Reasons Why Your Smart TV is Having Trouble Streaming Netflix and How to Fix it

Have you ever wondered why your Smart TV keeps on buffering while you are watching a movie or TV show played from Netflix? Isn’t it annoying sometimes when you’re watching the most thrilling and exciting part of the movie and then all of a sudden it stops streaming? I know how it feels and that is exactly why I’d like to share to you some of the main reasons why you’re having these troubles and some tips on how you can fix the issue.

TV shows or movies played from Netflix, which buffer frequently on your smart TV usually indicate a slow or interrupted Internet connection. These are the 2 most common causes of the buffering issue with Netflix. But of course, there are other things to consider when it comes to this type of issue. But for today, let’s limit it to four reasons only and let’s focus on a network which is set up via wireless since most networks these days are already set up that way.

Let’s say that your network supports streaming and that means that you’re not connecting to a dial up or satellite connection. Otherwise, it would be impossible to stream Netflix movies or even other videos online.

Now, the first thing to consider is your Internet speed. If your network supports streaming, it must meet the minimum streaming requirements from Netflix. Also, let us remember one very important thing when it comes to streaming. Movies or shows playing in high video quality consume more bandwidth than low quality videos or movies. With that being said, I’d like to show to you the Internet speed requirements based on the quality of Netflix videos that you’re trying to watch.

• 0.5 Megabits per second – Required broadband connection speed
• 1.5 Megabits per second – Recommended broadband connection speed
• 3.0 Megabits per second – Recommended for DVD quality
• 5.0 Megabits per second – Recommended HD quality
• 7.0 Megabits per second – Recommended Super HD quality
• 12 Megabits per second – Recommended for 3D quality

If you do not know the Internet speed that you have subscribed for with your Internet service provider (ISP), you have to call and ask them. Then perform a speed test to check if your connection is really getting the speed of what you’re paying for. And if you like, you can upgrade to a higher plan so that you can also enjoy watching higher quality videos from Netflix.

Another possible cause for having trouble streaming Netflix videos would be the stability of your connection. Even if you have good Internet speed, it may drop the connection from time to time. Whenever it drops, it buffers your streaming experience, which can be really annoying.

The best way to check the stability of your connection is to connect your PC directly to the modem, and then observe your Internet connection. If you’ll still be getting the same connection problem, contact your Internet Service Provider and have them troubleshoot your modem’s connection. However, if it’s your router that’s causing the intermittent connection, upgrading the router’s firmware may resolve the issue. Same goes with the driver of the wireless receiver on your smart TV.

Aside from that, another thing to consider is the distance of your smart TV from your router. This is very common in a wireless network. The farther you are, the weaker the signal becomes. This will have a big effect on your streaming experience since streaming requires a stronger connection compared to simply browsing websites on a computer.

To avoid connection issues caused by distance, you have to make sure that your smart TV is in range with your router’s signal. If there is a limitation with the signal because of the type of network environment you have at home, or the type of router that you have, you may want to consider putting the router in a central location at home if possible, or adding a range extender to your network. That will definitely help you with your distance issues in your wireless network.

Lastly, interference in your wireless network may also cause your streaming problems with Netflix. If your other wireless devices, such as cordless phones or microwave ovens, operate on the same band as your smart TV, it may interfere with the wireless signal of your smart TV.

To avoid this, make sure that there are no other wireless devices near your smart TV or your router if possible. Otherwise, move them away from the router, or move the router to a new location to improve its signal strength and avoid getting disrupted if you can. Also, make sure that the router is placed in an open space where it won’t be limited from broadcasting its signal in your network. Elevate your router off the floor as it will give you a better reception.

So there you have it, those are the common reasons why we encounter problems streaming Netflix using a smart TV, and the suggested fixes for them.

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By: Mark Savella 
About the author: Mark has been a tech support engineer at SUPPORTrix for more than 5 years now and knows a lot of troubleshooting technique and guide to help people who are having trouble with modern technology.

E-Learning Apps That Will Make Your Tablet Educational for Your Children

Tablets are great for families. Tablets were initially used for reading books and for entertainment. You can watch movies, play games, or use it for social networking. Nowadays, e-Learning app developers are coming up with many more interesting and effective ways of using tablets. E-learning refers to the use of technology in learning and education. Having a tablet at home not only helps you to bond with your children but also you can make learning more fun with them.

Today we will be listing some of the E-learning apps to make your tablet educational depending on your children's age.

Shape Builder teaches toddlers fine motor skills as it allows them to move shapes that snap into puzzle. Each puzzle has five to ten pieces and once the puzzle is complete, the image will be revealed and a voice will tell you the name of the image. It also helps their creativity and thinking because the app used objects such as food, animals, musical instruments, and letters of the alphabet as their puzzle.

