# Rogers and Apple TV streaming issues?



## mikef (Jun 24, 2003)

Is anybody else experiencing issues recently with Apple TV streaming on Rogers Internet in the GTA?

Everything was working perfectly for me until about a month ago and now I cannot stream anything without it buffering. Rogers tech support says my connection speeds are fine (about 7 Mbps peak on my supposed 10 Mbps connection) but I cannot stream reliably. The bandwidth swings drastically from about 100KBps to 500KBps while attempting to stream. 

I've tried using Googles DNS servers as well as OpenDNS and Rogers own DNS servers with no difference. My Apple TV is hardwired to my router via Ethernet. 

I'm at my wits end. This renders my Apple TV useless


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

What are you streaming?


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## mikef (Jun 24, 2003)

Movie rentals from the iTMS.

I certainly don't want to be a conspiracy theorist but I wouldn't be remotely surprised if Rogers was throttling their competitor. Or it could be a torrent happy teenager on my segment.


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## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

Go to Teksavvy and don't look back. Same or better speeds, more reliable core, much higher caps and great service. Using their cable service here in Ottawa is a charm, and I'm a pretty heavy user (I use Crashplan for live backups with a friend over the 'net)


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

mikef said:


> Movie rentals from the iTMS.
> 
> I certainly don't want to be a conspiracy theorist but I wouldn't be remotely surprised if Rogers was throttling their competitor. Or it could be a torrent happy teenager on my segment.


What is iTMS? Who knows if they are doing anything but if you have no problems with lets say NetFlix on the highest setting (HD Movies) then it could be the service it self is slow or having issues. I know sometimes when I streaming it can be slow and other times it works great.



ldphoto said:


> Go to Teksavvy and don't look back. Same or better speeds, more reliable core, much higher caps and great service. Using their cable service here in Ottawa is a charm, and I'm a pretty heavy user (I use Crashplan for live backups with a friend over the 'net)


You are using Rogers just to let you know. Teksavvy is just a buying it from Rogers and then selling it to you. Same lines same product. That is why if you need service and someone to come out it costs you money because Teksavvy has to dispatch a Rogers technician to go out which cost by the way a standard $99. If your a Rogers customer they wave that fee.

I may switch to TekSavvy myself.


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##  Dumpling (May 28, 2010)

I am experiencing the same issues on Bell. My Fibe 25 has been brilliant until last week. iTunes cannot download anything faster than 5Mbps, yet my connection speed is close to what is promised on speed tests. Really feels like a throttle as it is affecting not only my Apple TV, but all my devices downloading from iTunes. Mac App Store is the same crappy speed too. The Apple TV in my experience really needs a solid 10Mbps throughput in order to stream in HD. Mine has been rendered useless with this issue and a third Bell tech is coming this week to change my connection ports. Either Bell is throttling or iTunes servers are slow for some of us. Troubleshooting everything has not worked. With all the software updates that came in last week, it has been really frustrating. Really don't want to do business with Rogers ever again, but Bell (which in all fairness has been excellent and consistent for me the last 5 years) has to get this solved.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

 Dumpling;1220573 said:


> I am experiencing the same issues on Bell. My Fibe 25 has been brilliant until last week. iTunes cannot download anything faster than 5Mbps, yet my connection speed is close to what is promised on speed tests. Really feels like a throttle as it is affecting not only my Apple TV, but all my devices downloading from iTunes. Mac App Store is the same crappy speed too. The Apple TV in my experience really needs a solid 10Mbps throughput in order to stream in HD. Mine has been rendered useless with this issue and a third Bell tech is coming this week to change my connection ports. Either Bell is throttling or iTunes servers are slow for some of us. Troubleshooting everything has not worked. With all the software updates that came in last week, it has been really frustrating. Really don't want to do business with Rogers ever again, but Bell (which in all fairness has been excellent and consistent for me the last 5 years) has to get this solved.


You have to remember what just happened in the last week with Apple. It was big news. 

Expect iTunes to be slow for a bit while people update and download iOS6. Your internet connection is only part of the equation. You have to think of also the server you are downloading from. People never think about that, they can have their own issues you know.


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##  Dumpling (May 28, 2010)

The problem started almost 2 weeks ago at this point. Well before the flood of upgrades started. In the past I have had no issue with the speed even on days when iTunes was getting hammered by new releases (Mountain Lion, iOS 5, Lion, etc.). Never seen iTunes servers affected across every aspect including subscribed podcasts, music, and apps. Well aware of last week's releases, but based on my experiences (which is all I can go by), this is unusual for this length of time.


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## med8or (Jan 18, 2002)

OP asked if anyone else was having problems. I have same set up but no problems to report.


