Every day it is more common to have a Smart TV or Android TV connected to the Internet. However, sometimes the Internet gets bad on television due to various causes. The most normal thing is that this failure is due to a bad placement of the router, or the lack of adequate equipment, although there may be more causes. Today in this article we are going to make a series of recommendations and tricks, so that you can enjoy multimedia content without Internet connection problems.
In this tutorial we are going to review how we should place and locate the router in our house. We will also give some basic tips on how to configure the router. In any case, if the Internet still reaches us badly 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 with an Internet connection have a Wi-Fi router, either our own or provided by our provider. When we hire the Internet, we decide where we should place that router, and we don’t always choose the most appropriate site. The problems start when we decide to hide it, instead of thinking about its ideal location so that we do not get the highest possible connection speed via Wi-Fi.
The fiber optic installers, if we are clear about where we want to locate the router, they will place it there without problems. That does not mean that this site is going to be the best possible. However, to do it well we have to follow some criteria that I explain below.
If we want to guarantee the best possible signal, it is necessary for the router to be as free as possible. The first criterion that we have to take into account is that we must place the router in a place as central as possible in our house. It does not matter if it is the living room, the corridor or a room. We must do this like this, except that, for work reasons we need to have it in a specific room to use it with a PC via cable. In this way, the omnidirectional antennas of our router will emit a WiFi signal that will arrive approximately equally to all places in the house.
Once we have the location clear, we will explain how we should place that router. The first factor that we must take into account is the height. The router should be at a medium height , not near the ceiling or the floor. The second thing is to place it on a table or a piece of furniture, preferably made of wood with the fewest possible obstacles around it. In that sense, nothing to hide it or put it in a drawer or showcase that could hinder the spread of our WiFi. Nor should we cover it or put objects on it or in the surroundings, it must be completely free.
As far as possible, another thing that is advisable to do is place our router as far away from walls and walls . Another important point is that 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 in a place where it is further away from other electronic elements. We could especially highlight the microwave because it emits a signal in the same 2.4GHz band in which the router operates. Other household appliances to keep away are cordless phones, Bluetooth speakers, and baby monitors. With this class of devices it is advisable to leave a distance of at least 1 meter .
We should also avoid placing it near metal surfaces . In case you don’t know, metal causes problems in wireless networks. In this case, any metal plate, metal objects that can cover it, is a very negative thing. We have to avoid placing the router near this type of object.
Regarding how to place the antennas , taking into account that omni-directional Wi-Fi antennas radiate in all directions horizontally, and have a certain angle vertically, if we live in a one-story flat, it would be advisable to put them vertically, if we have several floors, it would be a good idea to place some of them at a 45º angle. What is not a good idea is to place them in a horizontal position, since then the signal goes to the floor above and we will have the ceiling.
Simple solutions if the Internet reaches your smart TV badly
First of all, if we have our Smart TV and the router very close together, it is best to use an Ethernet network cable. It basically offers you two advantages:
- You can take advantage of all the bandwidth, especially if you have a Gigabit ethernet card. However, with speeds of 100 Mb we could have a good streaming of Netflix, Amazon, HBO or Disney + without problems. The problem is that manufacturers do not always specify what type of Ethernet network card their TVs incorporate.
- Avoid interference with your neighbors’ WiFi networks.
This is usually not possible, so we will have to connect our smart TV via WiFi. Here we would find two possibilities depending on the WiFi band to which we connect.
Smart TVs require a significant bandwidth for proper operation. Watching streaming content from national channels or payment platforms is the order of the day. In this case, the recommendation we would make would be to use 5GHz Wi-Fi in cases where the router is located in the same room or in one of the rooms next door. We can use it especially if we watch content in 4K, since we will obtain optimal performance.
The other option would be to use the 2.4 GHz network, as long as the streaming does not exceed Full HD resolution, or if it is quite far from our router. We would also have the option of trying to change the WiFi channels . If it fails from time to time, and a lot of the time it works fine, you can be a solution. To do this, you have to enter the router configuration through the web, some more modern and brand routers already do it 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:
These are the recommendations that the app would make for our 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network:
If, still trying with both bands and channel change, the Internet reaches the TV badly, it is most likely that you will have to buy additional equipment.
Equipment that we can buy to improve the WiFi signal to the TV
When the Internet goes bad to our Smart TV, it is time to improve the infrastructure of our home network. To solve the problem we could resort to two types of devices:
- PLC with Wi-Fi or without Wi-Fi
- Universal Wi-Fi access point or repeater.
In PLC devices, the data would travel through our electrical wiring. The advantage of this technology is that it does not suffer interference, as, for example, happens with WiFi networks. To use it, a kit of two PLCs is required. At one end connected to the router by network cable would be one, and on the other side connected by network cable or WiFi we would have the smart TV. The further apart the PLCs are, the more speed they lose and some of very good quality are almost equivalent to a network cable connection.
As an example of a wired PLC we have the following:
The NETGEAR PL1000 Kit would offer a maximum speed of 1000 Mbps which would gradually decrease with distance. In addition, it has a Gigabit Ethernet port ready for HD video streaming and a power saving system. Another highly recommended model would be the devolo Magic 2 LAN Triple that has several Gigabit Ethernet ports and a speed of more than double that of the previous one.
In case you are interested in a PLC with Wi-Fi, the NETGEAR PLW1000 comes with a Gigabit ethernet port with a speed of 1000Mbps. In addition to providing us with a network cable connection, it integrates a Wifi ac 1000 access point. This, in addition to being able to connect our Smart TV, could allow us to use it with smartphones and other devices.
Another really good alternative is the devolo Magic 2 Next, which also incorporates Mesh Wi-Fi and highly advanced built-in technologies.
Finally, this would be the example of an access point or WiFi repeater with a great value for money
This model offers a speed of up to 867 Mbps in the 5 GHz band and 400 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. In addition, it also has 1 Gigabit network port for data to be transmitted at maximum speed. It also features colored LED indicators to indicate wireless signal quality and is WPS compliant.
As you have seen, the most important thing is to first try to connect with the main router, if our Smart TV does not work correctly, we must modify the location and configuration of the router, and if you still have problems, then you will have to buy additional equipment.