Good evening folks.
I'll be as direct as possible. I'm a cord-cutter. We use our Apple TVs (both are fully updated 3rd gen models purchased within the two year mark) for all our television watching. Netflix/Hulu/HBO Now and the iTunes library keep us happy and steadily deteriorating our retinas.
However, as of the past 2-3 months, I've been ready to throw these things through the window.
I'll give you a brief rundown of my home network, which was built out of necessity, to hard wire ethernet between these boxes, because Wifi wasn't cutting it.
After shedding TWC as my provider of 15MBps internet at $75 per month, switch to WOW for $50/mo for 60Mbps down, 5Mbps up. It's been wonderful on the iphones/ipad and main desktop. Not the Apple TVs though :-(
The coax line into the house runs straight into a Motorola SB6141 Modem. Firmware is current.
Modem > ASUS AC1750 gigabit wifi router > gigabit ethernet switch
Into that switch, I have the two cat5e cable runs from the apple TVs, my main desktop, and a powerline adapter for my wife's laptop she moves around upstairs.
Main desktop and all wifi devices have no speed/drop issues even though the wifi is pushing out of the basement of the home, two stories up and the phones do fine, same with the ipad. Main desktop and wifi speed tests all indicate a solid 60MBps even up to like 85Mbps in the middle of the night/off peak hours.
But the apple TVS? All kinds of odd issues:
1. neither one can "connect to apple" after a speed test is done successfully.
But speed tests only last about 10 secs on each unit when I perform them.
2. netflix/hulu/hbo now, randomly in the evenings throughout the week/weekend will pause. Not pixelate, or buffer, but get stuck like 40 mins into an HBO show and sit for like 5 mins. reboot of the network hardware and apple tv doesn't alleviate anything. then it's a pause/stuck every 5, 10, 20 mins after that, and just fine for the next few days it seems.
basically, I cannot figure out where the issue is. I don't know where the network is failing. Extremely frustrating.
Here's what I've tried to no avail, because last Friday from 9pm to like 11pm (Sept 18) it took an hour and a half to get through one episode of an HBO show. Then everything was fine saturday all day and night ( i streamed the HECK out of both boxes, no issues) Sunday, no problems, monday, no issues, tuesday? Skipping and pausing on either unit, watching HULU at 720p (i knocked the resolution down, no help)
- tried tvs on different gigabit switch ports
- tried tvs through the routers ethernet ports
- tried each tv on the cable modem one at a time
- tried tvs on wifi
it's hard to consistently get the tvs to freeze, but when they seem to be doing it, it seems to last that whole night.
my network is cat5e cables, and every time I call my ISP everything looks "fine" signal wise, and no amount of modem resets are doing anything. but it feels like the TVs are doing it more and more.
Cannot stand it.
Thanks for reading, any thing I might be missing? I'm working backwards towards the TVs in terms of swapping out equipment since the Micro Center has 30 day no-questions-asked return policies. So right now I'm testing a more expensive router, and it was skipping tonight, so if it craps out this weekend too, then I'm swapping out the modem, then the switch, then the TVs since I'm planning on upgrading to the ATV4.
WOW cable is sending a guy out Thursday to install their modem, which probably sucks, and I'll see what happens this weekend. I'm hoping there's just a newer splitter he can toss on the main line, or there's a loose connector in the box in the back yard.....
Thanks for reading if you did. I feel like I've been re-explaining this four thousand times over the phone.
Think apple could offer any assistance? with home networking it's like "you're on your own, sonny jim!"
I'll be as direct as possible. I'm a cord-cutter. We use our Apple TVs (both are fully updated 3rd gen models purchased within the two year mark) for all our television watching. Netflix/Hulu/HBO Now and the iTunes library keep us happy and steadily deteriorating our retinas.
However, as of the past 2-3 months, I've been ready to throw these things through the window.
I'll give you a brief rundown of my home network, which was built out of necessity, to hard wire ethernet between these boxes, because Wifi wasn't cutting it.
After shedding TWC as my provider of 15MBps internet at $75 per month, switch to WOW for $50/mo for 60Mbps down, 5Mbps up. It's been wonderful on the iphones/ipad and main desktop. Not the Apple TVs though :-(
The coax line into the house runs straight into a Motorola SB6141 Modem. Firmware is current.
Modem > ASUS AC1750 gigabit wifi router > gigabit ethernet switch
Into that switch, I have the two cat5e cable runs from the apple TVs, my main desktop, and a powerline adapter for my wife's laptop she moves around upstairs.
Main desktop and all wifi devices have no speed/drop issues even though the wifi is pushing out of the basement of the home, two stories up and the phones do fine, same with the ipad. Main desktop and wifi speed tests all indicate a solid 60MBps even up to like 85Mbps in the middle of the night/off peak hours.
But the apple TVS? All kinds of odd issues:
1. neither one can "connect to apple" after a speed test is done successfully.
But speed tests only last about 10 secs on each unit when I perform them.
2. netflix/hulu/hbo now, randomly in the evenings throughout the week/weekend will pause. Not pixelate, or buffer, but get stuck like 40 mins into an HBO show and sit for like 5 mins. reboot of the network hardware and apple tv doesn't alleviate anything. then it's a pause/stuck every 5, 10, 20 mins after that, and just fine for the next few days it seems.
basically, I cannot figure out where the issue is. I don't know where the network is failing. Extremely frustrating.
Here's what I've tried to no avail, because last Friday from 9pm to like 11pm (Sept 18) it took an hour and a half to get through one episode of an HBO show. Then everything was fine saturday all day and night ( i streamed the HECK out of both boxes, no issues) Sunday, no problems, monday, no issues, tuesday? Skipping and pausing on either unit, watching HULU at 720p (i knocked the resolution down, no help)
- tried tvs on different gigabit switch ports
- tried tvs through the routers ethernet ports
- tried each tv on the cable modem one at a time
- tried tvs on wifi
it's hard to consistently get the tvs to freeze, but when they seem to be doing it, it seems to last that whole night.
my network is cat5e cables, and every time I call my ISP everything looks "fine" signal wise, and no amount of modem resets are doing anything. but it feels like the TVs are doing it more and more.
Cannot stand it.
Thanks for reading, any thing I might be missing? I'm working backwards towards the TVs in terms of swapping out equipment since the Micro Center has 30 day no-questions-asked return policies. So right now I'm testing a more expensive router, and it was skipping tonight, so if it craps out this weekend too, then I'm swapping out the modem, then the switch, then the TVs since I'm planning on upgrading to the ATV4.
WOW cable is sending a guy out Thursday to install their modem, which probably sucks, and I'll see what happens this weekend. I'm hoping there's just a newer splitter he can toss on the main line, or there's a loose connector in the box in the back yard.....
Thanks for reading if you did. I feel like I've been re-explaining this four thousand times over the phone.
Think apple could offer any assistance? with home networking it's like "you're on your own, sonny jim!"
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