Recently obtained a Nexus Player and having some connectivity issues with it.
On WiFi it works, except that if it sits idle for a few hours, it will loose connection after being woken up. This occurs on both the 2Ghz and 5Ghz bands. Only way to fix it is a reboot. Turning the WiFi on/off, or even reconnecting to my WiFi does not fix it. My router is only about 8 feet away. It shows the Nexus Player with a -55dB signal on 2Ghz, and -65dB on 5Ghz, so basically a excellent signal.
So I thought I would try a USB to ethernet adapter. I found a supported one with a Axis chipset. This solved the connection loss after sleep issue, but introduced a new problem.. Streaming apps will randomly loose connection. Youtube is particularly bad about this.
My router is a Asus RT-AC66U. Internet connection is 1000Mbps/500Mbps.
I have a Shield TV in another room that does not have issues like this at all on either WiFi or Ethernet...
Update it until it can no longer update itself. Then do a factory reset.
And don't let it sleep at all. Turn off daydream.
I did this and I have no problems.