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Improving speed and coverage
Cable internet with 50 mbps down and 5 mbps up. Netgear N600 wireless dual band gigibit router. Separate Motorola SURFboard cable modem. Any advice on upgrading to newer router/modem combo? Any Netgear product that will improve wifi speed or increase coverage to far ends of the house? Or am I limited by my cable internet speeds?
Jim
Your Internet speeds will always be the ultimate limiting factor for Internet access, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't upgrade your Wi-Fi.
What are you best and worst case speeds with your current setup?
Is your place wired with Ethernet or are you willing run install it?
How far is the far end of the house from your router?
Personally, I'm not a big fan of combo router/modems. Since you already have a separate modem, I would recommend one of the following, roughly in order of preference.
- Upgrade your existing router. A router with external antennas may provide enough coverage to the far ends of the house.
- If you have Ethernet, then add an Access Point for extra coverage.
- Add a Powerline network along with an Access Point. Powerline can be very hit and miss and may frequently do no better than the next option.
- Add a range extender. Range extenders pay a heavy performance penalty (50% of the connection back to the router).
8 Replies
Your Internet speeds will always be the ultimate limiting factor for Internet access, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't upgrade your Wi-Fi.
What are you best and worst case speeds with your current setup?
Is your place wired with Ethernet or are you willing run install it?
How far is the far end of the house from your router?
Personally, I'm not a big fan of combo router/modems. Since you already have a separate modem, I would recommend one of the following, roughly in order of preference.
- Upgrade your existing router. A router with external antennas may provide enough coverage to the far ends of the house.
- If you have Ethernet, then add an Access Point for extra coverage.
- Add a Powerline network along with an Access Point. Powerline can be very hit and miss and may frequently do no better than the next option.
- Add a range extender. Range extenders pay a heavy performance penalty (50% of the connection back to the router).
Thank you for the suggestions. I was leaning toward replacing the wifi router. Do you have a suggestion as to which router would be an improvement over the WNDR3700?
Jim
Any of the AC class routers would be a significant upgrade but you should factor your needs and considerations. You didn't answer my questions. Also, what types of devices do you have and what kind of Wi-Fi capability do they have?