How to Connect A Smart TV to the Internet using Wi-Fi, Wired Ethernet, Powerline, and More!

To connect your Smart TV to the Internet you could use Wi-Fi, and that might work just fine for you. But if your Wi-Fi network is congested then you need to explore other options including using a Wi-Fi Extender, Mesh Networking, a wired Ethernet connection, or a Powerline adapter.
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[@urbantreesteve2805]

Excellent quick run down, with options to go deeper. Thank you! Well done

[@maddogrk1]

Not even finished yet, and already. I think you’re doing a good job. Good enough to get me to comment positively he made me think about some things I need to think about. Thank you very much. I’m sure I’ll find a better solution than I would have without your help.

[@seanyboyoc]

Thanks for the overview. Good insight into the options.

[@karolyndudley7888]

Thank you, straight to the point! And many options, excellent

[@JohnPMiller]

9:25 100 Mb/s (100Base-T Fast Ethernet) is always fast enough for up to 4K / UHD video. If it weren't enough, the TV would have a Gigabit connection. Plugging a USB - Gigabit Ethernet adapter may not work at all, since the TV would need to have the driver for the specific chip in your adapter, and there's no way of installing additional drivers on your TV (which may be running Linux, WebOS, Android, etc.) Also, if the software team did their job right, they wouldn't have any unused drivers (unnecessary security risk). This is a good set of videos for people new to networking, I had thought of setting up an introductory networking channel, but, as you know, it's really hard to make things seem really easy. Good Job!

[@bodinian]

I'm one of the people that prefer to use cables to connect my devices to my network. It gives the best results in every application I've experimented with. Peak performance for the devices I've spent big money on is a priority to me, and I'll route the cables to make that happen.

[@paraman7]

Excellent, simple and practical, thanks

[@jespencer7805]

Hi Gary, you need to clarify power line adapters. The differences in the way house wiring is done between the US and the UK may affect the operation of power line adapters? In the UK we have ‘ring mains’ and generally the power line adapters need to be on rage same ring circuit. In the US houses are wired on a point to point basis?

[@frankfriedmann212]

Great explanation of all the options I'd never dreamt of!

[@raveesenhurree9332]

good explanation

[@rodasjohnson437]

ALWAYS LOVE! THANK YOU GARY FOR ALWAYS HAVING GREAT VIDEOS! STAY SAFE AND CAREFUL!

[@nioxic77]

Capslock makes it better!

[@theskifamily807]

Can you use a ethernet cable to watch cable tv, with all the channels on cable. And can it be used with the cable cord or does the cable cord have to be disconnected from the box to the tv. And one last question cable it be used with a fire stick.

[@daveac]

All good advice - I have a 4-extender switch behind my TV which means other boxes (below the TV) like YouView and my 4K Blu-ray Player get a wired connection too - as they also have Streaming Apps on them. As some background - the BBC HD used to be 20Mbits per second and first 4K Sat Channel I got called 'LUXE was around 40 Mbs per second but these of course weren't internet delivered but by Satellite. Even so the race to get better & better encoding was on. The BBC insisted on being platform agnostic so when Freeview came HD channels got limited to just over 9Mbs (even though Satellite could handle higher) and 4K could only be sent via the internet for the most part ie Wimbledon having the Centre Court Tennis in 4K. Back to the present - I believe 4K internet services (4K Movies etc.) are now at around 15 to 18Mbs - so your 70Mbs system certainly will do the job. (sorry for the long post)

[@pianoman6639]

Great video many thanks

[@GaryExplains]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@brettknoss486]

WPS is not officially supported by wifi, and creates a security breech if enabled. Some routers have a QR code to connect devices with a camera, but for tv's, always connect with a secure password.

[@petehall1900]

Maybe a video on the Android GPU inspector software? For low budget GPU programers?

[@sitamobin1061]

My tv is set up using Ethernet cable. Many times, I lose connection to streaming and have to take off the power and put it back on and it’s happening a lot lately. Why is that?

[@tumwitegedonatien4322]

hey will you tell me about modeme on smart tv

[@Delacy915]

How about if you’re smart TV is older than eight years can you still hook a wire on the back of it to the Wi-Fi to get Pluto TV from your phone to the TV?

[@fabianDias111]

Mr.Gary , good explanations , but please show us the actual connection to how to connect n start the broadband to TV.

[@eduardocallao8474]

Can you show the wire connections between the Netflix box and Smart TV?

