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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Metronet/TP-Link Deco - Rough Stadia performance this month.

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Hello to all, and sorry for the long post. I've tried everything and not sure where to go next.

We use Metronet for Fiber internet, at the 200mbps plan. I've got the TP Link Deco W6000. Essentially the Walmart version of the AX3000, WiFi-6 Mesh system, only 5 months old.

In the last couple of weeks I've had trouble with Google Stadia. I’ve been a stadia user since June, and it’s amazing until the last few weeks. I'm now constantly getting alerts for poor connection/“game might stop” despite full signal. Games are often unplayable due to constant freezing, blurring, and dropped connection. We have about 18 devices, but usually no more than five or six are going at one time. Other devices are unaffected and other websites & streaming services are flawless. Only Google stadia has had performance issues, and it's the same whether I'm on my MacBook Pro, either of my Chromecasts w/Google TV, or my iPad). Seems to run okay when nobody else is on our network but once other devices hop on, Google Stadia starts having issues despite great speed tests and other devices/streams being perfect, and plenty of bandwidth to go around.

I have ran numerous speed tests over the last two weeks at different times of the day. Even when multiple other devices are going, Ping range is between 3-11ms. Download speeds have never been less than 185mbps, and have been as high as 367mbps even with multiple devices running. Upload speeds have never been below 147mbps and go as high as 191mbps. Metronet shows good light/signal to our house and thinks it's a Google issue. Stadia support thanks it’s our ISP or router but admitted I've done everything on my end, so escalated it to higher engineers. Speed test on Google's page even pulled 26 ms Ping, 198 mpbs download, and 181 mbps upload.
 
I have tried all TP Link/ Deco suggestions to ensure it's not the router, to no avail. I've tried setting the devices that run Stadia as high priority, , disabling/enabling mesh, optimizing, disabling beam forming and roaming, rebooting, set it up as new, and no change. It's so strange to have been perfect, then suddenly Stadia start having issues in recent weeks. Has anyone else experienced this and can offer any suggestions? Thanks!

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Best Response
-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

@RXShorty  and anyone else still following. As a follow up to my post earlier today. I can share some good news.

In a surprise turn of events, the Stadia Premier Edition I got on sale for $22 came in early. I hooked up the CCU it came with using Ethernet. This new router has a dedicated LAN port just for gaming-priority. Issues resolved. Worked like a champ, literally perfect and just how it used to be. Was perfect even with the Wi-Fi being heavily used for streaming by the rest of the family. Didn't phase it even when I was running speed tests on the Wifi. Very happy.

Still puzzling about it not working well on Wifi when other devices are going. Being a brand new, high-end ASUS gaming router. Turning on QOS and setting my CCwGTVs as high priority didn't help. Still only works when it's just me and one other device max. I will continue to play with that and hope that one day I can use it via Wifi in other rooms consistently. For now though, I at least have a great experience again through ethernet. I can safely rule out Metronet (ISP) and the network hardware. Thanks for all those that helped and responded! You all take care!

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21 Replies
RXShorty
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

Hello @-ANJ- 

Sorry to hear you are having issues with Stadia.
Speed and ping sure is important but it is possible the quality itself is not optimal.
I think that is why Stadia support is suggesting to contact your ISP.
It happens from time to time some ISP's don't have the optimal route to Stadia.

Just reading through all things, did you try setting your DNS to the Google ones already?
Not sure if it is the solution but worth a shot: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 - https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/1712/ 

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Thank you @RXShorty! I appreciate the response. I have been racking my brain the last week or two trying to figure this out, so I'm willing to try anything. Especially when all other streams have been truly perfect even when there's many devices going. Live sports, Hulu, HBO, Youtube, kids' videos, work calls, and more all have been outstanding. Stadia had been great too until the last couple weeks. 

I had not tried changing my DNS, but I just did. Weirdly, I have tested it for about 30 minutes and it's been pretty rock solid. Best stretch of performance since this all started. I am curious to see how it performs later this evening when the wife and kids are home and on their devices at the same time. I will update later on.

Thanks again!

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

So it looks like that made Stadia playable again when only a few devices are online. However when the rest of the family came on in the evening, it was back to the old ways. I'm currently working with TP Link Engineers, spent 2.5 hours with them last night but no solution yet. Most likely I will reach out to my ISP again if we can't get anywhere, or try another router. 

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RXShorty
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

Hi @-ANJ- 

Must admit I had a similar issue with my ISP.
With all the lockdowns in the evening my internet was not of a good quality to run Stadia very well.
Around 8 PM in the evening when everybody was home and everybody was using their internet, so much it dipped in the evening. 
Things went back to normal after 11 PM... The ISP fixed it now by upgrading some stuff in the local infrastructure.

