Is Rebuilding my Home Network worth it?
Is Rebuilding my Home Network worth it?
Right now I’m on the opposite side of the country from my brother. We mostly connect through gaming, but the internet at home isn’t great—it’s in a remote spot and we often battle slow speeds instead of playing. My setup looks like this: an ISP signal goes to a tower, then to an antenna on the house, into a refurbished NETGEAR WNDR3400v2 router connected via WiFi to a NETGEAR WN2500RP extender that’s in the basement opposite the house. It needs weekly restarts. From the extender to my gaming PC I’ve seen speeds up to 4mbps, though it usually drops lower. I’m curious if a direct cable to the basement would help. I’m thinking maybe overhauling everything with a dedicated modem and extra mesh points when I get home for Christmas. My questions: Should we invest in new hardware for better performance? Are there network tweaks we can try? And what’s a good device setup for about $300 during the holiday sale? Switching ISPs isn’t possible since the only other option is a less reliable DSL provider.
Investing in top-quality gear becomes pointless if your internet speed stays below 4Mbps. When was the last time you negotiated with another provider? Their service standards could have shifted. Is Starlink available where you live?
It reaches speeds above 4Mbps when connected directly to the router, though practical everyday use remains limited. Most issues stem from equipment rather than performance, and I’ve spoken with neighbors about this over the past decade. It seems other ISPs have likely improved since then. The entire town of Pop. uses the same provider as us. Starlink is available, but affordability is a concern—$100 a month is significant for low-income households. Recent slowdowns have been reported, yet it still offers an upgrade. We can’t afford that service in our area.
Why not test the cables first and check the outcomes? WLAN is usually just a temporary solution. If you plan to invest in hardware, consider purchasing some second-hand from eBay—options include an Ubiquity EdgeRouter Lite 2–3, wireless access points such as HP MSM422 or Aruba 1 PoE switches, or an 8-port PoE switch. I don’t strongly recommend Ubiquity, but for budget-friendly choices, around $150 or less is possible.
It’s simplest to control the access points with a switch. For the VLANs, we’ll need to manage them accordingly.