How do I know if I need a new router?
Well, this is painfully boring, but I'm hoping someone can help me pinpoint the source of my household's internet frustrations. Us Ratterys are both working from home at the moment, and growing increasingly frustrated with intermittent internet connections. Of course, some hiccups are to be expected as we have way more devices running concurrently, plus duelling video conferences, etc. Yet our problems seem to be beyond a mere "traffic" issue. Here are the facts:
- I upped our internet package a few weeks ago to better suit our speed needs/recommended number of devices. When things are working, they work much better. We consistently get the speeds we are paying for. It's just that.....
- Our computers constantly drop/regain internet connection throughout the day. I notice it most on my personal MacBook, which is near-constantly "searching for networks." But our two work Lenovos also lose connection or have incredibly poor connection throughout the day. The wifi on our cell phones also constantly turns off and on, it seems.
- I don't think it's a proximity issue -- as I type this I am sitting directly opposite the router and still had to reset everything in order to get the internet going again. There is one room upstairs that seems worst for the connection, but it is directly above the room in which the router lives....based on my preliminary research on wifi extenders, that should mean that we shouldn't have so much trouble in that room?
- the router is about 6 years old. It's a Linksys EA3500. I cannot recall if it is a dual-band or not....(helpfully, I cannot access the router settings due to a tragic password loss and I'm afraid to reset everything....)
- I would not say this is a new problem, but certainly it's become much more pronounced in the last year, I would say (and only has it really started to annoy us since March)
Every time I try to research a solution, I just sort of hit a mental wall. I don't know if it's a router issue, an ISP issue, a coverage issue...I just want some kind soul to tell me what to do. :)
If I do need a new router (or an extender/mesh thing or whatever), I would greatly love any products recs. |