iPlayer buffering

[JoeWright]

We had cityfibre installed yesterday.  Everything is solid (better even than before), except BBC iPlayer which on multiple PCs has gone bad.  Downgrading of quality after a couple of minutes and buffering.

Odd that everything else is very good (Youtube, Twitch, Channel 4, Channel 5, etc...).

Anything worth trying?  Thanks

[Mark]

If you've followed all the steps in the link Gemma provided @JoeWright, we don't have anything more you can do without speaking to our Tech team. If you've not tried connecting via an Ethernet cable, I'd suggest trying this first as the team are likely to ask if this has been done and what the results were. 

[JoeWright]

Right ok, the issues first described were on a machine connected by ethernet cable.  The issues are being experienced by one ethernet connected windows 10 PC, one wifi android phone and one wifi kindle (other devices either not experiencing problems like another ethernet connected windows 10 PC, or not used enough to tell).

[Cynric]

@JoeWright One of the most annoying possible issues may be that not all network chips talk to each other "nicely". The Windows 10 pc may just be fixed by a driver update or change. The other devices may work if they connect to a WiFi booster/extender. 

I hope it's not going to be this for you as it can be a real pain.

Edit: One other thing, did you try swapping the ethernet cable?

[JoeWright]

@Cynric yes this was my worries too.  I haven't tried a cable swap yet because the practicalities are awkward but I think I might be able to do that so I'll give it a go thanks.

Everything was working with BT before the swap (but the BT line had its own faults so I was desperate to jump to CityFibre).  The fact that multiple devices are having different issues maybes me think it's the router.

I did try the wifi devices via an extended second router and same problems, but I thought that could have been the problem anyway since it was a clunky way of doing it.  I removed that but problems remained.

[Jayach]

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@JoeWright wrote:

The fact that multiple devices are having different issues maybes me think it's the router.

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The fact some devices don't have the problem says it's not the router.

The router would affect all devices the same.

[JoeWright]

Except the only point of common failure is the router or the cityfibre line.  The connected devices are different systems, OS's, etc...  They also all worked fine with the BT line.

[Jayach]

The router or the CityFibre line won't treat iPlayer on different devices differently,

Although I do understand, if it all worked on BT, why doesn't it work now?

The Vodafone router (I presume you have the THG3000) doesn't have the same quality of Wi-Fi as the BT one, but you are saying it's not a Wi-Fi (only) problem.

[JoeWright]

Sorry, I should have said: after using for longer I have found the computer that had the buffer problems on iPlayer also has them on other streaming services (e.g. ITV) but less often/less severe. Kindle has buffering problems. Two android phones have general connection issues. One (my phone) sometimes drops wifi and when I go into settings it says it has been refused, but then a reconnect and everything is fine.

I 'think' another windows 10 PC has some issues but we don't use it much so cannot say for sure.  Another windows 10 PC (my main one) seems to be good.  Some websites have caused me issues but I'm assuming for now that it's those websites rather than the PC as the problems are intermittent and often resolve.

So:

• 1 ethernet connected PC has buffering on different streaming services
• 2 wifi android phones have general connection issues - one quite bad
• 1 wifi kindle has buffering issues on streaming services including iPlayer and youtube
• 1 ethernet connect PC may have issues
• 1 ethernet connect PC seems to be fine with a slight hint that some websites struggle sometimes

All worked fine before the change

[JoeWright]

And yes, THG3000. Tbf, it seems to have better range than the BT one did

[Jayach]

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@JoeWright wrote:

And yes, THG3000. Tbf, it seems to have better range than the BT one did

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That does surprise me, some people on here complain about it, but I've always found it fine.

Quite how we can tie this problem down escapes me at the moment. 🤔