NBA League Pass on PC Buffering

[dnjplus4]

Hi,

I'm new to TPG (since dial up anyway) and NBN having just switched from cable.  I have the NBN100 FTTC connection that works fine, I regualrly watch NBA games on League Pass on https://watch.nba.com when on PC or through the App on other devices, however since the switch the NBA stream on PC simple won't work without "buffering" every 3 seconds, this is connected via the cable or Wifi, this didn't happen with the Telstra cable.  The Apps on iphones or AppleTV work fine.  All other streaming on the PC youtube, Netflix etc. work fine.

I found an older question on here "NBA League Pass Streaming keeps on buffering on NBN50" that identified some issues but didn't offer any resolution, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[david64]

Hi @dnjplus4 . There is some info in this thread. The NBA server you use is a TPG server.

https://community.tpg.com.au/t5/Broadband-Internet/NBA-League-Pass-Streaming-keeps-on-buffering-on-N...

What resolution are you trying to get on the PC compared to the iPhones and AppleTV? The Telstra cable may have had a higher speed.

When your PC uses wifi, what is the wifi connection speed to the router?

When your PC uses ethernet, are there any adapter settings that can be changed?

Eg. Energy efficient ethernet.

What was the router used for Telstra connection and what is the current one?

[dnjplus4]

Morning @david64 thanks for the reply, that thread you linked was the one I referenced that didn't really give me the answer it just insinuated that calling (NBAleaguepass/neulion, Akamai and TPG) led to the problem being fixed.  To answer your questions:

What resolution are you trying to get on the PC compared to the iPhones and AppleTV? The Telstra cable may have had a higher speed. They are all set to auto and usually get 1080p, lowering the quality doesn't fix the problem, and yes I was getting higher speeds on the Telatra cable but we're talking about 110Mbs vs 90Mbs, plenty of speed to run HD. 

When your PC uses wifi, what is the wifi connection speed to the router? Wifi is giving my the full 90Mbs during the day on the 5G channel (my PC is next to the modem).

When your PC uses ethernet, are there any adapter settings that can be changed? Eg. Energy efficient ethernet.  I haven't looked at this one given it was never an issue previously and have changed nothing on the PC.

What was the router used for Telstra connection and what is the current one?  The previous was a Netgear C6300bd branded as the Telstra Gateway, it's a cable router so it couldn't be used with FTTC.  I have disable the WAN on it and I am using it as an extender/access point down the other end of the house via a cat 5 cable.  The PC is connected directly to an ethernet port on my Linksys wrt3200acm (that is connected to the NBN box), it is using the Linksys firmware not DD-WRT, I was running my VPN through it previously but flashed it back to the standard setup when it became the main router/modem.  

I ran a speed test when using watch.nba and it sucks the life out of my speed 11Mbps and when I close the window it jumps back up to 95Mbps.  I can watch a Netflix HD show and not effect the speed.

My son also complained last night that his gaming PC, that is connected to the Linksys via the Netgear via an ethernet cable, runs his online games fine until around midnight then it also gets laggy (unplayable) but when he swithches to wifi it works fine?  We checked all his cables there's no obvious answer, not sure if this is a similar issue.

[david64]

@dnjplus4 . 

Regarding your son's PC, if Windows, use Task Manager Networking tab, bytes sent per interval and bytes received per interval, during gaming normal operation and during slowdown. Task Manager can be left running. When slowdown occurs, exit or pause the game and check network activity.
Ping the Netgear ip address during normal operation (should be 1 ms) and during slowdown.
You can increase load with ping using -l 65000 parameter.
Does the slow response on ethernet eventually go away? Is it one-off or every night?
To switch to wifi, does he just unplug the ethernet cable and PC switches to wifi?
I assume he connects to the Netgear wifi, not the Linksys wifi.
Since Netgear is an extender, did you just give it a new ip address and disable DHCP?

Regarding your PC and NBA, do the same thing with Task Manager. Compare the data rates for Youtube and Netflix with NBA. You can ping and tracert the 3 servers. (Telstra might have a better connection to NBA than TPG, if that's how it works. How did Telstra provision NBA? Did they have their own server?)
Does buffering happen at all times of day or just evening?
If the Linksys has a traffic monitor or graph, compare the data rates for NBA on iPhone and Appletv compared to PC. You'll need a quiet time with no-one else using the home network. My thought is that iPhone and Appletv might take data at a slower rate than PC. The TPG NBA server might have delays being updated from the real NBA server.
Does NBA just do live streaming or can it show replays from some time prior? Do replays perform better than live?
Regarding the speed test, that's a huge amount to lose with NBA running. So, no other activity elsewhere?
Use the Performance tab to check CPU utilisation when NBA is running.