Question Router issues and replacement recommendations

[anotheregostar]

Hey everyone,
I'm having a lot of connectivity issues in my house and I am thinking that I likely have too many devices for my ISP provided router to handle (3 phones, 2 TVs, 3 tablets, 2 laptops, multiple smartspeakers, etc). Essentially one or 2 devices is always getting dropped and has trouble reconnecting, and often the bandwidth on wifi is getting pretty limited, especially across the house (house is a 1200sqft rancher, so not too far from router).

I know there are different versions of wifi, and diff frequencies, but it's all a bit above my head. Would my issues likely be related to the router like I am assuming? And if so, what would be a reasonably priced router that I could replace it with?

Thanks in advance, and please let me know if you need more info!
Brian

 

[kanewolf]

Hey everyone,
I'm having a lot of connectivity issues in my house and I am thinking that I likely have too many devices for my ISP provided router to handle (3 phones, 2 TVs, 3 tablets, 2 laptops, multiple smartspeakers, etc). Essentially one or 2 devices is always getting dropped and has trouble reconnecting, and often the bandwidth on wifi is getting pretty limited, especially across the house (house is a 1200sqft rancher, so not too far from router).

I know there are different versions of wifi, and diff frequencies, but it's all a bit above my head. Would my issues likely be related to the router like I am assuming? And if so, what would be a reasonably priced router that I could replace it with?

Thanks in advance, and please let me know if you need more info!
Brian

To give you an answer, we need the model number of your current router.

 

[anotheregostar]

I guess it is just the ISP modem I have - a Telus wifi modem - T3200M.

 

[lantis3]

What's your DSL plan? Speed? If your DSL bandwidth is too slow, no matter how fast your wifi is, it will not solve your problem.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/78358?hl=en

HD 1080p	5 Mbps
HD 720p	2.5 Mbps

Each device's bandwidth consumption

 

[anotheregostar]

We have fibre optic, 300MB. Would speed affect connections getting dropped? Or just wifi speed on them?

 

[lantis3]

OK. Connection problem could be related to whether the devices have line of sight.

For example, being blocked by fridge, brick wall, several rooms/corners away, etc.

 

[anotheregostar]

Nothing but drywall really. And the disconnected devices can have connected devices working fine right beside them. Is this something that isn't related to a router then? I'm not really sure how routers work compared to the ISP provided modems, or if they even apply in this situation - I assumed that a better router would help though

 

[lantis3]

Device's antenna or chipset can determine its performance/connectivity.

Have you tried to move the router to a different location?

Multi mesh nodes in theory is always better than a single router.

https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=wifi+mesh&crid=1LVQ1KXZMKARU&sprefix=wifi+,aps,150&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3_5

 

[anotheregostar]

The modem doesn't have an antenna visible- I can't really move it because the fibre optic cable is very short and only comes in at one jack in my house. I might have a booster/extender thing that I can borrow from a family member to try.

Is a hard number of connections not a thing for wifi modems/routers? Is this all just a signal issue then?

 

[kanewolf]

I guess it is just the ISP modem I have - a Telus wifi modem - T3200M.

Just so we are all on the same page, is this the router you have -- https://www.telus.com/en/support/article/auto-install-t3200-modem
If so, then it is pretty new. It is an AC standard dual band router.
Do you have one WIFI name (SSID) for both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz? Or do you have unique names for the two different frequencies?

 

[anotheregostar]

That's the one - We just use the standard SSID for both I believe.

 

[kanewolf]

That's the one - We just use the standard SSID for both I believe.

You could try setting them to unique names. For example, put a "5" at the end of the 5Ghz SSID. Then use that to connect higher bandwidth devices.
Use the 2.4Ghz for the smart speakers and other low bandwidth or IOT devices. That ensures that you don't have slow devices interfering with fast ones because the fast ones had a stronger 2.4Ghz signal.

 

[lantis3]

The modem doesn't have an antenna visible- I can't really move it because the fibre optic cable is very short and only comes in at one jack in my house. I might have a booster/extender thing that I can borrow from a family member to try.

Is a hard number of connections not a thing for wifi modems/routers? Is this all just a signal issue then?

For antenna I mean smaller device like smartphone could have shorter antenna because of its size.

Wifi router usually have a limit of 255 devices being connected. Any number under 20 will not be a problem at all.

Trying an extender is a good thing if it can solve the problem. I also suggest using unique SSID for 2.4G & 5G . That makes trouble shooting much easier.

 

[kanewolf]

Wifi router usually have a limit of 255 devices connected. Any number under 20 will not be a problem.

That is not a globally true statement. 255 is the limit on a class C subnet. A router might have a much smaller DHCP pool than the full class C range. But it doesn't sound like a DHCP issue any way. 20 WIFI devices on 2.4Ghz could be a problem. That is why I recommended the unique SSIDs and using the names to segregate devices.

 

[anotheregostar]

Okay I will try that and see if it makes a difference! Would be nice not to have to buy anything extra. Would having the smart speakers on the 2.4 make it so I can't cast from devices on the 5G?

 

[kanewolf]

Okay I will try that and see if it makes a difference! Would be nice not to have to buy anything extra. Would having the smart speakers on the 2.4 make it so I can't cast from devices on the 5G?

No. The router should handle the transfer. It is probably doing it now.
WIFI coverage is something that is almost impossible to predict. Since you have some ethernet cabling, you can easily add a switch and a WIFI source any place there is ethernet cabling for additional WIFI coverage and bandwidth.