Why is your Smart TV not connecting to the Internet? There are a number of possible reasons why this happens. They include: software issues, including bugs, as well as hardware issues.
Whether you own a Samsung Smart TV, or one from Sony, LG, Hisense, TCL, Vizio, or any of the other brands, sometimes, you run into a hitch when your TV refuses to connect to your Wi-fi hotspot. Of course, a smart TV can be used without an internet connection. You can use it like any other non-connected TV sets.
But if you want to enjoy the features for which it is called smart, if you want to use YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and other services on it, you will need an Internet connection. As such, you need to fix the problem of your Smart TV not connecting to the Internet.
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Things to do to fix your Smart TV not connecting to the Internet
The first thing you should do to get an idea of what is happening is to change your internet connection, if you have an alternative service. Switch from one WiFi connection to another and see if the connection problem goes away. If it does, the problem was from your default Internet connection – perhaps a temporary issue from your service provider, or an issue with your router, mifi, or phone hotspot.
Contact your ISP and/or reboot your router
Sometimes, when your Smart TV stand there is no Internet connection, it means that something is wrong from your ISP’s end. To clear an issue from your service provider, reach out to them with an explanation that your Smart TV connects on an alternative link but not theirs. They will fix it and ask you to restart your router or other sharing device.
To clear most issues on your router or mifi, a restart is a great idea. Reboot it and if the connection issue is from that end, things should work fine again. A reboot, or restart, works wonders.
If you changed your Internet connection and your TV still won’t connect, that is an indication that the problem is not from your Internet connection. In which case, all our attention is on the TV set from here. The next step is to restart your TV. Why?
Like any other computing system, your Smart TV sometimes gets clogged up and a simple reboot often does wonders, clearing issues of this kind most of the times. Preferably, switch it off from the power mains for about 30 seconds, before powering it on again.
There are other technical things you can do to fix your Smart TV not connecting to the Internet. For example, you can manually change its DNS and allied network settings. But I don’t advice that you tamper with technical things, unless you really know what you are doing. And if you were technical enough to understand the issues, you would not be reading this article.
One last thing you can do to fix your Smart TV not connecting to the Internet, though, is to update the software (or firmware). If you are already comfortable with the idea of software updates for your phone, this is a piece of cake. Find the software update menu under the System settings on your TV, and check if any updates are available. If there is, download and run it, then restart your TV and try to connect again.
Hopefully, one of the above procedures solves the problem of your Smart TV not connecting to the Internet. If the problem is still present, this is where you should get some technical help to fix it. As mentioned earlier, I do not advice that you fiddle with the connection settings of your Smart TV unless you know what you are doing.
Any of the above fixes are for software-related issues. Should your TV’s problems spring from the hardware, only a qualified technician should be allowed to tamper with it. Preferably, have it examined by a qualified person at an authorised service centre.