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ssledoux

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 16, 2006
4,413
4,245
Down south
Dang thing will NOT stay connected to my wifi - always telling me it can’t connect even when it shows connected. I’m SO dang annoyed.

AND it’s always trying to get me to set up Siri again. Why in the world does it just forget everything I’ve done?

If I wasn’t out of the return window, I’d return the Apple TV also. I just can’t win out here with this freaking satellite internet. SO annoying.
 
Do you have an iPhone? To test your equipment you could use the iPhone as a WiFi "HOT SPOT" and connect the ATV to it. Yes your phone plan may have a limit on Data but it would tell you where you problem is. Be careful of extra $$ for going over that limit.
Also: have you contacted Apple Support?
 
Do you have an iPhone? To test your equipment you could use the iPhone as a WiFi "HOT SPOT" and connect the ATV to it. Yes your phone plan may have a limit on Data but it would tell you where you problem is. Be careful of extra $$ for going over that limit.
Also: have you contacted Apple Support?

Well, my problem is all we have to work with is crappy satellite internet, and our cellular service isn’t better, so as much as I’d like to, it’s a useless waste of money for me to have Apple TV and Homepods. We had upped our plan, so I was hopeful it would do better, but nope.

I have already reset the thing multiple times, and had to start over setting up and all that. I’m done. It’s just too dang frustrating.

Not past the return window on either device, so I’m heading to Apple tomorrow to return them both. I’ll try again if we ever move from the boonies.
 
Well, my problem is all we have to work with is crappy satellite internet
Yep where my brother lives he had this problem till recently. He had satellite, and it was terrible. He now was able to get cable so he’s good.

You’re not going to get much with video streaming or a decent connection to the Internet with old school satellite. Perhaps look up if Starlink is available in your area. That should be similar to modern Internet.
 
Yep where my brother lives he had this problem till recently. He had satellite, and it was terrible. He now was able to get cable so he’s good.

You’re not going to get much with video streaming or a decent connection to the Internet with old school satellite. Perhaps look up if Starlink is available in your area. That should be similar to modern Internet.

Waiting for that, but it’ll be 6-12 months I think.
 
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As shared in the prior thread, you could rule out a number of things and just possibly find a solution if you would test a wired (ethernet) connection. I know you want to use wifi only but a test is just a test. One cable from router to AppleTV (right across the floor if need be for this test) to see if it works well that way would rule out key possibilities that it is something other than "crappy" satt broadband. For example, what if the upped satt service IS fast/stable enough but the wifi functionality of your router is failing (not quite dead but on its way out)?

One easy run of an ethernet cable would bypass wifi variables completely to see if the satt service is good enough. If so, a simple router change may yield a better wifi connection and you get what you were hoping for without simply doing without until a non-satt, broadband option may arrive. Those kind of projects seem to take 2X-5X longer than best estimated, so taking one more shot at getting your "as is" working may be worth this (simple) test effort.

If AppleTV suddenly works well via ethernet, router replacement becomes next step to freshly test wifi again. If that "fixes" it for AppleTV, HomePods are likely to work better too. On the other hand, if AppleTV continues to NOT work well with a wired connection test, fault is very likely with the satt service- presumably too many interruptions in data flow- and your next best bet does become changing source of broadband.

If you picked up the AppleTV without an ethernet jack, you can test this with ANY device (maybe a laptop?) with an ethernet jack. Position the laptop where you keep your AppleTV, do some speed tests over wifi (speediest.net or similar), direct connect with ethernet, repeat those tests, compare results. If it is noticeably better with ethernet, I again suspect failing router and that is a simple change that might make a huge difference.
 
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My guess is this is totally caused by your satellite internet. I had that a few years ago before I moved and the latency is just horrible. I'm thinking your Homepod/AppleTV are probably connected to your router just fine, but when they try to reach out to servers across the internet for things they see the long latency and time out thinking they aren't connected.

Do you have trouble streaming video/songs from a local computer to those devices? What about airplaying from your Phone or computer? I'm betting those will probably work just fine.
 
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My guess is this is totally caused by your satellite internet. I had that a few years ago before I moved and the latency is just horrible. I'm thinking your Homepod/AppleTV are probably connected to your router just fine, but when they try to reach out to servers across the internet for things they see the long latency and time out thinking they aren't connected.

Do you have trouble streaming video/songs from a local computer to those devices? What about airplaying from your Phone or computer? I'm betting those will probably work just fine.

I could probably do those things, but I returned them both. I’m hoping we will get Starlink at some point, and then I’ll revisit it.
 
Even with excellent WiFi my HomePods will sometimes refuse commands as "not connected to the internet". All my other devices in the same location are fine. Only lasts for a few minutes and then they work again. Never figured out why it happens.
 
I have this same issue with my AppleTV which is why i think its NOT your internet. In my case I have to sign into my icloud account every damn day.
 
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