

 

[Deleted member 4116]

If it's the same XFinity modem I have now, I don't think I can turn off the wifi.

Yes, you can.

Does your device look like either of these?

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

If it's the top one, that's the latest XB6 they offer and is current.
If it's the bottom one, that's the older XB3 and you should ask for an upgrade at the very least.

If it's neither, I found your problem.

 

[Pa]

Yes, you can.

Does your device look like either of these?
View attachment 1666520
View attachment 1666521

If it's the top one, that's the latest XB6 they offer and is current.
If it's the bottom one, that's the older XB3 and you should ask for an upgrade at the very least.

If it's neither, I found your problem.

It looks like the bottom one.

 

[Deleted member 4116]

So while these are still viable web surfing gateways, they aren't good with overall bandwidth and your situation is asking for it to stream the same content twice over the same set of hardware. You cleared out the temp memory, so it's going to work for now but there will be a time in the future where if you try again only a reboot will fix it.

It's up to you on what to do. You can upgrade from the XB3 to the XB6 (contact xfinity and see if it can be swapped), you can keep what you have an reboot as necessary, or you can do your own setup with better hardware that won't have this or the reboot issues. Up to you.

 

[Pa]

I looked into upgrading my modem/router with Comcast, but got nowhere. There is no information about that on their web page, online chat is not available, and the wait time for a phone call is horrendous ("over 100 minutes" I was told). The local office is open 10:30 - 6 PM on Fridays only. I bet they will be swamped.

This may have to go on the back burner for awhile.

 

[Deleted member 4116]

That's because your device is "fine" to them so there is no swap event, or order to place, in order to upgrade because of this. I just state it because I know the XB6 is a better device and since you're renting their device you should be able to upgrade by stating you're having "issues". Same goes for any tv box you have. If you still have one of the larger cable boxes you can upgrade to their slimmer 4K box by swapping it out.

I did mine at the store, which will be harder right now. I'd wait for their support chat to come back online and see what they say.

 

[Pa]

... you should be able to upgrade by stating you're having "issues".

But you must have some way to state this and at the moment there is no way to communicate with them.

 

[bpdougd]

A camel is a brand of cigarette. An elephant is a brand of insurance. But I'm stumped about the rhino. I'll go back to my corner of the room where the pointed hat is always readily available.

Rhino is bed liner for your truck. ;-)

(...) Get a good quality router or mesh network set up vs. the $80 off the shelf at Target and you'd be good to go.

I looked into upgrading my modem/router with Comcast, but got nowhere. There is no information about that on their web page, online chat is not available, and the wait time for a phone call is horrendous ("over 100 minutes" I was told). The local office is open 10:30 - 6 PM on Fridays only. I bet they will be swamped.

This may have to go on the back burner for awhile.

Comcast/Xfinity offers a mesh solution. They call them xFi pods. I had some structure based issues and gave them a try. They are dead simple to add and, at least for me, solved the problem.

 

[Pa]

Comcast/Xfinity offers a mesh solution. They call them xFi pods. I had some structure based issues and gave them a try. They are dead simple to add and, at least for me, solved the problem.

Yes, I saw that. $120 for a package of three.

What problem did they solve for you?

 

[Pa]

Well, through persistence I finally got through to a real person at Comcast by telephone. The very nice lady promised to send me a new XB6 modem/router to swap out with my old one, and waived the normal $15 "self-installation" charge.

Here's hoping.

 

[Deleted member 4116]

Awesome, see if that helps...a no cost solution!

And I can't stress this enough...STAY AWAY FROM THOSE XFI PODS. If someone gives them to you to try, fine. But it's the same issue as getting wifi extenders, they are fine for the smart home devices that don't use bandwidth but they are horrible for nearly anything else. Not to mention the amount of issues we've had with them is enough to say stay away from them.

 

[bpdougd]

Yes, I saw that. $120 for a package of three.

What problem did they solve for you?

Spotty dropouts and buffering of internet video via Roku (same with Amazon Fire Stick... not a device problem). I don't have cable tv service. Get all my content via streaming. Also, frequent slowdowns using the internet on my desktop in the basement (iMac). Plugged it into one of the pods via ethernet cable. Much better.

 

[bpdougd]

Awesome, see if that helps...a no cost solution!

And I can't stress this enough...STAY AWAY FROM THOSE XFI PODS. If someone gives them to you to try, fine. But it's the same issue as getting wifi extenders, they are fine for the smart home devices that don't use bandwidth but they are horrible for nearly anything else. Not to mention the amount of issues we've had with them is enough to say stay away from them.

You've obviously had more experience with them than me. I can only speak for my own experience and they solved my issues and have continued to do so for almost a year.

 

[Pa]

I would like to thank you all for your informative contributions to this discussion, especially tenplanescrashing. I'm hoping that my problems are solved, but only time will tell.

Let me explain how I managed to talk to a real person at Comcast. On their web page I kept trying all the "contact us" links and running into dead ends.

I eventually scrolled to the bottom of the page and saw a link that said "Legal Contact Information". That gave a phone number under Town of Blacksburg, which is where the closest Comcast office is. I called that number and got, not Comcast, but the Blacksburg Town Manager's office!

I apologized and said that I found that number on the Comcast page and thought I was calling the local Comcast facility. The lady who answered said "... that is an 888 number, would you like to have it?". Well, of course. Then after listening through a lot of boilerplate and clicking menu choices, a real person answered.

The rest is history, as they say. I already have a tracking number for the new modem/router shipment.

 

[crazy]

A good news story in times of too frequent bad news.

Back in the day, I had a manager who had zero tolerance for any computer and/or network issues. He had one solution for any type of problem.....pull the plug of his computer from the wall, plug it back in, and usually call in one of us unfortunate (available) staff to contact IT support