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## Rounder (Aug 9, 2008)

I have no problems either, my connection is 75Mbps/down with Rogers. Are you located in a high-bandwith area (lots of apt's or condos?) I've seen some friends in areas in Ottawa where the internet slows to a crawl at certain times, too much bandwith for the infrastructure they have in place there.


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## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

Joker Eh said:


> You are using Rogers just to let you know. Teksavvy is just a buying it from Rogers and then selling it to you. Same lines same product.


The last mile access is through Rogers, but as soon is you get onto the core network, it's Teksavvy all the way. A traceroute to the same site will show two different paths with Rogers and TekSavvy.


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## mikef (Jun 24, 2003)

Joker Eh said:


> What is iTMS? Who knows if they are doing anything but if you have no problems with lets say NetFlix on the highest setting (HD Movies) then it could be the service it self is slow or having issues. I know sometimes when I streaming it can be slow and other times it works great.


Guess it's not called the iTunes Music Store anymore ... the iTunes Store, I meant. I have been renting movies directly through the Apple TV.

I also have problems streaming YouTube as well, which would indicate it's not a problem with Rogers throttling the Apple TV.



> You are using Rogers just to let you know. Teksavvy is just a buying it from Rogers and then selling it to you. Same lines same product. That is why if you need service and someone to come out it costs you money because Teksavvy has to dispatch a Rogers technician to go out which cost by the way a standard $99. If your a Rogers customer they wave that fee.


This is a very good point!

If there is something physically wrong with my connection and/or segment, it will also affect Teksavvy. If the problem is with throttling, it won't _in theory_ affect Teksavvy, although again I have my doubts.

This is also why, despite Rogers tech support telling me to upgrade to 28Mbps connection, if there's a problem with the connection, adding more bandwidth won't make a difference. It too will be affected by the same issue.


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## mikef (Jun 24, 2003)

Joker Eh said:


> You have to remember what just happened in the last week with Apple. It was big news.
> 
> Expect iTunes to be slow for a bit while people update and download iOS6. Your internet connection is only part of the equation. You have to think of also the server you are downloading from. People never think about that, they can have their own issues you know.


I guess I'm not ready to accept that iOS downloads would affect movie rentals, but I guess anything is possible.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

mikef said:


> This is also why, despite Rogers tech support telling me to upgrade to 28Mbps connection, if there's a problem with the connection, adding more bandwidth won't make a difference. It too will be affected by the same issue.


I have the Ultimate package with Rogers and I still get hang-ups sometimes and think it is slow no matter what the speed test says. Who do I blame Rogers or from whom I am downloading. A connection is only as good as its weakest link, getting someone to find , admit and fix that link is the problem. 

I just did a speed test and I get 85.38 Mbps and upload 1.98 Mbps. Now I got this package for the monthly usage and not the speed but because I don't pay for it I don't care. But I am thinking of switching to Teksavvy anyways because I can get the 300MB monthly usage at still a reasonable speed and have the company pay a more reasonable price.


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## mikef (Jun 24, 2003)

During my support call with Rogers, they were *highly* reliant on the results of speedtest.net and . My performance usually measures decently, however it's unable to sustain the transfer rate. Watching the streaming of a movie rental from iTunes yesterday showed the data rate vary from less than 100KB/s to 700KB/s on my supposed 10Mbit/s connection. Before I started experiencing this problem, I paid no attention to the bandwidth consumption and NEVER had a problem streaming HD video.


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##  Dumpling (May 28, 2010)

To update my earlier post, I bought an Airport Express and hooked it up to my Bell Sagecom modem/router unit in bridge mode. All my issues with iTunes servers disappeared and my wireless has never been stronger. My issues were definitely hardware related. Bell sent me a second modem and 3 techs and nothing helped. In a last ditch effort to avoid an ISP change, I hooked up the "White Apple TV" and now my wireless matches ethernet on all my devices. Has to be a bad firmware update that affected the Bell wireless or one amazing coincidence.


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## titans88 (Oct 3, 2007)

I've always had the same issues as the OP. I was using Bell high speed at my old place and it took nearly an hour for an hd rental from the iTunes Store to buffer and begin to play. At my new place, I'm using teksaavy and continually run into buffering issues when attempting iTunes rentals.

Funny enough, when I watch he content on Netflix it begins to play immediately. I don't understand what the issue is, and I've given up on attempting to identify it. I don't typically rent movies through iTunes anyway, so it's not a pressing issue for me.


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##  Dumpling (May 28, 2010)

There is one thing that the OP can try. In the general settings menu of the Apple TV, there is a test network section where you can send diagnostics about streaming issues to Apple directly. I have heard of this working out problems for some people. Apparently the servers that deliver the HD streaming can sometimes redirect you to a less than optimal server for your location, and doing this test has worked (seen this on Apple Discussion Forums). You need to run this test a couple of times a day for a few days and see if it helps at all.


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