Fun with routers and all the chaos they bring.
Fun with routers and all the chaos they bring.
I've faced some network problems recently, with internet drops happening unpredictably across all devices. The speeds we expected didn't match our plan rates, leading me to suspect an issue with the ISP. A technician identified a 15-year-old cable splitter as the culprit, which resolved the speed problems. After diagnostics confirmed it, my connection improved significantly—up to 520 down and 120 up, with a stable modem. However, the same issues have resurfaced recently. I suspect the problem might be with my router rather than the modem itself. My ASUS RT-AC86U (link provided) is a mid-range model, recently purchased and still under the newer version. I've updated firmware, reset networks multiple times, and even performed factory resets, but nothing has stopped the recurring disruptions. With 23 devices connected—including smart speakers, lights, PCs, TVs, and consoles—I'm worried about performance. Have others encountered similar issues? Are there any recommendations for a replacement that would work well in this setup? I invested around $199 previously, and I’m hoping to avoid exceeding that budget unless absolutely necessary.
Connecting at full speed straight to the modem allows you to treat the router as a slowly-forwarding component. The 23 MHz isn't ideal; I have 37 on my home network, but I’d prefer to separate IoT devices onto a different Wi-Fi channel than the main 'performance client' 5GHz network.