Getting more out of home Internet

Cherokeekid88

Cherokeekid88

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Location
High Point, NC
We have Spectrum 100 MB internet at our house. Upgraded from 50 MB last year, because we switched to streaming via Netflix and Sling. We also have our phones of course, but it seems our internet is struggling to allow us to stream and be on our phones at the same time.

Current set up is Surfboard SB6141 Modem and a Linksys E900 Router. Setup is directly under our wall mounted TV on top of a TV stand that is pretty much unobstructed. Usually get good connection everywhere on the 1st level even outside of the garage, as soon as we go upstairs, naturally the connection worsens and makes streaming upstairs very slow as well as just surfing the web.

Also, we constantly lose connection or have to reset the modem and router.

My question is, what would be the best setup for us? Wifi range extenders really work? Should we upgrade to a Modem/Router combo?

What's really going to let us enjoy our internet to the fullest with minimal connection issues?
 
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It sounds like your router is on it's last legs. Every router I've ever killed has had that same type of constant reset and dropped connection issues after years of perfect service, so that's usually the signal that something internal is failing through aging electrical components or thermal fatigue or something like that.

You're starting to max out both your SB6141 and that N300-class router at that 100MB tier, but a new router is the best place to start.

You may find that a better router will help solve your range issues with no other changes. Some routers just have crap range, and it's all about antenna design. I generally go for routers with external antennas, because they often work much better than units with internal antennas (this assumes a well designed, quality product).

A router/modem combo is usually not an upgrade, just a one-stop solution that provides both pieces of hardware in the same box. A standalone router will generally have better range, at least in my experience, and that goes back to units with multiple external antennas and the benefits from that versus internal antennas. Router/modem combos work well in apartments, because you don't need the range and you can save money over buying separate cable modem and router because your needs are simple and you don't need high performance hardware in such a small area.

I can't give specific router recommendations because I don't know the market very well, but do some research and try to get as high-end of a unit as you can that will fit your needs. If you're sticking with that same 100MB service tier, you have a lot to choose from, because almost anything on the market will work (you don't need much router bandwidth), and you can get a high-end unit that's been out a few years for relatively cheap.

For example, your E900 router can be bought for sub-$30 at the moment (I just looked), and I'm sure you paid a lot more for it when you bought it a few years ago. You have a lot of scope for getting a much better unit than that, even from units that were released during the same time period and are already a few years old. Again, you need very little horsepower at the 100MB service tier.
 
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If you have a laptop or desktop with a Ethernet port for a wired connection go straight out of your modem to the device and run a test using dslreports.com. I would bet that you are not getting what you’re paying for as far as speeds go. Once you verify your speed coming out of your modem then you know what you are actually working with. Nighthawk routers are good pieces of equipment IMO for WiFi.
 
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^This...

My internet kept dropping out. I did this trick to troubleshoot my setup, and found that my modem was intermittent, and slow. A call to Spectrum got me a new Arris modem, free, and $50 at Wally got me a new Nighthawk router, just because.

Internet speed test results went from an intermittent 30-35mbps to a reliable 90-95mbps.
 
Call Spectrum and complain.
 
Agree w/ all of above. 100mb is overkill unless you have a ton of devices streaming big content simultaneously. Our family of 4 lives quite happily w/ ~50mb.

We had similar problems, with low throughput and frequent dropouts, and as mentioned above it turned out to be the router. You didn't mention it but I assume you own the route, now rented from Spectrum?
I got a refurb R7000 Nighthawk and have been very happy with it. Range has been good, and the throughput improved dramatically. Now we consistently get just about the DL/UL speed we're paying for. One of the things that's cool and convenient aboyt the R7000 is it has a USB port you can plug a printer into, and it is easily shared w/ any device on the network - basically a free simple network printer setup. It also can automatically do backups for any PC to an attached storage device. Yes, you could do that w/ actual network service devices like a NAS etc but Netgear has basically made it idiot proof.
My only complaint, and this is really trial, is that the R7000 is kind of a weird shape (it's like a trapezoidal spaceship) so you can't put anything on top of it... I'd rather be able to set my modem on top just to keep things more compact in the space its in.
 
shawn said:
You don't need more than 50mbs to stream, unless you're doing 4k.
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I plan on going 4K soon. TV is starting to get more and more dead pixels and when we do upgrade, I'm gonna go 4K.
obullfish said:
If you have a laptop or desktop with a Ethernet port for a wired connection go straight out of your modem to the device and run a test using dslreports.com. I would bet that you are not getting what you’re paying for as far as speeds go. Once you verify your speed coming out of your modem then you know what you are actually working with. Nighthawk routers are good pieces of equipment IMO for WiFi.
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I will try this tonight before I go spending money on stuff. I might just call up Spectrum anyways and see if I can get a new modem sent out and then with the info from DSLreports.com and a new modem, I can go from there.
 
ncpartsguy said:
^This...

