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Forum Discussion
Optimizing Home Network for Work and Entertainment: Seeking Suggestions
Hey everyone,
I’ve been facing some challenges with my home network setup and would love to get some insights from the community. With the increasing demand for remote work, streaming, and smart home devices, my current setup seems to be struggling to keep up. I frequently experience connectivity drops, slow speeds, and occasional buffering during video calls and media streaming. I’m using a mix of wired and wireless connections, but it feels like the network is not optimized for modern workloads.
One of my biggest concerns is ensuring seamless connectivity across multiple devices, including a smart laptop, smartphones, tablets, and IoT devices. I often move around the house while working, and I need a reliable connection without significant drops in performance. I've checked various solutions online, including discussions on Netgear Community, and it seems like there are many options to explore, such as upgrading to a mesh network or optimizing the router settings.
Has anyone here successfully improved their network performance in a similar scenario? I’d love to hear about your experiences with setting up an efficient home network for both work and entertainment. Any advice on router configurations, additional hardware, or tips on improving overall connectivity would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance for your insights.
2 Replies
Gabriellabrowne wrote:
One of my biggest concerns is ensuring seamless connectivity across multiple devices, including a smart laptop, smartphones, tablets, and IoT devices. I often move around the house while working, and I need a reliable connection without significant drops in performance. I've checked various solutions online, including discussions on Netgear Community, and it seems like there are many options to explore, such as upgrading to a mesh network or optimizing the router settings.
You don't say what you already own, but the key factor is probably the local geography/layout, which is also an unknown.
The number of devices and how they connect is less important than how far they are from the wifi source. No amount of tweaking of one router is going to fill a large space. That's what Mesh is designed for.
When it comes to picking your way through all the bewildering options, try plugging your needs into the filters on the product pages:
Wireless Routers for Home | NETGEAR
Then check back here for reports on the things you are considering, but remember that people turn up in this community with problems, not compliments. So look at reviews on Amazon, for example.
Newer devices will support more recent wifi technologies, such as genuine 6GHz. (That's WiFi 6E.) But if you don't own, or expect to own, any wifi clients that don't support it, why waste money? Check your laptop and phones for what they can use. As to IoT stuff, most of that runs at 2.4GHz. It is plenty fast enough for just about everything and has a longer range.
Just another user with time on their hands.
Like michaelkenward posted, you said a lot without much for actual details.
1. What size is your home? How many levels?
2. What is the interior of the home made from? Certain materials block wifi better than others and change the approach we'd take.
3. What speeds do you pay for from your isp?
5. What is your actual setup. Go over each device, how its connected, etc. The more we know, the better we can help.6. do all devices perform poorly, only some? What speeds are you getting in substandard areas?
7. Whats your budget for fixing this? Its pointless for us to recommend the newest RBE973 system if its out of budget but if cheaper systems with a mix of setups can sometimes still meet your needs at a cheaper price but with a little more work.
