quote:

Originally posted by bald1:

quote:

Originally posted by sse:
I was advised by the rep to stick a paper clip in the modem (not the same as unplugging it).

Is this what you did?
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Wifi-Antenna

No, there's a little hole on the back of the modem that allows poking with a tooth pick or paper clip to re-set.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by sse:
I was wondering about updating the equipment to obtain a faster wi-fi speed, but the rep said it wouldn't make any difference.

Which rep?

The correct answer is: It depends.

If the reason for your slow WiFi speeds is because of the WiFi equipment certainly it'd matter.

If the reason for your slow WiFi speeds is the client hardware it won't matter.

If the reason is because of poor WiFi access point (probably part of your "WiFi router") siting: It probably won't matter or won't matter much.

I have an EnGenius WiFi access point mounted in the ceiling nearly dead center of the home. I regularly see WiFi speeds of 250-300Mb/s or more.

It was the Netgear rep. His assessment was based on the equipment in use.

The second if is certainly in play. I'm on an old Dell, running Win 7. Served me well, but I plan to upgrade. I kick myself, because the deal did not include a wi-fi card, so I'm using a Netgear adapter to talk to the router, unfortunately. It needs frequent rebooting, which does work almost always, but still...

Finally, the adapter is located 12 inches from the router, no problem there.

>>>That wi-fi speed is amazing.<<<

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
Is this what you did?
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Wifi-Antenna

I'm pretty sure he was instructed to "paperclip" it. That's tech geek for "stick a bent paperclip in the little reset button hole until you feel it go *click*."

And, yeah, it is the same as power-cycling it, only without power-cycling it.

^^^^^^ K, well that is interesting, because I re-booted the modem, and the ISP and Netgear reps rebooted remotely multiple times, but the only thing that worked was the paperclip.

quote:

Originally posted by sse:
^^^^^^ K, well that is interesting, because I re-booted the modem, and the ISP and Netgear reps rebooted remotely multiple times, but the only thing that worked was the paperclip.

Very well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In every bit of network kit I've ever used paperclip == software restart == power-cycling. But, it's NetGear, so who knows? (I avoid NetGear now. Never had much use for their consumer-grade stuff. For several years now even their ProSafe kit hasn't been what it used to be, IME.)

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
My options are Verizon Fios or Comcast. Looking at internet only. Both have a couple of different options speed-wise and price. Don't need tv channels or anything but the Internet. For 95% of the time, there will just be one person using it. For streaming or a little gaming, what speeds do you really need?

Don't want to pay for the higher-end speeds when I don't need them.

Out of the two, Fios. I say that because it’s symmetrical. If you buy 200Mbps plan, you’ll get 200 down and 200 up. The MSO’s (Comcast, Spectrum, Cox) the bandwidth is asymmetrical. They offer up to gig speeds now but upload is 20Mbps, topping out at 35Mbps. They are digging and laying fiber however. And soon they will offer symmetrical bandwidth also once they light the new fiber up. They’ve developed a way to get the symmetrical speeds over the newer coax. I just had a new drop trenched from Spectrum. They have 5 Gig speeds coming and IIRC 2025/2026 will offer 10 Gig plans.

I run ATT Gig Fiber (don’t need the speed, but it’s the only “plan” that doesn’t have data caps) and Spectrum coax service as a backup. I took down the satellite dish January of last year and that’s how I justify paying for dual ISP’s. I bought a dual WAN router during the pandemic and hooked Spectrum back up, as my backup ISP, because I didn’t want to have any excuses at work while we were remote wfh. ATT is as reliable as a circuit on their Fiber product but they do perform maintenance once in a while when I’m up and around and my router flips over to backup, to the point I don’t even know it. Everything is UPS’d so will stay up for a 8 hour work day if there is a power outage.

Whatever you go with buy your own WiFi router/solution. Use what they give you as a modem only. LEC and MSO provided routers work, but they are no where as good as buying your own. Good luck.