Have Asus router that seems to have issues after running for a while (weeks?). Power cycling seems to fix things. I just got some wired adapters for firesticks to try to eliminate buffering on those but thinking about putting some automation switches in the power to the router to power cycle it every night at 2 AM or something like that. Either that or set up some monitoring to determine when the wifi gets bad and reset but that is a lot more complicated.
Putting firestick on wired network and how to prevent wifi degredation?
- Thread starter JimS
- Start date
pete_c
Guru
Get a Fire cube. This is the one that I purchased a couple of weeks ago came with a USB Ethernet thingy....new one comes with an Ethernet.
Port. It worked fine with wireless and ethernet dongle. The new one works even better....faster CPU and does 4K fine...
I paid $60 for last one ordered in a Lightning deal...I put KODI on it and can launch it fine via Alexa only I dislike Android..
Port. It worked fine with wireless and ethernet dongle. The new one works even better....faster CPU and does 4K fine...
I paid $60 for last one ordered in a Lightning deal...I put KODI on it and can launch it fine via Alexa only I dislike Android..
pete_c
Guru
Using the Firecube with a wired network connection would solve your WiFi issues. Over the years I have used and tested WiFi for multimedia and never much happy with it.
My 4k TV Boxes running a KODI OS all have Gb connectivity to the NAS and work great.
What model Asus Router are you using? Do you have OpenWRT on it?
Creating a mesh WiFi maybe would work. Here just added a new Ruckus AP (#2) and it automagically paired up with Ruckus AP #1.
Would you be able to cable in catxx in some wall in the middle of the house. You would then install a POE powered WAP.
Or install a few of the TP-Link PLC devices. I have been testing these and they work well expanding wired network and wireless network to the garage.
I am using the wireless PLC device in the garage and wired ones for IP cameras where I do not have catXX cable.
My 4k TV Boxes running a KODI OS all have Gb connectivity to the NAS and work great.
What model Asus Router are you using? Do you have OpenWRT on it?
Creating a mesh WiFi maybe would work. Here just added a new Ruckus AP (#2) and it automagically paired up with Ruckus AP #1.
Would you be able to cable in catxx in some wall in the middle of the house. You would then install a POE powered WAP.
Or install a few of the TP-Link PLC devices. I have been testing these and they work well expanding wired network and wireless network to the garage.
I am using the wireless PLC device in the garage and wired ones for IP cameras where I do not have catXX cable.
I have gone through four ASUS routers now and wouldn't give you a nickel for all of them. They toot all kinds of features and the UI is good but they crapped out frequently over the last 4-5 years. Their mesh is garbage, but then I believe all mesh is garbage so far. I have seen about 5-6 mesh router systems and they cause more problems than just having a decent single router.
I had an AC68u router that was shortchanged on NVRAM and just forgot connections. After using several third party firmware images I discovered it just didn't have enough NVRAM to function with more than about 48 devices. Turns out ASUS put out a newer model with 128kB of NVRAM and left the original A model owners crashing until garbaged.
Then I progressively bought 3 AX92u routers in order to prove where my problems were. Things just got worse as every one of the WiFi6 routers would just forget that devices were connected to the Internet. No signal loss, or connection loss. It was just as if certain devices were disabled between WiFi and WAN data connection. No problems could ever be detected and only a power cycle would fix it. Reset would not fix the problems. Those routers went through about 10 firmware updates each, and it always happened at random. Only the user could ever tell something was wrong as the routers never indicated anything or gave any clues. The next thing ASUS did was lowered the 5GHz signal level until my wife's iPad could not communicate across a 20 foot wide room, when in mesh mode. My Roku stick would not communicate on 5GHz about 6 feet away in direct view of the antennae. An old NetGear router proved that problem was the ASUS's when the Roku stick worked perfectly from the other end of my 3800 s.f. home on 5GHz.
With the wired mesh, I discovered a lot of devices just do not like to switch connections, using the same band and channels. Again. Mesh doesn't work well for most mobile device software that changes locations. They must be rebooted to fix the connection hiccough that happens when the connected router rejects it in order to force the modem to connect to another mesh node. Other methods repeating WiFi signals bog down your WiFi speeds and crowd the air waves.
Oh yeah, all the ASUS routers overheated when loaded with a lot of connections and data. A small surplus muffin fan underneath them helped ever one from crashing in summer heat despite central A/C in my home. Those boxes are just too small to keep that much CPU power cool enough. Mounting them vertical halped a lot also. The ventilation of the cases were designed by idiots, using board positioning and that block the natural convection and vents.
