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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and the team discuss self-driving cars, a cryptocurrency option for Venmo, a smartTV warning, the Facebook leak, Parler and the Apple App Store, inexpensive broadband, Google’s Android liability, new Google Assistant features on iOS, Space X’s Starlink news, and more.
Nick in Windsor, Ontario asked: ” My question has to do with streaming video with cameras over Wi-Fi. I’ve had less than good results with choppy video, even when set to standard definition. This happens when the cameras is right next to the router, so signal is not an issue. It’s just horrible streaming. My router is a Linksys N900, so it’s like 450/450. Do I need to upgrade my router?”
Nick, yes you should probably look into upgrading your router. The N900 series was pitched in a weird way from the start, making it sound like a gigabit router when it never really was, but it was a supposedly fast router for a cheap price.
Having said that, it should be easy to find out if your problem is the router or the cameras. Just run a speed test on your computer, or try to stream a show if you have a smart TV and see what happens.
If the router is struggling, itll probably struggle for all streaming media.
You did mention multiple cameras, so the problem is still most likely the router.
Just so you know, there is a world of difference between a $20 router and a $150 router. Usually if youre doing the bare minimum anything will do, but once you get into more data intensive applications like video streaming the cheaper devices tend to get overwhelmed pretty quickly and either slow way down or even freeze up and need to be constantly restarted.
If having access to the cameras is important to you, you may want to consider a more expensive router just for the reliability.
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