Google TV update breaks faster internet speeds for Walmart’s Onn 4K Pro

Ben Schoon | Oct 31 2024 - 2:15 pm PT

The Walmart Onn 4K Pro is a stellar Google TV set-top box, but with pretty slow Ethernet and, now, an update has broken a method of upgrading those speeds.

Built into the Onn 4K Pro is an Ethernet port, allowing users to easily hook up the streaming box to a hardwired internet connection. This generally brings much faster and more stable speeds, but Walmart left the device with a restriction. Unlike other Android TV OS boxes with built-in Ethernet, like the Google TV Streamer and Nvidia Shield, Onn 4K Pro is limited to 100mbps speeds. In many cases, that’s slower than Wi-Fi would deliver.

Thankfully, there was an easy workaround.

Users could hook up a USB hub to the device and use Ethernet over USB to boost the speeds of the hardware connection considerably. But, oddly, a new update rolling out to the device has left that workaround broken.

It was quickly noticed after the update started rolling out that, upon rebooting, Ethernet no longer worked. Only on using the built-in Ethernet port could users actually get a hardwired connection. But this leaves the device limited back to 100mbps. Some have found that even digging into the settings to get the box to recognize a connected adapter doesn’t fix the problem, and results in even-slower speeds than the built-in Ethernet port.

One user claims that a specific TP-Link adapter seems to still work at full speed, though, which heavily suggests that this is an issue with the software update rather than an intentional change.

Whatever the case, this is rather frustrating, as the workaround for faster speeds made the Onn 4K Pro an even better value.