08-04-2018 14:31
I have had the now stick for a couple of weeks now, today when watching live sport the stick lost internet connection and when internet connection came back it kept buffing, I looked at the settings and it showed poor internet connection. I checked my speed and it was showing fast on the speed test.
I went and checked the speed on my roku stick on my tv upstairs and it showed good connection , so I swopped them over and the roku again showed good connection where the now stick showed up bad connection again. My Roku stick has not buffed at all where the now stick still does once in a while.
This is telling me that the new now stick has a problem where picking up WiFi , but why as there both made by Roku.
I have now kept the Roku attached to my main tv even though it is older and has a slower response time. I’m considering getting a new up to date Roku stick to replace the new Now stick.
Solved! Go to Solution.
11-04-2018 15:40
Since connecting to the mains rather than to my USB port on tv and forcing an update , every thing seems ok, so hopefully my problem is solved. Only time will tell .
08-04-2018 16:30
@schnapps Many thanks for your help, I do remember when I first installed the stick and connected to the WiFi it showed up 3 strength lines where the Roku shows 5 and also 5 on my first now tv black box.
08-04-2018 16:39
Hi @Anonymous User
Unfortunately, i don't own a nowtv smart stick so i can not judge how well the WiFi works on them, however the reports i have seen on here suggests that the WiFi performance is pretty decent for a stick device.
Maybe your smart stick has a dodgy WiFi antenna and perhaps a replacement may be needed ?
Hopefully other helpful smart stick owners will come up with a solution for you.
Goodluck
08-04-2018 16:52
08-04-2018 16:59
Hi @4268
Thanks for the info
Like i said i am not familiar Virgin Hub Routers, so for example on a smart stick how do you know if you are on 5ghz or 2.4ghz when selecting a network on your Router when setting up the stick ?
Can you offer @Anonymous User any help, where I know you have both a Virgin Hub Router and the nowtv smart stick.
08-04-2018 17:40
@Anonymous User it may be worth resetting your Now stick. There's a button on the side which you can press to reset it. Just follow through the instructions on screen.
I had an explore of the admin page of the router and it looks like it defaults to only allowing 2ghz on the Now devices. You may have to take a note of the MAC address of the stick and other devices you want to connect in order that you can allow them to select 5ghz prior to attempting to connect.
08-04-2018 18:02
@4268 Hi, I have had the stick for a couple of weeks, been fine until today. Lost it’s conection then every now and again buffs and have to go back to home page then back again to reconnect which is a pain when watching live sport. But my Roku stick is fine. Just went back up to the now stick again in settings showed poor connection then it changed to good then straight away back to poor. But Roku stick shows good connection all the time. On set up now stick showed 3 bars on signal strength and Roku showed 5 so has to be a WiFi pick up problem on the now stick
08-04-2018 18:17
Hi @Anonymous User
If nobody comes up with a solution to improve the WiFi reception from your smart stick in the next few days, i would be tempted if i was in your shoes to try a replacement stick under warranty to see if there is any improvement with a new stick.
There is always a remote chance that your WiFi antenna on the current stick is not sensitive enough within the manufactures tolerances and is defective.
Hopefully somebody will come up with a fix for you.
09-04-2018 10:10
@schnapps Hi again, just would like to feel you in on the latest, I tried the now stick into a different HDMI port and the signal showed good then within 30 seconds went back to poor , I then checked my roku stick which at this time was in same tv and again that’s still showing good . When in settings I did notice that the Mac wireless numbers were different to each other , should they not be the same ?
But yes I’m puzzled as to why the now stick jumps from good to poor WiFi when Roku in same TV shows good.
09-04-2018 10:57
@Anonymous User
Hope you don't mind me butting in on your thread but personally I wouldn't get hung up too much on comparing the sticks and how they report things. They will be on different firmware and it could just be as simple as Roku changing how they report signal strength. My stick is tucked behind an amp at the opposite side of the house from the router and often varies between reporting a poor and a good signal but it doesn't affect watching NOW TV content, it's not how strong a signal it receives but whether it receives sufficient packets to stream the content reliably that counts. Even the fact that you've now stuck the two sticks next to each other is going to confuse things - it's not ideal to have two wifi devices right next to each other, or too close to the router.
You had a buffering problem the other day, how are things now? Is the new stick still buffering whenever you watch something or is it streaming fine even though it reports a poor signal? Is it just NOW TV the buffering happens on or is it affecting other apps such as BBC iPlayer?
It wouldn't be unusual to get an occasional period of buffering regardless of how strong a signal reported as your own network isn't the only factor in play, but it shouldn't be happening often. Rebooting your broadband router is the first thing I would do in such a situation.
Not to be blunt but I could suggest all sorts of things to try but you'll not know for sure if I'm helping or hindering or making no difference whatsoever, with wifi devices things can often just start working or start buffering for no apparent reason (so many factors affect things and radio waves are invisible!).
However if the stick clearly isn't working consistently I can only agree with the idea to get an exchange and see how things pan out with a new device.
PS MAC numbers should be different - they are unique to each device and are used by the network to differentiate between devices.
09-04-2018 17:46
@Andy @schnapps Thanks guys for your suggestions, I don’t know if I’m speaking to soon, lm 95%
certain I may have fixed the problem.
I have always connected my sticks using the tv’s USB port , I did read that although you can get a power connection this way it might not be as effective as using the mains supply.
So I connected the stick up with the mains and all looks good , so perhaps my USB ports power is slightly lower causing the problems. I can now only monitor it and keep fingers crossed.
Andy it was causing a problem as when I wanted to watch a live sport it would buffer and in the end I had to come out to home screen and go back to what I was watching, which is annoying when watching a game I have paid to watch.I was comparing it with my Roku to explain that I was not getting any problems even though they could be on same TV.
Any way I will let you know what’s the outcome in a few days,
many thanks