Math Magic really is easy to use. You can make your own choice of colours, a simple interface, and a reward system of stars to encourage and teach kids. The child simply needs to tap on an answer to solve a problem. Whether they get the answer right or not, a voice will express appreciation for choosing a response. Kids will surely love the Math Magic app because it’s fun. Parents will also love it because it helps their child get a good start in Math and provides constructive use of time during car trips or waiting for food or an appointment.

Word Magic is designed to keep pre-schooler and kindergarten kids in mind. It's very ideal for kids between ages 3-6. It's a great app for kids to have fun with words and their spellings and learn them. A picture will be shown and the kids will select the missing letter for the picture. Every time they pick an answer, they will be appreciated with a real voice. It is loaded with fun features. It has a simple design, vibrant colours, attractive, and funny pictures. Word Magic would be a fun learning experience for kids because it has positive reinforcement, surprises, and rewards.

Abby Monkey is good for preschool and kindergarten kids. It features this enthusiastic monkey character guides children through the whole game. After each round, the child will receive a reward to become creative artists and change the design of the train or get stickers to show off on their board. It includes 12 educational games such as number recognition, patterns, shapes, puzzles, counting, sizes, letters, matching, colours, shadows, same and different and things that go together. It's also very easy to use.

We will post more apps next time. Stay tuned.


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By: Yean Marie Bacol

About the Author:  Yean has been a tech support engineer at Supportrix for more than 7 years now. Giving tech tips and troubleshooting assistant to people who are having trouble with technology.

Ways to Keep Your Home Computer Safe from Malware, Spyware, and Other Harmful Software

Nowadays, anti-virus software has gotten smarter for the reason that malwares and spywares have gotten trickier and sneakier as well. Every day, thousands of personal computers and mobile devices experience malware attacks. As a computer user, it is important for us to have the knowledge to safeguard ourselves from the harmful attacks from the World Wide Web to avoid system or hardware failure, loss of important data, and other disastrous results.

There are a couple of ways to keep our home computers as malware-free or spyware-proof as possible.

Image Source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

• Install a good antivirus software There are a lot of good antivirus software that you can choose from. There’s Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Norton, AVG, Avast, and Kaspersky to name a few. It helps to research the software first by going through online forums and reviews to make a better choice on which product is best for you. Customer feedback is always a good source of information when scouting for the best software to avail. As the saying goes, the customer is always right.

• Keep the computer's system up to date Software updates for Microsoft and Apple computers are recommended whenever there are new updates released. These software updates are made available to resolve any security problems, to have new software features, to have updated drivers for the hardware components, and to fix any system bugs and issues. But not all software updates are needed to be installed, so it’s also important to check the definition and purpose of each update first.

• Avoid opening unreliable sources that contain downloadable applications, cracked software, and spam e-mail attachments. If something sent or offered to you seems suspicious or too good to be true, it is better not to open or download it, to be on the safe side.

• Optimize or clean up the computer regularly Running virus scans, disk clean up, and tune up tools can keep your personal computer in shape. If you are not computer savvy, you can choose from a vast list of tune up tools whether it’s free or not. To test if a tune up tool is effective and reliable, you can take advantage of the trial version first.

• Create users with limited rights on the computer or enable Parental Control If the computer is being used by more than one family member, the administrator should create user rights and apply parental controls. Parental Control is built-in both in Windows and Mac operating systems. Through this, you can create restrictions on which programs and websites are accessible at specific days and time by your children. As a parent, it is our responsibility to protect the kids from the Internet the best way we can. Parental Control is also included in most antivirus software, in which web filters can be enabled and the activity or usage of the child online can be monitored.

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Article Written By: Pia Acosta - Tech Support Engineer at Supportrix

What to Do if Windows 8 Menu App is Completely Unresponsive

Hi Windows fanatics! I’m sure this scenario is not new to you, there are actually many reasons why Windows 8 Menu app becomes unresponsive or the computer just gets stuck. Most common reasons are:

• There are a lot of programs running in the background, thus your CPU usage rises as far as 98% to 100%, causing the computer to halt.

• Playing heavy games in the computer causing it to run slow and eventually freezes the computer.

• A driver related issue. Make sure there’s no “Other Devices” listed and no device has any exclamation mark or Red X under Device Manager.  Using the hardware with driver issues can cause computers to freeze.

• An operating System related issue. Outdated OS can make it unresponsive; make sure all latest updates of the OS are installed.

• Heat related issue. Make sure the fan is working fine on the computer, if the computer is too hot, it will affect its performance and eventually locks up.

The above instances are applicable if the computer has completely hanged or all of the Windows Menu apps are affected.

To fix the issue, just go to the Task Manager and check if there are any programs that are not responding, in which case you have to end their task to close them. Then try to check if you can now use the Menu Apps.

However, if the problem persists, try to reboot the computer to refresh it and then try to open the Menu Apps later.

If the computer cannot be rebooted with the usual reboot option, just forced shutdown the computer, then try it again later. To force it to shutdown, all you have to do is to press and hold the computer’s power button until it turns off. Then wait for a half minute before you turn it back on.