[@sulemanzafarbaig7524]

Dear em facing problem to connect ethernet wire to LED TV . wifi is working but ethernet cable is not working in LED TV Wisdom Share Verson 9.0 & Ethernet Cable is working on laptop etc. can you help me how to wire cable will work. please do the needful. thanks in advance

[@aregularguy44]

I have a smart TV and a mesh system with three devices throughout the house. I have my mesh devices hardwired together since I've found that this gives me the best Wi-Fi performance. One mesh device is next to my TV. Do I simply connect/hard wire an Ethernet cable to the TV itself, the ISP box, or my receiver (the latter two devices are connected to the incoming coax cable and eventually connect to the TV)?

[@kenthompson3730]

I’m exploring this same set up. Did the Ethernet connection work for you ?

[@aregularguy44]

@@kenthompson3730 It did work and if you have a "node" reasonably close to your TV, you might want to try it. I connected it directly to the back of the TV. To backhaul the three mesh devices, I first ran them over the floor of the house to see if the setup would work before putting the cables under the floor (no basement, just a "crawl" space).

[@PaulPushkarov]

Would be interesting to see a video on how to isolate all wifi smart home devices in a separate home network so they won't be able to harm computers in case they get infected with something (many smart devices have security issues and never get updated).

[@tesfaymengesha]

Excellent teching

[@GaryExplains]

Glad you like it!

[@deeabbey1791]

Wow! That is all that I had to do was press that WPS button!?! Thank you!!!

[@Phynix72]

Practically, are WiFi-extender & AP are two different things ? or they're marketed differently as their ?

[@GaryExplains]

They are technically two different things. But as I show in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoDOdqKXo8eCm9E many extenders also offer AP functionality. If there is no Ethernet port on the extender then it can't be used as an AP. Having said that as I show in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZouQdGaGa6tggbs extenders actually just create a new AP but communicate with your Internet router over Wi-Fi.

[@Phynix72]

@@GaryExplains one more... Is there anything like optical fiber router or switch...?? I searched alot, only conclusion is SFP networking gear, which isn't cheap & also hard to configure for noobs like me.

[@CaptainBlitz]

Is three powerline connectors a thing? Or do they only come in pairs?

[@GaryExplains]

Three is a thing. The maximum numbers of nodes is normally something like 8.

[@mosschopps2853]

I have the whole house wired with cat 6 gigabit ethernet. Good video sir.

[@Mozenator]

Gary gets it. Get it Gary!

[@thatguy7595]

The real question is how to isolate a smart TV from the internet so that it wouldn't show ads and collect data?

[@GaryExplains]

Well if you are subscribed to a streaming service like Netflix or Display+ then I think the whole don't collect data is kind of a lost cause. You are a subscriber they have lots of data about you starting with your bank details, address, phone number and more.

[@JohnPMiller]

FYI: I block ads on my router. When I tried to watch the ad-based subscription to Peacock, the shows would start to play until I hit my first ad, then I would get kicked back to the main menu. I had to allow ads for Peacock to work. I ended up giving full access to my streaming devices (TV and Xfinity Flex box), but blocked ads on everything else.

[@mikerobins219]

Blocking 'ads' now applies to blocking Samsung and other TV manufacturers from monitoring your TV watching. So it is not necessarily about blocking a streaming service, but is about blocking other unwanted connections

[@darrelldoranjr8391]

VPN

[@sumitgaur5497]

Any video on new snapdragon w5 ?

[@GaryExplains]

No, sorry, I wasn't planning one.

[@Dr.Mohandes]

I don't understand why would anyone use Wi-FI for something that stays in the same place for months or even years wi-fi only makes sense on phones, laptops and some IOT devices not on a desktop computer or a TV It's fairly easy to buy an ethernet cable, make it look good in the house and enjoy a better connection and more people should opt in to do this rather using wi-fi for everything

[@GaryExplains]

Wi-fi doesn't only make sense on phones, laptops etc. It makes sense when you can't or don't want to add a wire. Simple as that.

[@Dr.Mohandes]

@@GaryExplains powerlines are a much better alternative, but you literally explained in the video lol

[@Private-GtngxNMBKvYzXyPq]

I’ve had good results from Ethernet over power line. Where coaxial cable exists, MoCA can be a good solution.

[@An.Individual]

I would love to put ethernet cable to every room in my house but how can the average joe possibly do that?

[@GaryExplains]

Depends what you mean by "average joe" and how much effort you are prepared to put in. You can add multiple powerline adapters which can help reduce the work.

[@paudelbalkrishna2894]

How to connect cpu

[@GaryExplains]

CPU?

