Arch Linux

LeYOshi

Member

Registered: 2024-02-22

Posts: 1

Streaming Service Buffering Issues Over Wi-Fi

Hello Arch!

I'm experiencing persistent buffering issues with streaming services on my Arch Linux system with KDE Plasma, specifically over Wi-Fi. Despite having a strong signal and sufficient bandwidth, streaming videos are constantly buffering, making it impossible to watch content smoothly. Interestingly, when connected via Ethernet, everything works flawlessly, suggesting the problem is isolated to the Wi-Fi connection.

What I've Tried:

Basic Troubleshooting: Updated the system, tried different browsers, and cleared browser caches without any improvement.
Network Tools and Diagnostics: Utilized tools like ping, mtr, and Wireshark to inspect the connection.
Hardware and Software Checks: Confirmed that the hardware (CPU, GPU) is not under heavy load and that drivers are up to date. The issue seems not to be hardware-related as the machine's performance is not affected.
Network Manager Alternatives: Experimented with different network managers (systemd-networkd and NetworkManager) and even tried iwd, which improved internet connectivity but didn't resolve the buffering issue.
Wi-Fi Interference Considerations: Considered potential Wi-Fi interference or congestion issues but ruled them out due to the problem persisting despite strong signal strength and bandwidth.

Observations:

The issue is consistent across all browsers and is not resolved by disabling hardware acceleration or lowering video quality settings.
Ethernet connections do not exhibit this problem, suggesting the issue is specific to Wi-Fi.
Other devices on the same network do not experience these buffering issues, indicating a problem specific to my Arch Linux setup.

Seeking Advice On:

Any specific configuration or optimization for Arch Linux that could improve Wi-Fi performance for streaming services.
Insights into handling or optimizing QUIC protocol traffic over Wi-Fi on Arch Linux.
Suggestions for network configuration or monitoring tools that might provide deeper insights into the cause of these buffering issues.
Any help or guidance from the community would be greatly appreciated. I'm willing to provide further diagnostic information as needed. Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,875

Re: Streaming Service Buffering Issues Over Wi-Fi

Which wifi device and which driver, which wifi band? Post a journalctl -b covering such an issue. There are some wifi drivers that aren't all that good and quite prone to issues, off the top of my head anything realtek is very hit and miss, probably broadcom as well. Generally speaking you should have good experience with intel (iwlwifi), atheros (ath* drivers), and mediatek.

Without doing much in regards to the underlying tcp/protocol buffering controls in the kernel, I have none such issues on a intel AX 201 using iwlwifi.