How to improve broadband speed: 5 tips for streaming your TV

Comfy clothes? Check. ✔️ Snacks? Check. ✔️ Let the watching commence! Until that is, the evil buffering wheel mocks your home cinema attempts.

You find yourself having to switch platforms, but alas, this one’s also juddering and stuttering… argh! Is there anything in life more frustrating than that dreaded rotating circle?!

But before you unleash screams of despair and words that might make us blush, there may be an easy fix for your pain…

Check your broadband speeds

Before we delve further into how to turn your buffering battle into a streaming success, be sure to firstly check your broadband speeds.

If your speeds are too low (see how much broadband do you need here), no number of canny tips will be able to redeem your streaming experience. Netflix recommend 3Mbps for standard quality, 5Mbps for HD and 25Mbps for Ultra HD. Disney+ also advises 5Mbps for a standard experience, and 25Mbps for Ultra HD quality.

Wondering how to improve broadband speeds? Take a look at our simple DIY tips that can help!

How to improve broadband for streaming

Restart everything

Yep, the oldest trick of the trade – “have you tried turning it off and on again?”. If you reboot both your router and the device you’re watching on, this will clear out any cached programs and priorities, which can help improve broadband speed.

Move your hub

If your router is a distance away from your streaming device, or the signal is obstructed, this can negatively affect your speeds too. Try placing the router in an open area nearer to your device to boost your streaming speeds.

Kick everyone else off the wifi network

Time to play hardball… after all, every device actively connected to your network steals more of your bandwidth, giving your device a smaller slice of the broadband bandwith pie and hence slower speeds.

Serverside issues

If you are using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), the increased security and privacy is traded off for a re-routing process which can increase latency. This particularly negatively affects broadband for streaming (and gaming), so losing the VPN can help. Equally, a non-standard DNS can occasionally increase your speeds – we recommend Cloudflare on 1.1.1.1, although it’s best to check with your internet provider if there will be side effects to this.

Upgrade to a faster broadband package!

If you’ve tried all the above and you’re still not having any luck, it may be time to upgrade – whether that be the hardware you’re streaming from, your broadband package or your internet provider. If you’re in a rural area, we’ve heard of a great rural internet provider with some superfast broadband packages… ?

Increase your broadband speed

Want to take the easy route and improve your broadband speeds once and for all? No hassle! Our broadband coverage checker will let you know instantly if you’re in range for a better service with Airband.

After all, why wouldn’t you want to hop aboard a network that guarantees speeds good enough to watch the best quality HD TV with ease. (No no, the pleasure’s ours! ?)

Now, without any further delays, grab that popcorn and hunker down for some uninterrupted streaming!

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