Wi-Fi & connectivity

[masikoben]

Last night my ROKU was extremely slow. It seemed to be affecting the streaming channels, the ROKU channel guide and access to my PLEX media server. Because the PLEX server is internal and I don't believe that ROKU needs to access anything outside of the LAN to see the server, I can only concluded that I had congestion on my WIFI channel. My question is would I gain anything by going to Ethernet over Powerline instead of WIFI?

[makaiguy]

Yes, that should help if your problem really is wifi congestion from nearby routers.

Have you tried to eliminate much of the congestion from outside interference by setting your network router to use a less congested channel?

If connecting in the 2.4 GHz wifi band, the preferred channels are 1, 6, and 11 as these do not overlap each other in frequency, so I'd start by trying these, although depending on which channels your neighbors are using you may find one of the other channels gives better results.  You also may be able to reduce congestion by setting your router to use 20 MHz channel bandwidth rather than 40 to reduce channel overlap.

I use a wifi app on my phone that can show me the congestion on each wifi channel, allowing me to choose a less congested one.  I check this periodically as this situation can change as neighbors come and go and/or reconfigure their routers.

[DianaM1]

I had the same issue and decided to figure out what it was. I am a former communications electronics technician. So, I know how to troubleshoot this type of thing. It is actually quite simple. You first determine whether any of your other internet devices are slowing. In my case, I did think of the possibility that my ISP was throttling my internet. I use a laptop and cell phone with WIFI and my son uses many devices in his apartment upstairs. All of the other devices were speeding along fine. Only the Roku TVs were slowing. Second, I have two Roku TVs. Both were slow. The chances of suddenly having the same problem with both at the same time is extremely unlikely. Third, I noticed that it only happened in the evenings when more people were home to watch their streaming channels on Roku. Last, it was happening with all streaming services. In the past, I did have Netflix act very slow or not connect. In this case, it was every streaming service on Roku, not just one. So, I can deduce that it is network congestion at Roku, not anything else. I would presume that Roku will upgrade and/or add additional servers as more people come to use Roku streaming. Until they do, it will continue to be slow at times--nights and weekends. If your issues are different, let me know so that I can figure out what your issue is.