Now I haved moved, sold all my ASUS routers and got a fibre-optics unit. What a difference! I would never touch another ASUS router again. Strangely enough, I was an ASUS distributor years ago but the mark-up was so ridiculous with about $20 on a fully equipped desktop that required assembling and setup with an O/S..
I had an AC68u router that was shortchanged on NVRAM and just forgot connections. After using several third party firmware images I discovered it just didn't have enough NVRAM to function with more than about 48 devices. Turns out ASUS put out a newer model with 128kB of NVRAM and left the original A model owners crashing until garbaged.
Then I progressively bought 3 AX92u routers in order to prove where my problems were. Things just got worse as every one of the WiFi6 routers would just forget that devices were connected to the Internet. No signal loss, or connection loss. It was just as if certain devices were disabled between WiFi and WAN data connection. No problems could ever be detected and only a power cycle would fix it. Reset would not fix the problems. Those routers went through about 10 firmware updates each, and it always happened at random. Only the user could ever tell something was wrong as the routers never indicated anything or gave any clues. The next thing ASUS did was lowered the 5GHz signal level until my wife's iPad could not communicate across a 20 foot wide room, when in mesh mode. My Roku stick would not communicate on 5GHz about 6 feet away in direct view of the antennae. An old NetGear router proved that problem was the ASUS's when the Roku stick worked perfectly from the other end of my 3800 s.f. home on 5GHz.
With the wired mesh, I discovered a lot of devices just do not like to switch connections, using the same band and channels. Again. Mesh doesn't work well for most mobile device software that changes locations. They must be rebooted to fix the connection hiccough that happens when the connected router rejects it in order to force the modem to connect to another mesh node. Other methods repeating WiFi signals bog down your WiFi speeds and crowd the air waves.
Oh yeah, all the ASUS routers overheated when loaded with a lot of connections and data. A small surplus muffin fan underneath them helped ever one from crashing in summer heat despite central A/C in my home. Those boxes are just too small to keep that much CPU power cool enough. Mounting them vertical halped a lot also. The ventilation of the cases were designed by idiots, using board positioning and that block the natural convection and vents.
Now I haved moved, sold all my ASUS routers and got a fibre-optics unit. What a difference! I would never touch another ASUS router again. Strangely enough, I was an ASUS distributor years ago but the mark-up was so ridiculous with about $20 on a fully equipped desktop that required assembling and setup with an O/S..
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Wireless mesh is garbage. WiFi has such limited bandwidth capacity and now you are using half of it just for access point backhaul. It's crazy. I have four wired access points in my house. My access points are enterprise grade, and still I often find clients connecting to AP's on the other side of the house with a terrible signal, and not connecting to an AP 5 feet away. It is the client controls all of this and most clients are dumb.
Having said this, my access points us lots of tricks to get clients to use 5Ghz and not 2.5Ghz, switch off overcrowded access points, and drop off if their signal is weak. And these are very sophisticated access points that each have a third radio to do a spectrum analysis of all the garbage and noise out there. Even then, its difficult getting everything to work exactly like it should. I pita the people with WiFi routers that don't have all these controls. WiFi is just so primitive. Want to knock out a neighbors WiFi? Just get a cheap WiFi router, and set the SSID to the same as your neighbor's. Their clients will jump to yours and No WiFi. That simple.
I use wired connections for all my Fire TV's, if I can. And wired is much more reliable than wireless. Fire TV's use LOTS of data.
Having said this, my access points us lots of tricks to get clients to use 5Ghz and not 2.5Ghz, switch off overcrowded access points, and drop off if their signal is weak. And these are very sophisticated access points that each have a third radio to do a spectrum analysis of all the garbage and noise out there. Even then, its difficult getting everything to work exactly like it should. I pita the people with WiFi routers that don't have all these controls. WiFi is just so primitive. Want to knock out a neighbors WiFi? Just get a cheap WiFi router, and set the SSID to the same as your neighbor's. Their clients will jump to yours and No WiFi. That simple.
I use wired connections for all my Fire TV's, if I can. And wired is much more reliable than wireless. Fire TV's use LOTS of data.
pete_c
Guru
Here really never had any dependencies on WiFi for multimedia. (sound and video)
I purchased my first Fire TV box to mostly tinker with it. (great to root this device). That said I use 4K Linux KODI boxes as STB's that work fine with my NAS and any streaming service.
