I finally fixed my smart TV’s buffering, and my internet wasn’t the problem

Published Sep 30, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT After a 7-year corporate stint, Tanveer found his love for writing and tech too much to resist. An MBA in Marketing and the owner of a PC building business, he writes on PC hardware, technology, and Windows. When not scouring the web for ideas, he can be found building PCs, watching anime, or playing Smash Karts on his RTX 3080 (sigh). Modern home networks have reached a point where internet bandwidth is rarely the problem anymore. Most people have several hundred Mbps of total bandwidth, with 300Mbps as the median broadband speed in the US. So, if you still see your smart TV buffering your Netflix stream, blaming your ISP or plan speed doesn't help. Instead, you should consider tweaking your TV's app settings, checking your DNS servers, and switching to a wired connection. Each change can boost your streaming performance more than buying a faster plan. Delete your streaming app's cache Fresh cache data can solve your streaming woes Something most users never think about is the app cache on their TV. If you have a relatively older smart TV, low free storage can make it sluggish overall. It doesn't even have to be about storage space; often, your streaming app's cache data gets outdated or corrupted, causing your stream to stutter or freeze. Blaming your connection speed or your router hardware is natural, but misguided in most scenarios. On Android-based smart TVs, hold the OK or Select button on the app icon, click Info or Settings, and delete the cache data on the screen that follows. On Apple TV 4K, open Settings, select the app, then delete the cache. This lets your streaming app rebuild its cache, which may improve performance. Change your DNS servers It's free and easy, and gives your network a boost Another oft-ignored router setting is the DNS server. Most people keep using their ISP's default DNS servers, unaware that they are often the slowest options available. Moreover, they can compromise your network privacy by letting your ISP send targeted ads your way. Switching to free DNS alternatives can improve overall network performance by reducing the time your router takes to convert domain names to IP addresses. If your router's admin page doesn't let you change the DNS servers, you can do it on your smart TV instead. Open your TV's network settings, select your connected Wi-Fi network, and switch to the manual DNS option. You can safely enter "1.1.1.1" for Cloudflare DNS or "8.8.8.8" for Google DNS. Alternatively, check the fastest DNS server in your area on the DNS Speed Test website. Switch from Wi-Fi to Ethernet Remove Wi-Fi dependency entirely Finally, moving to a wired connection is the biggest impact you can make on your TV's network performance. Modern Wi-Fi is fast and reliable enough, especially on Wi-Fi 6E and 7 networks, but it's still susceptible to wireless shenanigans. Occasional load spikes, peak-hour interference, and slow devices dragging faster ones down are just a few Wi-Fi problems you constantly deal with. Switching to Ethernet can eliminate most of the network uncertainty on your TV. A wired connection always beats Wi-Fi in terms of reliability, thanks to its full-duplex nature, no radio interference, and no distance drop-off. Your streaming performance on Ethernet will always be more consistent than on Wi-Fi. If your TV's Ethernet port only supports 100 Mbps, a $10 USB Gigabit adapter can easily bypass it. TP-Link USB to Ethernet Adapter Buffering on your smart TV goes deeper than you think If your TV struggles to stream seamlessly despite a 100–300Mbps connection, speed probably isn't the problem. Wi-Fi is an inferior medium to Ethernet and will always be subject to interference, congestion, and latency. You can improve wireless performance by tweaking your settings, but if possible, moving to Ethernet is the way to go.