[Coda]

Most routers are crap, to be completely honest. You really do get what you pay for. If it's not one thing, it's another -- weak transmit power, not enough RAM, not configurable enough...

[Yokuutsu]

Question: I'm in the front room, living room next to me, mom behind the living room to the right (modem in a room above the living room) she has old (wired) speakers, like a sound system like thing for her laptop, could those mess with the signal?

Also, can you suggest a wifi extender? Time Warner/Spectrum says we need an expensive (imo) one. I will post shitty drawings of my house in a bit.

http://imgur.com/a/M3o0Q

The left is downstairs, the top left room is mine, AKA the only one with problems now.

The right is upstairs, the black dot is, give or take, where the modem is. The upstairs rooms are wired in. Downstairs is wireless.


Oh and all our wireless modems have been from the cable company so they should've all been shitty lol

[Coda]

Wired speakers? Probably not. Wireless might.

Do you run 802.11n or 802.11ac? If you only need n, then the Netgear EX2700 is well-recommended for its price. If you need ac, then its big brother the EX3700 doesn't cost much more.

And yes, they probably all were pretty crappy. :P You can just connect another router to it and turn off the built-in wifi. (Or you can buy your own cable modem; they're not that expensive, and it might be cheaper than renting one in the long run.)

[Yokuutsu]

We had something like that netgear....belkin version pretty much...did not help at all. In none of the three rooms downstairs...it wouldn't work. It would switch to the lights that meant either no connectivity or really shitty connectivity. Which Idk what we need because Idk what ps4/ps3 runs off of, but I think everything else does N I believe.

Mom won't buy a modem, unless they're like 20 dollars. And I agree with her on it due to one thing: Time Warner/Spectrum doesn't like helping you with their stuff....sometimes won't even help you get the modem you bought set up and so we wouldn't be able to use it (or they would say they don't support that modem).

But our modem has both 2.4 and 5....it's rare but sometimes someone can connect to that instead LOL

(I thought my laptop would be able to considering it came out a year or two ago...it's under a year old right now, and is advertised with ultrafast wifi....it can run through A which is not good enough for the modem to let it connect to 5ghz apparently D:)

We used to have a router, except it caps at 15 mbps....my laptop can pick up over 40 apparently....and I don't want to lose all that speed now that they're actually providing it once in awhile LOL

[Coda]

PS4 can run on n. PS3 is stuck with g, I think. Mixing 802.11g and 802.11n often ends up with everything having to downgrade to keep the two protocols from stepping on each others' toes. Probably better off running Ethernet for the PS3, if that's the only 802.11g device you're using.

Otherwise... The issues you're having are pretty standard. Wifi is pretty darn close to magic, when it comes down to it, and it's really picky.

[Yokuutsu]

PS3 is downstairs so that isn't feasible really (downstairs, modem upstairs), but it isn't running that often, just once in awhile. So that isn't a big deal imo.

Wifi still worked fine with the old arris. This is a new one...and I hate it >> << So I will be bitter all I want...like an old man XD

[Coda]

Oh, no, by all means, be cranky about it. XD But it's something where the only solution is to throw more money at it one way or another.

[Yokuutsu]

The solution is GIMME MY OLD MODEM BACK! D:

LOL

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Can a different router do anything for a connection that is just flat unstable or weak because of the provider's own set-up? Up north it wasn't uncommon for people to downgrade their internet simply because the service providers did not have the capability of delivering faster internet. There was no point in paying for a better connection when the provider simply can't give it.

[Yokuutsu]

With ours, down grading just means even shittier speeds!

You never get what you pay for LOL

[Coda]

Somewhat. A good router can help improve network stability, although the connection speed might degrade in the process. However, as you imply, it can't do a whole lot if there's not a lot to work with, and it IS better to downgrade your service contract than to pay for service you can't get. IIRC they're actually not ALLOWED to sell you a package if they can't meet the guarantees by federal law, so if they can't get it working they're obligated to adjust your rates.

That said, you can't judge the connection quality based on wifi performance. The best test is to use Ethernet so that signal interference doesn't mess with your results.

It should be noted that Internet in apartments ALWAYS sucks because of how things are wired up and how many people are using wifi spectrum in the area. There's no two ways around it; during peak hours there's going to be congestion on both the wifi spectrum AND on the cable lines themselves.

[Yokuutsu]

Well, I think with Wifi, most of the time (without congestion) you should be able to get half of the speeds...IF your laptop/wireless thing can pick up those speeds.

We pay for 50 and once in awhile I'll get 40+ which is how I know it's possible for them to give me what I'm paying for even on wifi....but normally? Under 20....which is better than before, but I get kicked a lot D:

[Coda]

No, you should be able to pull the rated bandwidth. I've got an 802.11ac router rated for 1300Mbps, which is around 162MB/sec, which means that I should be able to pull my entire 60MB/sec data plan if I wanted to and still have wifi bandwidth to spare -- and in fact, speedtest.net says I'm pulling 64MB/sec down right now.

[Yokuutsu]

What I meant is at least half, but either way, Time Warner/Spectrum, no matter the problem is like GET WIFI EXTENDER D:

[Coda]

Well, they have a point: in most home installations, wifi interference is the most common cause of intermittent outages. Wifi range extenders combat noise by yelling louder. (In my house, it's distance and walls that are the problem, so my router is ALSO a high-power one so it reaches into my office.)

[Yokuutsu]

But most wifi extenders I can buy will also cut the speed in half. I am not doing that considering sometimes we only get 2mbps....which that speed alone drives me batshitt.

Also, anywhere I'd plug it in is further from the modem than me which makes no damn sense on it helping.

And after like awhile of it working, it completely kicks me off the modem after kicking me from the internet. Please wireless card, have an update.