At first I replaced my hardware in house with Fritzbox devices which was a huge improvement for multiple Stadia streams at the same time.
My TP link expience with 10+ devices isn't that good but then again this is more than 5 years ago.
It could be handy to replace your network hardware in your household. 
Or finetune things. I splitted my 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz with different SSIDS.
This way all non Stadia devices connected with 2.4 GHz and my Stadia devices connected with 5GHz, but this really depends on your network setup.

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Hey @RXShorty,

Very interesting. Seems very similar to what I'm facing now. 7:30pm to around 10:30pm is the worst period, nearly unplayable in the peak hours when the rest of the family is online. Seems to run pretty well in other times, since adjusting the DNS and everything else I've tried. Metronet is our ISP and they are new to the area. They are the only fiber option, and just came to our city about 2-3 years ago so the neighborhood lines are new. I've been very happy with them overall, it's very steady and reliable. Stadia worked great up until 2 weeks ago so I may have them just come to check it out.

In terms of our home network, I'm kind of stuck. The TP Link Deco W6000 is a new system, only 5 months old, but uses their current Mesh/Wifi-6 system. Currently there is no way to split up devices between the 2.4ghz or 5ghz band, nor is there a way to manually force devices to connect to one band or the other. It auto assigns which Deco unit your device connects to, and auto-assigns the 2.4ghz or 5ghz band based on what "it" thinks is the best available. Unfortunately you have no choice, which I don't like not having a little bit of control. That feature is not there at this time. Many folks have complained about it on TP-Link forums and the community pages, but TP Link support has said it is planned to be added in future updates/upgrades. However it's been over a year and nothing yet. Closest thing I can try now, is to create a guest network, 5ghz band only just for my Stadia devices and see if that will improve it. Thanks again for your help, and advice, makes me feel a bit better and more patient about everything.

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spwrozek
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I have had some odd glitching the last week. Like 1/10 a second of skip on Dirt 5 but really randomly. Almost like complete packet loss or something. Could be my ISP (centurylink gig fiber) but I have had flawless performance for months. 

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Good to know. Thanks for the reply. Glad to hear it's not too bad on your end it sounds like. I spent 2.5 hours with TP link engineers last night and then Ryan (one of the Google Stadia engineers) emailed some things to try this morning. Mine is now working great, just aside from evening hours when everyone else at home is streaming as well. Then it gets rough with frequent freezing, skipping, connection warnings while non-Stadia activity and other devices are perfect.

I ordered an ethernet adapter for my ChromeCast with Google TV, to test out an ethernet connection during peak times. If it persists with Ethernet, I think that will tell me it might be my ISP or mesh router itself.

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MastaE
Founder
Founder

Across the board I have been getting a random stutter. Random moments where for a solid half second freezes and then keeps going. 

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RXShorty
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

Do you play Dirt 5 in 4k? If so try playing in HD. 

I had issues with Dirt 5 with 4k after playing for more than a half an hour.

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I don't have that game unfortunately. I primarily play Red Dead Redemption 2, AC Valhalla, and Madden. All were great today in testing, even up to 5pm could recall only one issue. Then issues began around 7:30pm. Been fluctuating from fair to bad connection, but mostly bad connection and blurring, freezing, skipping. I should receive my ethernet adapter next week and then I can know more if it's the router or my ISP, or something else. 

** Update, I chatted real time with Metronet (our Fiber ISP) while I was getting the bad connection/network unstable errors on Stadia. They said the signal/fiber light is great to the house and neighborhood is perfect, no issues or reports of Stadia issues on their end. Speed tests were great across various servers, often getting close to 386 mbps download on our 200mbps plan and 5 ping. Other devices in the home were perfect as they streamed other videos. Our ISP thinks it's server related and not them. I then did a speed test on using Google's own speedtest, and it was degraded, 136 mpbs download (still should be enough) but only 41mpbs upload. Hoping the ethernet improves it next week, as I've now spent extensive time with our ISP, TP-Link, and now Stadia Support. Each says it's the other. Just so strange how Stadia could be perfect for 5 months then suddenly start having issues only in the evening. Thanks everyone!

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spwrozek
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Nope, no monitors/TV's that are 4k compatible. Good thought though.

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player
Hey all, this is to anyone still following this post. I'm still awaiting my ethernet adapter for my ChromeCast w/Google TV. In the meantime, I wanted to share the last reply I received from Stadia Support on the escalated case.
 
