Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to get some insight from people who know TP-Link routers better than I do. I’m using a TP-Link router at home, and overall my internet speed looks fine on speed tests. Browsing, downloads, and even other streaming apps work smoothly without any noticeable issues.

However, YouTube behaves very differently. Videos often start in low quality, buffer randomly, or take a few seconds to load—especially during the evening hours. This happens across multiple devices (phone, laptop, smart TV), and only when connected to Wi-Fi. If I switch to mobile data, YouTube works perfectly, which makes me think the issue is router-side rather than ISP-wide.

I’ve noticed similar behavior when testing YouTube through different clients as well. For example, when using alternative YouTube apps or YouTube Mod APK builds (mainly for testing playback behavior, codecs, and ads), buffering patterns can change depending on how traffic is routed or throttled. Some of these modified versions—commonly shared via sites like ytmodz—handle video requests slightly differently, which makes router-level handling (DNS, IPv6, QoS) even more noticeable when something isn’t configured optimally.

That’s why I’m wondering if this could be related to specific router settings such as:

• QoS or bandwidth control

• DNS configuration

• IPv6 handling or anything TP-Link-specific in how YouTube traffic is processed or prioritized

Have any of you experienced similar YouTube buffering issues on TP-Link routers, even when overall speed seems fine? If so, which settings or troubleshooting steps actually made a real difference?

Any practical advice or real-world fixes would be greatly appreciated.