Solving playback issues

[Streamer317]

8 Mbps is not even high speed internet. FCC defines high speed internet as 25 Mbps or higher. You cannot upgrade your internet at all? No faster tiers through Centry Link? 

[Nivlak12]

No. You must live in a city with fiber, but out in the sticks we do no get higher than what is offered whe. You live in the woods outside city limits. And I will again reiterate: the internet speed has never posed an issue streaming on any apps or games until Roku. The Roku itself is the problem as our internet works on every other device to stream shows and movies.

[Streamer317]

I fully understand and no I’m not on fiber. No matter how you look at you do not have enough bandwidth to support all the devices in your home. 

[Streamer317]

Go here 

https://broadbandnow.com/bandwidth-calculator

[AvsGunnar]

@Nivlak12 

As a fellow country-bumpkin, I can sympathize.  Although I have up to 25 Mbps with Rise Broadband (which is a fixed satellite), it is line of sight technology so windy and snowy days often block my signal to under 10 Mbps. (Average for me is about 15-20).

When you have slower speeds like this, you can certainly still stream, play games, and browse the internet just fine.  You just have to configure your network to make sure you are eliminating as much interference and congestion as possible from within the settings. (interference and congestion here is related to device noise and frequencies).  You can generally gain some network speed by experimenting with changing the wireless channels and lowering your bandwidth/channel width to 20mhz. (Other times, you may find that 40mhz may be slightly faster, but then have a few more disconnections).

Regarding the CenturyLink C3000A router, you may actually find that changing the Mode/Protocol under the 2.4ghz to setting g/n (thereby disabling b-support), may also help with some speed issues.

Additionally, if you set your TVs to a lower resolution (720 and 1080p), and lower any settings from within your installed Channels/apps, you should be able to stream your content. (If you are trying to stream 4k content to a 4k TV, then certainly going to run into issues with these speeds.)

Yes, it would be great to have 100 Mbps or even 1000 Mbps, but it is not necessary in order to run a Roku or any other basic streaming device.  As you will notice in my footer, I have the Roku Express 4k+ and I find that it performs better on the 2.4ghz band since located pretty far from that network's router.  

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A final thought is that if your Roku Express 4k+ is close enough to your router that you can run an ethernet cable, you can purchase an USB ethernet adapter for the Roku device that should help eliminate any wireless settings causing your issue. 

(How to use USB to connect your Roku® streaming device to a wired network - https://support.roku.com/article/360058027813)

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Feel free to update this post or if you need any more help.

[Nivlak12]

Update: I purchased a new one and it works far better. No issues. The one we had must've just been faulty. Thank you everyone for trying to help. 

[Streamer317]

You should ask the person who gave it to you to return it. It could have been refurbished. Exactly which Roku model did you just buy?

[Nivlak12]

We purchased a Roku Express. The model is 3930RW

[Streamer317]

Just a Roku Express? No 4K? The 3930 is a budget model. It can only run on the 2.4 GHz WiFi. So you may run into connection issues. A Streaming Stick 4K would have been a better choice. Hopefully it works out for you