"Hello Adam,

Thanks for the reply.

Usually we recommend or advise that when playing on Stadia, you should be the only one on the network as one of the reasons that is causing the issue is the distribution of bandwidth to multiple devices at the same time. 

We highly recommend that when playing on Stadia, no one is streaming/downloading/uploading on the same network.

In any case, you may also use a mobile hotspot or data connection as an option."

---------------------------------

To have fiber internet and a 200mpbs plan, it was very disappointing to be told by Stadia to not have anyone else the network while using Stadia. That would impossible to do with a family of 4, and that didn't sound right. If Stadia suggests a minimum of 10mbps to play, having 200 should be plenty for myself and the rest of the family to also be streaming other things. I have watched through the Deco app how much data it consumes per second. I can see it uses a ton of bandwidth, but it should be plenty for all of us, especially given it's been great for 5+ months until these past 2-3 weeks.

After doing all the suggested steps here and elsewhere (Google DNS server adjustments, port forwarding, TP Link's suggestions, contacting ISP) nothing helped in a significant way. If anyone else ever runs into the issues I've had, here are some things I did on my own, which has made Stadia good again minus the congested times.

 - I felt the Deco mesh system was overwhelmed (5ghz band in particular) with so many devices connected in total, even if only a few were streaming. TP-Link Deco does not allow you to force a device to connect to a certain band (2.4ghz or 5ghz) nor does it allow you to force it to connect to the closest Deco/strongest signal. It decides what it thinks is he best connection in the mesh. It seemed like the Deco was giving 5ghz to things that didn't really need it. As a workaround, I made our main network 5ghz only for the devices that need it, and disabled 2.4ghz. Then, I created a guest network which is 2.4ghz only, for all of the devices that don't consume much bandwidth (amazon devices, alarms, ring doorbell, kids tablets, iot devices, etc). This has drastically de-cluttered the Deco mesh system and it's bands. It has made Stadia very playable minus the window in peak hours when everyone is utilizing the network for streaming. I believe the ethernet adapter should help me for this period.

I hope this helps someone out there, everyone have a great holiday!

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RXShorty
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

Hello @-ANJ- 

Thanks for sharing all your detailed information. Looks like the TP workaround works correct? 

I think using ethernet will improve stability even more! :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Hey @RXShorty

Yeah since it’s not a supported feature by TP-Link for their Decos, the guest network workaround has been the best strategy yet. Did run into a little trouble with Stadia running and two HD streams from other family members, but that at least can be pinpointed to router management and our bandwidth/plan. Overall was much better tonight and Ethernet should help. May test out going 1 notch higher with our ISP speed from 200m to 500m. The more I read, I didn’t realize that in today’s day 200mbps is not ideal for multiple heavy streams. Who would’ve thought… I used to work for a cable company and I remember a few years back 100m was considered insane lol. Thanks! :beaming_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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RXShorty
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

Hi @-ANJ- 

200 would be enough if the quality is good. Throughput is just one aspect. Latency and consistancy is maybe even more important. 

Stadia is a realtime streaming service and really depends on latency. For example Netflix is able to cache the videostream, this is not possible for Stadia. :slightly_smiling_face:

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I think you are right on the money @RXShorty. Just for the heck of it I upped our ISP speed to 500 mbps from 200. Same issues. I can get the speeds, but it fluctuates up and down speeds drop largely on the 2nd unit. I’m thinking this Deco mesh network is just not putting out a consistent & stable enough high-speed connection which is what Stadia needs. 

If using the Ethernet-adapter next week does not make it 100% perfect, then it will be time to look at a better router for our home. I am reading that Mesh may not be ideal for cloud-based or competitive gaming, as it lacks the stability and consistency needed.

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DropItOnTheOne
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

I bought a ccwgtv 2 months ago. My ccu4k had been working flawlessly. I thought the ccwgtv would work as good if not better than my ccu4k both being connected in the exact same place but not at the same time. Since connecting the ccwgtv i've had nothing but problems mostly with the stadia app but all apps have performed poorly compared to my ccu4k the only way i've been able to combat all the problems you have had as well as me is to retire my ccwgtv because for some reason the older tech ccu4k runs picture perfect and the ccwgtv doesn't even come close and since switching back to the ccu4k i've had zero problems and everytime i plug in my ccwgtv all the problems come back try using a ccu4k bet all your problems disappear. They did for me.

