Slow Download, But Fast Upload Speeds on Samsung TV

[brucecrossan]

I was hoping someone could assist me.

 

TLDR: My Samsung TV has slower download speeds and much faster upload speeds over my WiFi in the bedroom.

 

A year ago, I moved into a new small place with my partner. We bought all new TVs, one of which was a Samsung UA49RU7100 for the downstairs bedroom.

 

It is connected to our router via WiFi. It is an Asus RT-AC88U. The router is upstairs in the loft area. We chose upstairs as that is where I have my PC connected via Ethernet.

 

Our internet is a 100/100 fibre line for reference.

 

For months the TV worked perfectly. We could stream Netflix at 4K and it streamed off my Plex server (my gaming PC) without issues.

However, a few months ago it turned to trash. Netflix would sometimes go down to something out of 1985 and my Plex streaming would buffer to the point that nothing was watchable.

I performed a speed test on the TV and it gets 3mb down, but over 40mb up. Sometimes the download speed drops to 0.2mb, while the upload can reach 50mb. Ping is never more than 7ms to local servers.

 

I have changed nothing on my network. What is weird is sometimes the speed is okay and other times it is so slow that Netflix doesn't even load images. And it has never gotten back to the original speeds. Unfortunately I never did a speed test when it was working fine originally. 

 

What boggles me is the fact that the upload speeds are so high. It is not as high as my internet speed, but I can understand that due to some WiFi loss between the router on the 1st floor and the TV downstairs.

 

• The firmware on my TV and on the router are up to date.
• I have tried disabling QoS, the firewall and all forms of power saving on both devices. Still nothing. 
• I even tried to put aluminium foil around the router to try and bounce as much of the signal downstairs. It did nothing.
• Opening the windows for some reason improves the speed by like 1mbps.
• Everything else in the house that connects to the WiFi works at full speed. We have another LG TV upstairs and it works perfectly.
• I even put my phone against the TV in the same area and did a speed test. It gets the full 100/100 results. It is only connected to 2.4Ghz as the 5Ghz signal doesn't reach the TV. Even my phone gets a weak signal on 5Ghz in that area.

 

I found this post which is almost exactly what we are experiencing, but I do not want to disable WMM as that will affect everything else in the house. My router doesn't even allow me to disable it without using legacy mode WiFi.

 

The floor is concrete, but the distance is around 2 meters between the router and the TV. And since the upload speed is so good, there has to be something else slowing my download speed of this TV.

 

Any assistance would be appreciated. I have spent months trying to fix this with no solution. I have attached pictures of a rough floor plan to illustrate the physical layout. The loft is right above the bedroom.

 

If nothing works, I am looking to either get a powerline adapter or get a commercial WiFi AP from Ubiquiti. Hoping not to spend money.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Most likely the upload speed will be better because the router has better/bigger antennas for receiving than the TV.

As silly as it sounds though, have you tried moving the router to the left or right of where it is now?  It may be hitting an obstruction in the floor/ceiling that you can avoid by repositioning it.

You are right to be thinking that ceiling mounted might work better, for the same reason.  When I got a nanoHD it made a huge difference to my 5Ghz reception and that's not even supposed to have a particularly long range.