Internet Connectivity

[Chaplin]

So I have crappy Spectrum connectivity, but have an even bigger problem getting the wifi to extend through the whole house. I've tried using those plug-in extenders, but they don't work well at all, and in some instances, made it worse.

I've been recommended to look at the Google Wifi system as a replacement for my router. I'm no tech guru, but I don't have many requirements, basically 5G and the ability to connect anywhere in my 2500sqft house.

Anybody have any experience with Google Wifi? Any other options out there that might be less expensive?

 

[puckhead]

So I have crappy Spectrum connectivity, but have an even bigger problem getting the wifi to extend through the whole house. I've tried using those plug-in extenders, but they don't work well at all, and in some instances, made it worse.

I've been recommended to look at the Google Wifi system as a replacement for my router. I'm no tech guru, but I don't have many requirements, basically 5G and the ability to connect anywhere in my 2500sqft house.

Anybody have any experience with Google Wifi? Any other options out there that might be less expensive?

Can you move the router to a more central location in the house?

 

[Chaplin]

Can you move the router to a more central location in the house?

No, unfortunately. I'm actually using my modem, which has wifi built into it, right now. And I'm hamstrung into keeping it in one corner of the house. And the house isn't wired for ethernet, so I HAVE to use wifi in every room except the living room.

 

[puckhead]

No, unfortunately. I'm actually using my modem, which has wifi built into it, right now. And I'm hamstrung into keeping it in one corner of the house. And the house isn't wired for ethernet, so I HAVE to use wifi in every room except the living room.

That's too bad.

I've never used Google Wifi, but it looks similar to other solutions in the market.

 

[Skratchy_Seal]

I use Google Wifi. I like it, and it’s very simple to use. They automatically update, and I always have full bars. There aren’t a ton of advanced options though, and you need the Google Wifi app to set it up. The UI is very clean though. It does have 2.4 and 5GHz, but what’s different about this is that they both use the same SSID. I guess it’ll automatically know which frequency your device should connect on. It took a little bit of getting used to.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these have only 1 Ethernet port on each pod for hardwiring a device. The other port is for connecting the main pod to the internet. If you have several devices to hardwire, then you probably need to buy a network switch as well. I was having issues with interference from my wireless speaker system because they work on the same frequency as Wifi routers. This caused my media streaming devices in the living room to have really poor and slow connections. I ended up buying a $17 gigabit switch from Fry’s to connect these devices, which worked out great.

They usually sell a 3-pack for about $260, which would certainly work for your 2,500 SqFt home. However, Costco is currently running a sale for a 4-pack for $280, which is a great deal.

 

[BillsCarnage]

FYI, 5Ghz is faster speed, but shorter range. 2.4Ghz is slower speeds but further range.

Are your walls concrete/plaster or drywall? If you have crappy wifi it might just be the modem itself. In which case a dual band wifi router might suffice. My house is roughly the same size and while the router is more centrally located, it has no problem going through the walls.

 

[Chaplin]

FYI, 5Ghz is faster speed, but shorter range. 2.4Ghz is slower speeds but further range.

Are your walls concrete/plaster or drywall? If you have crappy wifi it might just be the modem itself. In which case a dual band wifi router might suffice. My house is roughly the same size and while the router is more centrally located, it has no problem going through the walls.

It's drywall. I had the problem in my previous house a few years ago, but those walls were concrete and it was a significantly smaller space. But since it's drywall, I was surprised that we were having the same issues that we had at the old house, even in a house more than twice the size.

 

[BillsCarnage]

What kind of speeds are you getting on speedtest.net and how old is your wifi router?

Non-dual band (2.4 & 5G) routers can struggle if you have a lot of devices connected. Just about all wireless devices use the 2.4 frequency - garage door openers, tv remotes, and so on.

Do you know what channel (1-11) your wifi is broadcasting on? A busy channel can also cause congestion.

 

[Chaplin]

What kind of speeds are you getting on speedtest.net and how old is your wifi router?

Non-dual band (2.4 & 5G) routers can struggle if you have a lot of devices connected. Just about all wireless devices use the 2.4 frequency - garage door openers, tv remotes, and so on.

Do you know what channel (1-11) your wifi is broadcasting on? A busy channel can also cause congestion.

I don't know what channel I'm broadcasting on. As far as speeds, it varies where you are in the house. We tend to use the 5G on every device in the house, so congestion could be a problem, but I tend to think that isn't it because we see problems when no devices are in the house and/or turned on.

I'm not using a wifi router, it's built into my modem, which is relatively new, probably just a couple years old.

 

[Shaggy]

So I have crappy Spectrum connectivity, but have an even bigger problem getting the wifi to extend through the whole house. I've tried using those plug-in extenders, but they don't work well at all, and in some instances, made it worse.

I've been recommended to look at the Google Wifi system as a replacement for my router. I'm no tech guru, but I don't have many requirements, basically 5G and the ability to connect anywhere in my 2500sqft house.

Anybody have any experience with Google Wifi? Any other options out there that might be less expensive?

There is Google Wifi, Orbi, Eero, and a few others. All pretty much the same price. I have the Orbi system and its has been great. I moved into a home that has a basement 2 years ago and had a decent size linksys router that worked great at my 2 story home before this one. I had the router setup in the middle of the 1st floor and was getting great coverage from the west and east part of the main floor, but zero coverage on the east and west side rooms in the basement. Zero! I did a ton of research and I ended up going with the Orbi system that has the router and the one satellite(you can add more satellites to the system, which I have done and was easy to do.)

I put the Orbi router in the same place I had my highend linksys router and I added the satellite in the center of the basement(laundry room). Every single room, upper and lower, now had full speeds. I did a test of course and had my phone next to the router upstairs and did a fast.com test and moved down to a room in the basement and did the same thing. It was like I was standing right next to the router upstairs, lost very little signal/speed. I was amazed how great of a connection I had.