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Interesting. I would've never thought of that, but I agree about the CCU. I have one and it was flawless, gorgeous picture & never lagged. Unfortunately though my Stadia controller broke from a fall off the couch hitting the hardwood. So all I have is an Xbox controller which doesn't work with the CCU, only the CCwGTV through Bluetooth. :disappointed_face:

My troubles may be more network related I think, since now it's working great minus the times everybody is on the network at peak hours 7-10pm. Same results across my CCwGTVs, Macbook Pro and my iPad as well. Hoping the ethernet adapter works for the CCwGTV if not, I don't want to spend more money just to make it work how it should. I sure don't want to have to buy another router or something. That'll be last ditch effort for sure.

** UPDATE 8:15pm: Since my workaround with the Deco splitting up the 2.4 and 5ghz frequencies using a guest network, it has worked well even during peak usage with everyone else in the house online. Shows me the issue is now manageable with the router or bandwidth. I'm excited and now have a clear direction. It's been a struggle the last few weeks but now it's performing like it used to before all this. Still looking forward to getting and using the ethernet adapter next week. 

Also, Google Stadia has it's 2 year anniversary, and has the premier edition on sale for just $22. Just picked one up, can't beat that price even for the controller alone, especially with another CCU thrown in. Also saw they are aiming to bring in more games that people are asking for. Great news all around tonight. My faith in Stadia may have been restored lol. 

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Hello @RXShorty and all that may still be following. Hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving!

Unfortunately, no ethernet adapter yet for my CCwGTV. USPS lost my package a few days ago, so I'm waiting for resolution from Google Store Support. 

In the meantime, I have purchased a very high-end ASUS Gaming Router to see if that changed anything. Other devices, streaming services, even COD Mobile on my iPad are all perfect, actually seem even faster. Unfortunately, Stadia only performs well when I'm the only one on the network, or just one other device streaming. Any more than that, and it's constant "fair" to "bad" connection. I know Google stadia support says to only be the only one on the network while playing, but that’s not realistic for me with a family of 4. Especially since it worked amazingly well for many months, even with many devices streaming simultaneously in the house. 

Since using this new router, I have verified I'm getting the speeds from the ISP to the router that I should be getting (see below picture). I've spoken to Metronet (our Fiber ISP) four times in the past two weeks. They show great light to the house/ONT unit, and no major fluctuation or issues on their end. They say it's a server issue and not them or the router.

IMG_844B3CF3DC74-1.jpeg

Check this out though. Did many tests each on the 5ghz Wi-Fi band:

- Speedtest.net (tried a few servers) - Ping 1ms, 440-475mbps when less than 10 ft from the router. Ping 3ms and Speeds 385-474mpbs when tested around 30ft away.

- Google Speed test -  Ping latency ranged from 17-27ms, and 381-459mpbs. (Closest server - Atlanta, I'm in KY)

- Stadia official speed test -  Wild results. 1st test - 27mpbs, 2nd test - 381mpbs. 3rd test -  20mpbs, 4th test - 315mpbs.

Has me thinking, issue between ISP and Stadia only? Bottleneck? Throttle? Not sure... All I know is it's not my hardware, now that I've got a very high end gaming router. This could spell the end of Stadia for me if my ethernet adapters don't fix the issue when they arrive. Holding out hope, considering all that I have invested into the platform the last 6 months.

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-ANJ-
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

@RXShorty  and anyone else still following. As a follow up to my post earlier today. I can share some good news.

In a surprise turn of events, the Stadia Premier Edition I got on sale for $22 came in early. I hooked up the CCU it came with using Ethernet. This new router has a dedicated LAN port just for gaming-priority. Issues resolved. Worked like a champ, literally perfect and just how it used to be. Was perfect even with the Wi-Fi being heavily used for streaming by the rest of the family. Didn't phase it even when I was running speed tests on the Wifi. Very happy.

Still puzzling about it not working well on Wifi when other devices are going. Being a brand new, high-end ASUS gaming router. Turning on QOS and setting my CCwGTVs as high priority didn't help. Still only works when it's just me and one other device max. I will continue to play with that and hope that one day I can use it via Wifi in other rooms consistently. For now though, I at least have a great experience again through ethernet. I can safely rule out Metronet (ISP) and the network hardware. Thanks for all those that helped and responded! You all take care!

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RXShorty
Platinum Stadia Guide
Platinum Stadia Guide

That is great news @-ANJ- !

Yeah WiFi can be pretty finicky, maybe on a later time it will be fixed for your household. :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:
A ethernet solution for your CCwGTV will help you with the newer setup for now though or just enjoy it while playing on your Chromecast Ultra. :ok_hand:

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