TV draining connection speed when parents watch NetFlix

[SunnyChi]

Hi - Normally I connect from my pc wirelessly to a Netgear wireless access point - even though I am a few rooms away in an old house I still get pretty good WiFi speed with that (the access point is connected into the Sky router one room along to make it closer to my pc) -

As I say this is normally fine. The main problem comes when my parents seem to watch certain things - and this isn't regular Sky - but I believe it is NetFlix or Amazon Prime (on the TV). Basically what happens is it absolutely kills my connection speed - I mean going from something not too bad (e.g. 35 mbps) to like 0.2 mbps. It's almost as if the smart TV or the Sky router is draining out all my connection speed (/bandwidth).

I'm wondering if there's anything that can be done to stop this - such as limiting the amount that can suddenly be used on the other connection - I'm not even sure why this is happening - I thought these connections would just be split instead of sending everything to the smart TV - I believe the smart TV is just connected wirelessly directly to the Sky router. Can connections to the Sky router take bandwidth priority over a wired connection - or is something else happening here? I tried connecting in to the Sky router from my pc (it's quite slow because it's even further away but it actually seemed to work a tiny bit faster - though still extremely slow)

--------

So that's that - I also kind of had a related question about the Sky router - often I find the connection speed to the Sky router is quite poor - and it's much easier just to connect to my NetGear - I mean the Sky connection can sometimes be really dodgy - I'm not sure why that is - like sometimes on my iPhone it just won't work very well - (Anyway that's not really a priority for me right now but something I've noticed - and my parents are now also connecting to the NetGear because of this)

--------

Anyway sorry for the long question explanation - Obviously I'm having problems so if anyone could help it would be much appreciated - I've tried my best to explain what I believe is going on. Thanks

[cookiemonsteruk]

@SunnyChi 

A few things here, where do i start

If your parents are watching netflix 4k then thats 25Mbps gone from whatever speed the router gets.

Sky routers don't do qos as such but tend to favour streaming. A good gaming router would offer a device based qos that would share bandwidth out between devices

In relation to speeds available at the router are you able to post your router stats as shown below

https://community.sky.com/t5/Broadband/How-to-find-your-Sky-Broadband-router-stats/m-p/2855717#M1014...

[Chrisee]

@SunnyChi while @cookiemonsteruk is correct that Sky hubs do not have a standard QOS system they do appear to prioritise Sky Q traffic which maybe part of the issue in my opinion but not all.  As while Netflix do recommend a 25Mb/s for UHD in practice the usage is between 15Mb/s to 20Mb/s so your 35Mb/s connection should be able to cope.

You mention you are using a Netgear Access point for your wifi connection given the Sky hub and Q tv boxes are all radiating wifi hotspots one of the issues could be interference. A wifi analyzer app on a phone would help see if that is an issue with the Sky mesh you can only control the 2.4GHz channel on the main Q box - the TV boxes will tend to use different ones so will swap to fill the one you have cleared!

Q mesh uses ch36 to 52 in the 5GHz band by default (ch35 80MHz) but can be switched to ch36 to 44 or ch44 to 52 by choosing one of the 40MHz options. I would ensure your Netgear unit is using a different range.Having multiple wifi networks in one property is not a recommended solution. Changing routers is one option but be prepared for family conflict when your parents latest Netflix blockbuster reverts to HD or worse.

One other alternative is to buy a Powerline adapter kit and connect your PC to that which may sort the issue.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@SunnyChi 

@Chrisee 

Looking at my stats whilst watching bbc iplayer uhd hlg i'm hitting 32 Mbps . Insufficient leftover for on line gaming which ideally require 25 Mbps minimum. Hence it would be good to see your router stats

https://community.sky.com/t5/Broadband/How-to-find-your-Sky-Broadband-router-stats/m-p/2855717#M1014...