Good wired but terrible wifi speeds

[jrklingensmith]

I have a 2 in 1 modem/router combo from Spectrum, wired I am getting over 100 down but wifi signal is bad and usually around 10 down even when close to the router. What options do I have to increase my wifi speeds? Would wifi range extenders be worth the investment or would they not make a difference due to the router/modem?

 

[bill001g]

Although many routers provided by the ISP are not the best it is not as bad as it has been in the past. For things like basic wireless they provide acceptable performance. Most difference are for some of the advanced wifi features that are only useful if you end devices also support them.

A range extender/repeater as you suspect will not fix this problem. These devices need a good signal to start with and then they repeat it which then degrades the signal by repeating it. If you start with a bad signal it only gets worse not better.

You could try to use a router as a AP and just turn off the radios in the current isp router. That would in effect be replacing just the wifi part of the ISP router. I have my doubts if it will fix it when you have issues with the current router when you are very close to it, there is not that much difference between routers.

If you get poor performance very close to the router you likely have a very strong source of interference near the router. You could try to move the router but it is highly likely your problem is you live in a area with a lot of other people using wifi. Everyone stomps all over each other.

Your only hope it to try other wifi channels and set the bandwidth to 20mhz. Also try the 5g bands if that is a option. Still these suggestions have little value now days seems every channels is used by a lot of people.

As everything seems to run wireless now days it just gets worse and worse kinda like traffic on the roads. I still remember the days people used to do war driving and listing wifi signals because they were so few.