[@zenombereznicki]

What is rooter...do you mean router. Rooter is smoething i use in gardening

[@GaryExplains]

Not in England you don't.

[@leidsmanjorgon3447]

I have some questions for you

[@GaryExplains]

Related to the video? Go ahead, but I can't guarantee that I can help.

[@graealex]

Very good topic. A lot of people have their smart TV only via Wi-Fi, and then wonder why Netflix streams need 10+ seconds to start.

[@CalvinBenefield]

My volume won’t come on my Smart TV

[@Error_00101]

Please remove the part of "pressing the WPS button on your router and on the tv" WPS is not recommended as it is higly insecure. Realy the only option is typing in the Password!

[@GaryExplains]

I haven't delved into the vulnerabilities of WPS much, so I am happy to be pointed to better info. But I thought the flaws in WPS are limited to PIN-based method, not the push button method. Obviously with the push button method you need to actually push the button, so if you don't have physical access to the button then that method can't be compromised. If someone has access to your device and is in your house then you have bigger problems.

[@Error_00101]

You are right with the wps pin method. (it can get bruteforced with relative ease) The problem (as far as i know) with wps push buttonis the time while the accesspoint is in setup mode. In most cases the risk is somewhat mitigated with a timeout and with the restriction that only one device can connect with one push of the button. In my opinion it is better to be safe than sorry. For example i deactivated this feature for my friends and my family. A bit of password typing is not the end of the world.

[@nabarnes]

6:14 - Why add a Gigabit switch? The vast majority of UK broadband connections are less than 100Mbit/s (in March 2021, it was 50Mbit/s) and a smart TV will likely never use more than 25Mbit/s (and this is what Netflix recommend for 4K streaming). Save some money and put a cheap and nasty 100Mbit/s switch in instead.

[@GaryExplains]

Gigabit switches aren't that expensive and if you are adding equipment to your network you should always future proof it. For example what if you also want to add something else to that switch? Now the switch is not only for the TV but for other equipment. For example, if your smart TV is in a bedroom and you also want to add a PC and a NAS then putting in Fast Ethernet because you only envisioned the TV there is a mistake. Now you have to buy another switch, which means overall it cost you more. Always plan ahead!

[@nabarnes]

So by that logic, I should be running 400GbE everywhere just so it's future proof? Not sure why putting a smart TV in a bedroom means 1GbE is better than 100base-tx though. As for a PC with a NAS, sure, but then you're moving the goalposts - you specifically talked about a situation where 100base-tx is not enough for a smart TV (9:30) with the clear implication that GbE is the only solution. I maintain that problem doesn't exist. In addition, with all the Smart TV and IoT security advisories coming out almost daily, the very very last thing I would do would be to put a Smart TV on the same logical network as a PC and NAS, so from a security point of view, using the same dumb switch and running all devices in the same logical network wouldn't be a sensible thing to do anyway. Even if you ignore vulnerabilities, why on earth would you want to give Samsung/LG/Sony/Whoever access to your entire network? But that's a different argument for a different day.

[@GaryExplains]

OK, we will have to agree to disagree.

[@actorjay]

Woo-hoo! First to comment. I don't even watch TV. Just KZbin.

[@Mozenator]

Now you can watch KZbin on a TV! As soon as they add speed controls for smart TV apps...

[@tr_drift]

Me too

[@xeon2k8]

FiRsT yEaH

[@beverlypatin4696]

This focused more on internet speed than setting up the TV. Not helpful

[@GaryExplains]

Eh? What do you need to setup on the TV? You just plug the cable in and check that the TV is connected using the TV's menu system. What more did you want?

[@terryevans898]

What if someone is like me and not a brain surgeon and can't understand what you're talking about

[@GaryExplains]

Sorry to hear you didn't find the video useful. I don't think you need to be a brain surgeon to understand it, in fact I hear that many brain surgeons aren't very tech savvy. What was the first part that you didn't understand? Maybe I can help?

[@chrishoman8841]

All talk no showing how it is actually done.

[@GaryExplains]

Eh?

[@Beamin-vt7jm]

Too much talking

[@GaryExplains]

🤣

[@pennylan6466]

It’s usually a lot of talking to someone who knows nothing to bring with. Thank you for a great video.

[@garrettcorn642]

10:57

[@shamimurr]

To much talk!

[@lewom1407]

Hello. I just want to ask, my tv only had a vga,hdmi,usb port only . Also there's no setting for internet connection on settings🥲 but it says "Android Tv" my unit is LG SCARLET

[@beverlypatin4696]

Same here. My tv has no LAN port. Is the only option the WiFi extenders?