Doing the force shutdown will end the computer’s previous tasks, thus, clearing its RAM. It’s also important to configure the computer’s start up items to allow only those significant programs to run in the background during reboot like the Antivirus software used by the computer and the synaptic application if it’s a laptop for the touchpad functionality.

After a successful reboot, you should be able to access and use the computer normally again. But if the problem happens only to one particular app, then you might need to consider the following:

Make sure Windows Firewall is not blocking the app.

By default, Windows Firewall blocks some of the apps of the computer to provide more security. You need to configure the firewall first to allow the app to work.

Make sure your Apps are up to date.

Keeping your apps up to date will ensure that they will work smoothly. Just make sure that Automatic App Updates is turned on in the Windows Store.

Sync your app licenses.

The app might stop working if its license is out of sync with the license installed on the computer.

a.) To sync your app licenses, follow these steps:

b.) On the Start screen, tap or click Store to open the Windows Store.

c.) Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Settings. (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Settings.)

d.) Tap or click App updates.

c.) Tap or click Sync licenses.

Reinstall the App.

If your apps are already up to date and the licenses are synced, you can reinstall the app to try to resolve the problem.

To reinstall an app, follow these steps:

a.) On the Start screen, swipe down or right-click the app you want to uninstall, tap or click Uninstall, and then tap or click Uninstall.

b.) Tap or click Store to open the Windows Store.

c.) Swipe down from the top edge of the screen, and then tap Your Apps. (If you're using a mouse, right-click, and then click Your Apps)

d.) Tap or click the app you want to install, and then tap or click Install.

Consult your System Administrator.

If your computer is part of a network like in the office, at school, or business, your system administrator might have turned off the use of certain apps using Group Policy, in which case, contact your system administrator for further assistance.

Make sure your PC is up to date.

Make sure the latest updates are installed on your computer and that your antivirus program isn't preventing the app from running.

Contact the App publisher.

If you’re still experiencing problems with an app, use the support info listed on the app’s description page to contact the app publisher for help.

To view the publisher’s app support info, follow these steps:

On the Start screen, tap or click Store to open the Windows Store.

Search or browse for the app, and then tap or click it.

Scroll to the Details section of the app's description page, and then tap or click the support link for the app under Learn more. The link will open an email message for you to contact support or will take you to a support website.

I hope that this article was able to serve its purpose of making you aware of the possible reasons why a Windows 8 Menu App is unresponsive and what to do to resolve this.

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Written By: Rique Hebia - SUPPORTrix Tech Engineer and blog contributor

Fixes to Common Issues That You May Encounter With MS Office 2010

Fixing Common Microsoft Office Errors

As per Wikipedia, Microsoft Office is defined as an office suite of applications, servers and services for Microsoft Windows and OS X operating systems. It’s a very powerful software that is mostly used in homes and offices. An office component such as Word is widely known for creating any documents that can be written and printed. The Office spread sheet, widely-known as Excel, is one of the most useful tools in the office suite. It features calculation, graphing tools and programming language. The PowerPoint is also another useful component designed for presentations. If these components fail to work or stop working in the middle of a very important task, this could be a huge problem. It would be very necessary to know some of the common issues and fixes for this particular software. Below is a list of some common Microsoft Office problems and their suggested fixes.

Office Start up problem

One cause of this problem is a missing MS Office component. This mostly happens if an important file is corrupted by a virus or is accidentally deleted, or it could be a Windows registry issue. The best possible solution is to use the repair option of Microsoft Office. You may need the original MS Office installation disk to start and complete the repair. Just insert the installation disk, enter setup, select repair, and then follow the onscreen instructions.

Missing Office component or feature

Encountering a problem like this requires again the installation disk for repair. The installer has the complete record of all Office components. If by accident some files are deleted or any registry entry is corrupted, the installer can automatically reinstall the missing component. In Excel for instance, upon starting it you may experience problems for any of the following reasons: corrupted shortcut to Excel program, conflict with another program, incorrect version of a core Microsoft office file, corrupted registry keys, and other problems when opening Excel files. Here are the possible remedies for this:

·         Click Start, go to search, and then click for Files and folders. Type “excel.exe”, then click search now. Once the file is found, double-click it to start Microsoft Excel. If it starts, then the problem is a corrupted shortcut.

·         Start Excel in safe mode

·         Insert installation disk and start the add/remove feature

Office cannot open a file

Office has several versions, some of which face compatibility issues, especially when opening and saving files. Files that were saved in a particular MS Office version will likely cause an error when tried to open in another version. Only a few knows about this, which makes it one of the common issues encountered. However, this can be fixed by downloading the MS Office File compatibility pack or use a software for file conversion. This problem is usually encountered when using Microsoft Office 2007. Files saved in MS Office 2007 should be saved using a file extension that is recognizable by previous versions.

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Article Written By: Carmencita Rubia - A tech support engineer at SUPPORTrix