Question Refresh tired Wi-Fi?

[tigerfoot]

I’ve got a Netgear Nighthawk R8000 for my home (about 2400sf), with Spectrum which tests a bit over 300mbs download. It’s ok—we mainly zoom, YouTube, and video stream. 4 human users. I’ve got 3 networks defined: 1 2 GHz for guests/lo-fidelity devices like Nest, and 2 5Ghz for streaming. Life was fine until not long ago Wi-Fi starts slowing down a lot then just stopping. I’m not a network person by any stretch—factory default settings on router—I wouldn’t know how to adjust them otherwise. I reboot the router when Wi-Fi stops and all is fine for a while.

Do I need a new router? Would a 2-unit mesh setup like Nest work better? The R8000 has tri-band and higher speed rating but the signal drops off in some rooms to 2/3 strength. The Nest has a dual band transmitter and a lower speed rating—but still higher than my pedestrian service from Sprectrum. Any ideas? Why would it change after being fine for so long? That R8000 router should handle our needs easily, right?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

i've had a few similar issues over the years where it was an actual problem with the ISP or their hardware.

sometimes they could reset the connection from their end and fix an issue,
other times they've just replaced their provided modem.

i would contact them and have some troubleshooting done and only as a last resort replace your own hardware.

 

[dwd999]

I’ve got a Netgear Nighthawk R8000 for my home (about 2400sf), with Spectrum which tests a bit over 300mbs download. It’s ok—we mainly zoom, YouTube, and video stream. 4 human users. I’ve got 3 networks defined: 1 2 GHz for guests/lo-fidelity devices like Nest, and 2 5Ghz for streaming. Life was fine until not long ago Wi-Fi starts slowing down a lot then just stopping. I’m not a network person by any stretch—factory default settings on router—I wouldn’t know how to adjust them otherwise. I reboot the router when Wi-Fi stops and all is fine for a while.

Do I need a new router? Would a 2-unit mesh setup like Nest work better? The R8000 has tri-band and higher speed rating but the signal drops off in some rooms to 2/3 strength. The Nest has a dual band transmitter and a lower speed rating—but still higher than my pedestrian service from Sprectrum. Any ideas? Why would it change after being fine for so long? That R8000 router should handle our needs easily, right?

How close are you to your neighbors and are they interfering with your signal? You could use a wifi analyzer like the free one in the Windows Store to check and see what wifi channels you are on and how many other users are on the same channel. Then you could consider changing channels before getting new equipment. If you consider a mesh type system the thing I would look for is how many devices could be connected by ethernet cable to the mesh device, giving the best signal.

 

[Ralston18]

This:

"—factory default settings on router— "

So the router is set at its' default admin user name and default user password - correct?

If those are not changed then your router and networks are wide open for anyone to use.

Other people may be doing who knows what on your router and that will fall on you.

Start here:

https://setuprouter.com/router/netgear/nighthawk-x6-r8000/login.htm

You must secure the router and supported network before anything else.