Buffering

Hi

New to this forum.
I have a laptop that has a wireless connection to my internet SP router which is upstairs. I use my laptop normally downstairs. A problem I have which is every time I use a stream (live audio and video stream of a football match from a football club), I get constant buffering. This is relatively new as a problem and I have not experienced it before. My question is - When downloading a live video stream and buffering constantly interrupts the stream, is this usually due to poor service provision or due to the source of the stream i.e. in this case the football club?

Thanks
Oats

 

Welcome to the laptop-forums site

It's more than likely, that it's the distance from the router you are.

You can obtain a wifi booster take a look on ebay.

The only next thing to affect it will be a poor internet connection

 

Hi.

Thanks for your answer. I took the lap top upstairs last night and still got some buffering although reduced in intensity and the number of times it happened. Based on the notion of proximity to the router, if I can plug the laptop directly into the router is this likely to solve the problem?

Thanks
Oats

 

You could give it a try this will at least give you some indication
that it's possibly a internet provider speed/connection issue.


The other thing to try is to look at the program settings ( download program ) to see if it's
set to hd. If it is then set it to sd.

 

OK Thanks. I will try this.

Oats

 

Its probably not your router's fault. If the speed is like that, you can't do much about it. You could simply try to use the SD setting. Also, you may want to check for any other devices connected to the wifi. So that your laptop can utilize the connection properly.

 

It can be both. However, if you have a decent internet speed (both download & upload) it shouldn't really take a lot to buffer. Try to switch to a LAN cable and see if it works better. Sometimes the signal also interferes with the speeds and therefore there are delays.

 

You might have physical barriers in the way which are bouncing the signal off or absorbing it before some or all of it can make it to the router, causing lost packets and signal drop. There are other factors like electromagnetic interference which can affect your signal, too. You can get a wi-fi booster, a different router with a more powerful transmitter and receiver, both, or...you can try an option that works well when you have to make a physical connection to a router without having a bunch of cat5e or cat6 wiring around to do it.

There is a technology called PoE, or Powerline over Ethernet which turns the electrical wires of your house into networking-capable lines that you can use to connect any laptop or other internet-enabled device to your router and the internet if you like beyond your network.

It doesn't affect the power of the line at all, but uses modulation of the electrical signal to send data back and forth near the speed of 10/100 internet with error-correction on the data. So it's basically like using a standard 10/100 network, you just don't have to run cables everywhere, and you are able to plug a device into a wall socket that becomes an ethernet jack in both rooms that you can connect to that way.

I've used this when putting together networks for offices in buildings that did not have enough wiring and was not able to use wi-fi even with a booster because of all the brick and metal in the way of getting from point A to point B. It worked well, and as far as I'm aware they are still using that same system I put in about 6 to 8 years ago to overcome the wi-fi and wiring limits to be on the network as if they were connected directly to the router.

There are new revisions to it since 2010 which are even better. Some of the devices now let you transform the ethernet jack on the corresponding end into a wireless access point, so you can create a type of wireless hot spot wherever the electrical wiring ends and another plug begins. It's very neat technology, and a fraction of the price that it used to be. You may find it to be just what you need if all other networking attempts do not go as planned.

 

Hmm...POE seems like something that I should try.

 

Well I think that we are all on the same page on this one and that is that it is one of the most frustrating words out there. In terms of the reason for buffering I have always been under the assumption that it is my connection, but maybe that is me just being cynical, which of course is pretty usual. It probably also depends on the time of day as well and how much activity is happening when you are online.