A peer building a new home started using WiFi for his Fire Sticks and personally changed him over to using catXX to all of his new TV sets after installing Ruckus APs at his new house. Well and same infrastructure that I have here.
Internet ==> PFSense ==> L2 managed switch ==> Ruckus POE WAP.
You can add WAP functions to your PFSense box depending on where it is at in your home. You have to get a WAP compatible card for your box.
There is a list on the PFSense forum of what type of WiFi card you can use with PFSense. I put an AP inside of my last test box that uses an Atheros chipset. Personally I would not make your PFSense box a WAP too. That is me.
If you have coaxial cable run through the house you can also use the new Gb MOCA devices. I use one here (testing) and it does work fine at one Gb. With that you would have the choice of using Moca or PLC for remote wired Gb connections in your home.
The pair of Moca devices I purchased has a pass through for regular video and Ethernet.
Here just related to using modded WiFi devices added another Ruckus WAP and now in the garage added a TP-Link PLC for cameras and customized Tasmota WiFi devices.
I purchased my first Fire TV box to mostly tinker with it. (great to root this device). That said I use 4K Linux KODI boxes as STB's that work fine with my NAS and any streaming service.
A peer building a new home started using WiFi for his Fire Sticks and personally changed him over to using catXX to all of his new TV sets after installing Ruckus APs at his new house. Well and same infrastructure that I have here.
Internet ==> PFSense ==> L2 managed switch ==> Ruckus POE WAP.
You can add WAP functions to your PFSense box depending on where it is at in your home. You have to get a WAP compatible card for your box.
There is a list on the PFSense forum of what type of WiFi card you can use with PFSense. I put an AP inside of my last test box that uses an Atheros chipset. Personally I would not make your PFSense box a WAP too. That is me.
If you have coaxial cable run through the house you can also use the new Gb MOCA devices. I use one here (testing) and it does work fine at one Gb. With that you would have the choice of using Moca or PLC for remote wired Gb connections in your home.
The pair of Moca devices I purchased has a pass through for regular video and Ethernet.
Here just related to using modded WiFi devices added another Ruckus WAP and now in the garage added a TP-Link PLC for cameras and customized Tasmota WiFi devices.
I have a linux box with MythTV at the same spot and wired network. Your talk of a kodi box made me realize I could do all the streaming through the linux box. But the remote operation might not be as easy to switch between streaming sources and such and give it a low SAF. 
I do view a few streaming sites with the linux box but it requires me to grab a wireless keyboard so not very user friendly. I suppose all that could be overcome with some programming. I haven't messed with Kodi. Can you give some more details on how that is set up? Do others use it and find it easy to use?
I do view a few streaming sites with the linux box but it requires me to grab a wireless keyboard so not very user friendly. I suppose all that could be overcome with some programming. I haven't messed with Kodi. Can you give some more details on how that is set up? Do others use it and find it easy to use?
pete_c
Guru
MythTV will stream just fine and has an interface that resembles Microsoft Media center. I still today use the Microsoft Media Center IR remote with my Kodi boxes and it would work fine with MythTV. I have tested newer / smaller programmable combo IR / Wireless remotes /keyboards. I did not like them.
Standard (years now) wireless keyboard floater here is the Logitech K400 combo which I seldom use for the Kodi boxes. Linux is a no frills OS. Just the meat that you need to run multimedia.
For MythTV IR connectivity purchase a Microsoft Media Center IR remote and IR receiver. The remote is large and easy to use with MythTV TV GUI. MythTV will recognize the remote automagically.
MythTV MCE Remote
Standard (years now) wireless keyboard floater here is the Logitech K400 combo which I seldom use for the Kodi boxes. Linux is a no frills OS. Just the meat that you need to run multimedia.
For MythTV IR connectivity purchase a Microsoft Media Center IR remote and IR receiver. The remote is large and easy to use with MythTV TV GUI. MythTV will recognize the remote automagically.
MythTV MCE Remote
MCE Remote
- IR transmit and receive are supported on all generations of mce transceivers, as of lirc-0.8.6.
- Some newer devices may require post lirc-0.8.6 cvs for full functionality
- Historically, there were separate 1st-gen and 2nd-gen drivers, lirc_mceusb and lirc_mceusb2. They were merged into a single lirc_mceusb driver as of lirc-0.8.6, which as noted above, supports transmit and receive on all devices.
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