My internet kept dropping out. I did this trick to troubleshoot my setup, and found that my modem was intermittent, and slow. A call to Spectrum got me a new Arris modem, free, and $50 at Wally got me a new Nighthawk router, just because.

Internet speed test results went from an intermittent 30-35mbps to a reliable 90-95mbps.
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But where did you find a Nighthawk router for $50???
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
I plan on going 4K soon. TV is starting to get more and more dead pixels and when we do upgrade, I'm gonna go 4K.

I will try this tonight before I go spending money on stuff. I might just call up Spectrum anyways and see if I can get a new modem sent out and then with the info from DSLreports.com and a new modem, I can go from there.
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I'm happy to help, but there's precious little information in the thread so far to identify exactly what the problem is.

For example, we had connectivity problems one time. Really slow, reboot the modem, reboot the router, it would get better (maybe) for a while, then would randomly drop out, etc. I plugged a computer directly into the modem to rule out router problems and still had the same issue, so (seeing as how the cable co owned the modem), we called them up and filed a ticket. It took them forever to figure out what was wrong, but it turned out to be some bad hardware back at the "neighborhood" level. It took a month for them to get the replacement parts and provision them.

Other times, it's been a bad cable between the house and the street. Again, not something a new router will fix.

Sometimes, the modems go bad. They'll still work, but they run slow and drop connections.

If all of that is working correctly, then you can start talking about wifi congestion issues and what the best solutions are. For starters, it's tough to stream 4k over wifi. If you put the router next to the TV and force it to use a 5GHz network, it'll work. But at that point, you might as well just plug it in. Actually, that's a good rule to follow in general: If it doesn't move, it should be plugged in.

As far as the wifi extenders go, the thing you need to look for are devices that use a dedicated "back haul" network to get data back to the router. Some are plugged into a network cable and send data that way (like Ubiquiti unifi). Others use a dedicated wifi network to talk to one another (like Google wifi). Todd (@DSM Turbos ) has Google wifi and likes it. I have Unifi.

We had good service for years by putting two routers at opposite ends of the house with big 9dB antennas on them, and setting one to act as a wifi access point only. We upgraded to Unifi because of a need to segregate network traffic (we had a "smart" TV misbehaving and taking down the entire network) and because we use wifi calling at home, and needed to be able to seamlessly transition between access points as we moved through the house.

So, long story short, the correct answer is "it's complicated", and without knowing exactly what the problem is, we're just throwing darts at the wall.

You could go buy a new router and be happy. Or you might throw a bunch of money at random stuff to fix a problem that's actually a half mile up the street from your house.
 
Well, I have talked to some neighbors and they aren't having any issues, 2 of them have spectrum. My router has to be 5-7 years old and the modem is at least 4-5 years old. The only thing more annoying than my wifi not working, is my wife constantly complaining about it : )

2019 is the year that I am trying to get stuff done around the house and fix things that I have let go. We have been dealing with our internet issue for over a year now.

I am going to call Spectrum after work and see what they say. I'm sure they will just hit a few buttons and say they are sending an update, but we'll see.
 
Yes, it is working well. Previous router and modem were 8+ years old. Tests now at 3 times what it was, around 90-95 now. (Supposedly we have 200mbps service from Spectrum)
 
Call Spectrum and get a real person. Tell them you have done the reset already, and ask them to look at the history. They can see dropouts and resets. When the woman on the phone saw how many dropouts I had been having, she skipped the bs and scheduled a service visit for me. The tech came out and swapped out our old modem. Problem solved, we just opted to get a better router at the same time, since ours was so old.
 
ncpartsguy said:
Call Spectrum and get a real person. Tell them you have done the reset already, and ask them to look at the history. They can see dropouts and resets. When the woman on the phone saw how many dropouts I had been having, she skipped the bs and scheduled a service visit for me. The tech came out and swapped out our old modem. Problem solved, we just opted to get a better router at the same time, since ours was so old.
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That's what I'll do!
 
I went through this same deal. Wifi acting weird, wife complaining..... I upgraded to a netgear ac2200 mesh system. I looked into ubqiti with access points but quickly realized I would be in over my head. I went with the netgear because it can use a wired backhaul. It was super easy to set up, all app based and you basically just plug everything in, name it and set a password. So far we are happy with it and my coverage is excellent. I looked at google too, but it didn't seen to have as many options for the same money.
 
ncpartsguy said:
Tests now at 3 times what it was, around 90-95 now. (Supposedly we have 200mbps service from Spectrum)
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If you're only getting 90-95mbps on a wired connection and you're paying for 200mbps, something is wrong.

If you're getting 90-95mbps over wifi, that's pretty good.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
But has this router worked out good for you? Just looked up this particular router and it seems to have good reviews.
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My R7000 was only $100 as a refurb on Amazon.
 
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