Solved: Why does Netflix buffer on my Xbox / PS3 / Wii but not my computer?

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Today I’m going to briefly revisit an old topic, because I’ve had a few friends ask me about it recently. They said that they can watch streaming movies, like things on YouTube or Netflix, with no problem on their laptop / desktop computer – but for some reason when they try to watch the same things on their game console (Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii) they have to buffer every couple of minutes.

I have found the solution to be entering your router’s settings and enabling WMM. This gives “Wireless Multi-Media” packets priority over other packets. Some people say that WMM slows down their internet connection. I only find that to be the case if you have a lot of multi-media content moving around on your network, constantly. Several people watching movies from a media server, then you trying to watch Netflix… too much multi-media content trying to be given priority over each other, it can cause a bottle neck. But your average home user will see a huge benefit to enabling QoS (Quality of Service) and WMM in their router.

A few months ago, I wrote a general but in-depth guide on enabling WMM on multiple devices. It may be a little outdated already, but the majority of the information holds true.