My in laws have the worst Wi-Fi. He has everything set up in the back bedroom but you can’t get Wi-Fi in the living room of their 2000 sqft ranch.
I said I would update the system as a late Christmas present. But I have no idea what to buy.
I’m sure his system is quite old. I’m hoping for some advice.
Should I purchase a new faster modem? A stronger router? A Wi-Fi extender? A mesh system?
No gaming😂 but they do have Netflix. And phone scrolling other Wi-Fi connected devices. (This is a self serving gift!). My fil claims the Wi-Fi won’t travel from the bedroom because of the fireplace in the middle of the house.
Thanks. There are so many options. I need a what to buy for tech dummies!
I would look at what internet speed package they have purchased. I suspect they are probably paying a lot of money for low speed (old package). I would call their internet provider or even multiple providers if available to see what cheaper and faster package they could get.
The next step would be to get them to come to the house to rewire and swap out their old equipments (if they are renting from the provider). The provider should be able to come up with the best solution.
I have a long corner apartment. Where I have the modem was not able to give me wifi throughout the apartment, so they put in a mesh for me.
When the provider comes to install new equipments, someone should test the speed to make sure they are getting what they are paying for.
A lit depends on what the have, but if their router is several years old, it probably needs an upgrade. We have a large 112 year old house with plaster walls. Getting wifi to reach everywhere with just a router is impossible. When we switched to Comcast, they have some service to test the strength and see if you need extenders. We did and they gave us 3. Our house is pretty good now. The extenders just plug into the wall and are super easy to set up.
Edit - when we switched to Comcast, I paid the $100 for the service tech to set everything up. Nothing ever works like it should for me. He was there for 8 hours and wound up restringing everything and was on the phone constantly with Comcast. Best $100 I ever spent!
Start with their service provider - if they have had the some one for years they might be eligible for a free upgrade of the equipment. We have had Verizon FIos for years. At one point they wanted us to upgrade our router and gave us a free new one (and didn’t even want the old one back as it was so old).
Next check on their package - again you may be able to get a faster package for the same price. Verizon has upped ours over the years, as they stop offering the slower packages.
We were paying for a certain speed, but we weren’t getting it. Once that was fixed, everything else fell into place nicely. Our provider came and swapped out the equipment.
Had that issue at my dad’s house. We bought an upgraded router (which helped) but the real issue was having a direct open space from one end of house to the other to relay the signal. The TV guy finally found a spot in the bedroom to put the router so we had wifi to the other end of the house. Certain walls would block the signal. They do make additional add ons to routers so you can place them in home to transmit (like a relay from main router).
Thanks. Lots to think about. Now I know why this has been difficult for my FIL to figure out.
They have charter, same company as we have. I know that my modem was too old and too slow for Charter’s new internet speeds.
Maybe that’s where we start. Sounds like it’s a fix that will require a visit or call to charter. Which is only slightly better than dealing with Verizon.
I know my FIL has been going through tons of data on his phone because his WiFi is so terrible.
I agree that new equipment if theirs is several years old and a good tech who can look at their home footprint and tailor the equipment to what they have will make a difference.
And if you can get that solved (basically getting someone out there to take care of it) you will be their hero!!!
As people have said, figure out what service your in-laws have. Second, see if they are due for an upgrade on a modem. Good modems (Arris Surfboard) are $150, so if they are charging you $10 a month, buying one is not a bad option.
If it is hard to get the signal across the house, you might look at a small mesh network. Here’s a review: The Best Wi-Fi Mesh Network Systems for 2023 | PCMag. This is a router and wifi access points that spread the wifi around the space. The number of access points you need depends upon the size and configuration of the house.
I had a Google Mesh network in my house, because the access points also serve as speakers for music and microphones for commands. I installed this just after the Pandemic began and it worked OK, but the house has an inefficient layout (long and thin) so I think I had 5 access points. The signal strength degrades the farther the access point is from the main router.
This won’t be relevant, but when we renovated the house, we installed ethernet cables and put in a low-end enterprise system that works extremely well (fast signal everywhere).
We have ethernet from when we built, but a good Eero mesh system has done wonders for those in the family who don’t stay jacked in all day long (er, that would be me). It’s also extended our wifi out to the back garden, an unexpected boon that has made me very happy. Cable provider is the starting point. They almost always have bundles & upgrades and unless you’re hardcore, it’s totally worth the cost to have someone else figure out how to improve whatever the setup already is.
Agreeing with the key points above (checking the package, updating the equipment, buy don’t rent).
We just did that & went with the Orbi- we only needed 2 units, but you can also get them in a set of 3. It was super easy to set up and has made a world of difference.
I don’t have anything to add except to say that I would not use anyone from Charter (now Spectrum) to work on anything (even if you pay). I have never had a good experience with Charter in 20-some years. I live in a small town in MA and Charter is our only choice for internet/cable service. We hired the folks who installed a home theater for us to help upgrade our internet.
Agree on Costco’s return policy. They are amazing, although give a more limited return period for electronics. But they will take ANYTHING back.
We have cable internet. I switched to a docsis 3.1 cable modem that was configured for our cable provider and we have the Google mesh with several nodes. We get more than 800 Mbps speeds throughout our very spread out place. Google products are available at Costco.
I would also recommend scouting out BestBuy. They have great prices, and these days, are a real competitor to, if not better than, Amazon.
just upgraded our home with a Mesh router last week. (costco). East to setup, works fantastic.
Bcos we had a modem/router combo, had to replace the modem as well. Went with a Motorola for ~$75, which has a max of 1Gig download. (no gaming in our house, so don’t need docsis 3.1, which is 2x the price)
But double check that any modem you purchase works with the local cable system.
Absolutely agree on getting the right cable modem. The first one I got when we switched to the highspeed Comcast internet worked, and then would cop out. This was during the height of the online school/work phase of the pandemic, and family was not very happy with me. I spent quite a bit of time researching it, and realized there was a fundamental problem with the modem I had purchased, even though it was certified to work with Comcast at the speeds we were supposed to be getting.
Once I made the switch to another certified brand, it’s worked like a charm. Even the family now says nice things about me in relation to internet speed!
Just do a little research on the front end as to who you want as your provider and at what speed. Everything works off of that.
yeah, our previous Modem was a Netgear nighthawk, which is popular with the “enthusiasts” and gamers. While it was fast, every few months it would just reset itself to factory settings, including name and pw, so I’d have to go and redo passwords in the morning. Lot of complaints about this bug online, particularly since the modem only had a 90 warranty, but no solutions.
Hopefully, costco will take it back.
Motorola and Arris modems seem to continue to top the review charts.