The other thing I love about a mesh system, is no matter where you go in the house, its always connected to the same wifi connection unlike the boosters, where your wifi on your phone/tablet/laptop will have to log out and then log into the nearest booster connection. The mesh system never skips a beat when it switches(you never see it switch on your wifi connection, its all done through the mesh system) between the router and satellites.

I would go the mesh route, it maybe a little bit more expensive then a normal router, but its been worth it. I would go with Orbi to.

 

[Russ Smith]

Eero works well too. My girlfriends cousin has a house on the beach in the Philippines. Her husband is tech savvy and they have terrible internet over there, slow and unreliable. He installed Eero and even with the crappy internet connection, they get good wifi all over the place. The house is nowhere near as big as yours, but they have a main house, a couple of cottages nearby and other outdoors stuff and everyone one of them has an Eero box and gets good solid wifi.

 

[MrYeahBut]

I just have a problem with Directv HD DVR. While everything else works anywhere in my house the DVR drops the connection with no rhyme or reason. I thought I'd try a wifi extender/booster/repeater etc. I've tried to read which is better, but I'm still confused. I have Xfinity with router/modem combo... speed averages 15mg, the receiver is only about 20' away.

Any suggestions for which one I should buy?

 

[puckhead]

I just have a problem with Directv HD DVR. While everything else works anywhere in my house the DVR drops the connection with no rhyme or reason. I thought I'd try a wifi extender/booster/repeater etc. I've tried to read which is better, but I'm still confused. I have Xfinity with router/modem combo... speed averages 15mg, the receiver is only about 20' away.

Any suggestions for which one I should buy?

Have you tried plugging it in directly with an ethernet cable?

 

[MrYeahBut]

Have you tried plugging it in directly with an ethernet cable?

Not feasible. There's no port near it or I would have done that already.

 

[puckhead]

Not feasible. There's no port near it or I would have done that already.

Does the DirecTV box have wifi built in or are you using a wireless bridge to connect to the router?

 

[MrYeahBut]

Does the DirecTV box have wifi built in or are you using a wireless bridge to connect to the router?

wireless bridge

 

[puckhead]

wireless bridge

Sometimes those can be flaky. I use one in my bedroom DirecTV receiver and I have to reboot it once every couple of months. But it's really nice to be able to share content between DVRs in both rooms. My living room receiver is hardwired to the router and it's solid as a rock.

 

[MrYeahBut]

Sometimes those can be flaky. I use one in my bedroom DirecTV receiver and I have to reboot it once every couple of months. But it's really nice to be able to share content between DVRs in both rooms. My living room receiver is hardwired to the router and it's solid as a rock.

I've got no way to hard wire the DVR. I also have the wireless Genie system and that works on the 2 other TV's in the house without any problems. Maybe I'll try resetting the bridge....Please stay online until after midnight to help me when I inevitably have problems....


j/k... I haven't been up past 9.30pm in a decade.

 

[puckhead]

Ha! I turn into a pumpkin by then.

 

[Shaggy]

Not feasible. There's no port near it or I would have done that already.

Have you ever tried powerline? Its 2 adapters you plug into your wall sockets and then you plug in your ethernet cables to those. It allows data(internet) to travel through your power lines. I had this on my older home dish setup. I didn't have a ethernet connection near my dish DVR so I bought a powerline setup, plugged one near the router and then plugged the other behind my dvr receiver. Worked like a charm and never dropped connection.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?k=powerline+adapter&sprefix=power

I went with the netgear ones.

 

[MrYeahBut]

Have you ever tried powerline? Its 2 adapters you plug into your wall sockets and then you plug in your ethernet cables to those. It allows data(internet) to travel through your power lines. I had this on my older home dish setup. I didn't have a ethernet connection near my dish DVR so I bought a powerline setup, plugged one near the router and then plugged the other behind my dvr receiver. Worked like a charm and never dropped connection.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?k=powerline+adapter&sprefix=power

I went with the netgear ones.

Thanks Shaggy, I'll look into this

 

[jf-08]

I just have a problem with Directv HD DVR. While everything else works anywhere in my house the DVR drops the connection with no rhyme or reason. I thought I'd try a wifi extender/booster/repeater etc. I've tried to read which is better, but I'm still confused. I have Xfinity with router/modem combo... speed averages 15mg, the receiver is only about 20' away.

Any suggestions for which one I should buy?

This has happened to me several times within the past month or so. It doesn't make sense, but I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one experiencing this. I unplug my DirecTV unit for 30 seconds and after it re-boots, things seem to go back to normal.

 

[Russ Smith]

Have you ever tried powerline? Its 2 adapters you plug into your wall sockets and then you plug in your ethernet cables to those. It allows data(internet) to travel through your power lines. I had this on my older home dish setup. I didn't have a ethernet connection near my dish DVR so I bought a powerline setup, plugged one near the router and then plugged the other behind my dvr receiver. Worked like a charm and never dropped connection.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?k=powerline+adapter&sprefix=power

I went with the netgear ones.

I used Powerline when renting a house in Sacramento and it worked great. and in our case solved the problem of Amazon Prime dropping the wireless connection. we also had Directv and had the exact same problem with the DVR disconnecting etc. When I called to complain they said it was unusual, clearly it is isn't from the posts here and the posts in online forums.

Also there are the powerline adapters that do wireless, adn there are those that also allow you to plug in ethernet to the adapter and then to whatever device. Mine did both and also had a plug so you plugged it in, but didn't lose a plug as the face of the adapter had a plug for you to plug something else into. Don't need it in my apartment but I have it packed away for later when we move.