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It is very frustrating when your internet service does not work properly. And it’s hard to figure out what’s wrong.
It could be your internet company’s fault, boo-boos with your home appliances, or interference from your neighbor’s Call of Duty game night. And sometimes we are our own worst enemy.
Try tackling these four mistakes that could be ruining your home Internet:
1. Don’t confuse modem and router
Confession: I made this mistake only this week.
The modem is the box that pulls the internet up to your home. It is usually connected to a cable jack in your wall.
The router connects to your modem with a cord and brings your devices online, usually over WiFi. (Some of you may have a combined router and modem.)
If you’re about to freak out about your WiFi 6E mesh network, bless your heart. Normal humans just want our internet to work.
The difference between modem and router matters for number 2 reason.
2. Don’t Hide Your WiFi Router
It’s fine to put your modem under a stack of books. But your router needs to behave like a Faberg egg.
Your WiFi works best if your router is in the center of your home not placed on a bookshelf, parked under a metal table or stuck behind your TV set or fish tank.
I understand why people – and I am one of those people – hide these gizmos out of sight. Router looks range from “yuck” to “get that creepy UFO out of my house.” (A free business idea: Adorable outfits to cover our ugly routers.)
And the further away your devices are from the router, the more difficult it can be to get a solid connection.
Beware of walls, metal, water and other obstacles that prevent the beautiful internet rainbow from reaching your bedroom TV.
Carl Leuschner, a senior vice president at the company behind the Spectrum internet service, said customers often have hiccups with connected doorbells like Amazon’s Ring. Your home’s exterior wall is getting in the way and the doorbell is often away from your router.
If you have flaky WiFi, even a minor router relocation can make a big difference.
Can you place your router on top of your TV stand instead of on a shelf or move it from your living room floor to above a cabinet? For connected doorbell problems, Leuschner said Spectrum suggests people move their routers closer to the door or buy a device that extends WiFi into difficult nooks and crannies.
Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler wrote a guide to wireless fixes where he suggested mostly free solutions. (A tip: Start by unplugging your modem, waiting 10 seconds, and plugging it back in.)
3. Don’t buy that super-fast internet
Internet providers impress you with BLAZING promising service plans. Fast. Speed.
But in a 2019 Wall Street Journal project, researchers found that most people were using internet speeds for a fraction of what they paid for. For those who watched video over a zippered connection, the streaming video quality didn’t improve much.
I’m not saying you’ll be fine with 1990s dial-up internet. But most homes will be fine with an internet provider’s basic high-speed plan offering download speeds of 50, 100, 200 or 300 megabits per second. (Many Americans can’t afford that fast speed or service. Internet access is a big problem.)
Download speed measures the maximum rate of online data arriving at your home. Will You Really Get the 300 Megabit Speeds You Signed Up For? not necessarily.
Sascha Meinrath, a telecommunications professor at Penn State University, said that providers’ download speeds are often sufficient for most homes, but a bottleneck can be upload speeds — a measure of the amount of data going from your device back to the Internet.
Skimpy upload speeds can be a problem if your Zoom call freezes up while your teen is busting out their TikTok creations. But upload speed is usually ignored in the marketing pitches of Internet companies.
It’s worth starting with the lowest-tier plan from your provider. If your internet is molasses, you might want to consider an upgrade. But first try moving your router and other fix-it experiments from Geoff’s column.
4. You don’t need to get your router from your internet company
Many Internet providers will provide you (or pay you for) a modem or router. You should consider buying them yourself, although I’m on the fence about buying versus renting from an internet company.
Some providers charge an additional fee of $5 to $15 per month to use their router or modem. You’ll save money by buying your own. Follow the installation instructions from your Internet provider. (Here are modem guides from the two big providers, Xfinity and Spectrum.)
With your own gear, you can replace your modem and router whenever you want and when your internet provider chooses. If your router is more than two or three years old, it’s worth considering a new one. Modems are usually fine for longer periods of time.
But there are benefits to accepting your Internet provider’s modem or router. The company should keep your software updated, make sure your equipment can handle the internet speeds you’re paying for, and help you with problems.
I buy my own router and modem, but that’s not right for everyone.
Whether you choose to rent or buy your internet gear, make it a well thought out choice and not something your internet provider decides for you.
related reading, How Internet and TV Providers Get Away with Inflating Your Bill
Is Your Internet Provider Charging You for the Router? or making you pay extra to use your own, Take a look at your internet bill and email me about it [email protected],
If you have a relatively recent model of an Amazon Echo home speaker, it can add oomph to WiFi dead zones in your home.
For those who own Amazon’s Eero “mesh” WiFi system it’s essentially a router plus mini pods to spread WiFi around your home Echo devices can double as WiFi signal boosts. Is. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
My colleague Chris Velazco tried the combo Eero and Echo, and found it was nothing short of a miracle.
But he added that the Echo plus Eero combo could help if you have a place where your WiFi gets a little crazy. Maybe that’s a bedroom in the corner of your house or the internet dead zone in Chris’s kitchen.
Read more from Chris: Some Amazon Echos can double as WiFi range extenders. This is not a perfect solution.
And Geoff wrote about Mesh WiFi: Consider this upgrade to fix your Internet dead zone.
