New England B.S. Thread

Yeah, the Arris unit is the modem. It's hit or miss what you get from them and sometimes they'll reuse old stock.

Mine from Spectrum is a Technicolor brand all-in-one unit and if you tell them you don't want their WiFi, they flash it with different firmware that disables it. I think that's what they always use if you get new equipment now.

 

So based on the lifespan of 2 to 3 for a router, wouldn’t it make sense to “rent” the spectrum on and make them replace every two years, versus buying a new one every 2 years? That being said, I haven’t priced a new router in a while, I think the last one I bought was like 150.

 

Spectrum typically won't replace it unless there's a documented issue, and then they have a tendency to reuse old stock.

I haven't had a router degrade in performance or fail in a long time. I used to have that happen with old Linksys WRT54G devices (if you look those up, I'm sure you'll remember seeing them everywhere years ago). They'd start acting up and needing regular reboots. My current Netgear router is one I bought in 2017 and it's doing great. I had an old Netgear that was also doing great, but it only had 100mb ports so I replaced it (connection would test at 120mb or so direct from the modem, so it was a slight bottleneck). I've still got it in the basement, I figured if mine ever fails I could swap it in as a temporary replacement.

 

Stupid question then, about modems/routers.

Should they be rebooted/restarted once in a while? Is it necessary? meaning, unplugging it for a bit and then plugging it back in. Not talking about totally resetting it and setting it up all over again.

 

Yes......I reset my router and reboot/restart my modem and my router about once a week. It resets to cache, the network connections and if you think about it this, modems and routers are computer systems in and of themselves. I do leave my computers on for connectivity but restart them on average once a week as well. If you are running a network server, it may not need that short of a time span in between restarts but they still need to be maintenenced from time to time.

 

The lifespan of current routers are much better than older ones, like @js312 reiterated, but it really depends on how hard you use them, how many devices you generally run at the same time on them, and how good and efficient their internal software is. I had a Netgear Nighthawk and it was great but I wanted to expand my area which is the reason why I moved to the Google mesh system. The "all-in-one" modem/routers that ANY cable company will "rent" or "give" you are absolutely junk. They have an extremely limited range and do not manage the flow of data efficiently over multiple devices being used.

 

Makes perfect sense. Guess I should start doing that as well then, powering it off and back on once a week, at least.

 

Are you "Renting" a router? Or is it included?
So I have fios. I don't even use their router. I bought my own.
https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/archer-c2300/
It's a little more complicated in general to set up, but if you can youtube and google you can find almost anything.
The price is pretty low right now. It's a great deal for $100 and will blow away anything they give you.
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B06XZ3S6B8

TPLink has an app you use to do everything for the router including remote reboot

 

Ok, here's what I think is my last question if you guys don't mind.

On the wireless network, what can or should be connected to the 2 ghz and the 5 ghz signals?

i.e. cell phones, laptops/pcs, streaming devices, etc.

 

I have both used my own and used cable company’s router in the past. The have all seemed to suck after a few years, which is why I currently have the cable company’s at this time. Looks like it maybe time to buy a new one again.

 

Put everything you can on 5GHz. Some stuff will only go on 2.4 (Smart home devices are commonly 2.4 only, like my thermostats, cameras, and washer/dryer).

 

Gotcha. Really appreciate all your help and input, Joe.

Once I move my stuff upstairs, and get rid of the extender, going to put everything on the 5 ghz then. Depending on where I am able to move it to, I may try and "hard wire" my android box for my iptv service via an ethernet cable, just in case.

 

I have my TV/Apple TV hard wired, at one time it made a big difference, not sure so much now

 

Not sure on streaming boxes, but on computers it makes a pretty big difference

 

Roku tv with 1GB wired network..I need that bandwidth for PLEX and 4K HDR

 

We run 2 fire cubes, one hardwired next to the router one upstairs on wifi. And 2 firesticks on the tv's in the kitchen/ garage gym. We have Fios gigabit internet with the white cylindrical router from them. I don't notice a a difference between the downstairs hardwired fire cube and the upstairs wireless one. Though not exactly apples to apples since the upstairs wireless tv is only 720P, and the downstairs one with wired fire cube is a newer 4k one.

 

Yea it might not be noticeable on playback stuff, but my pc on Wi-Fi is around 350mb/s down and around 705mb/s down on Ethernet

 

Next road trip in March (hopefully). Amarillo to Big Texan via TN, then out to LA (Cannonball Run style!), then back home via crossing the southern states (I'll go out to Jacksonville along the coast, just can't force Bing to show that oh well), then back up through the carolinas. Might stop at SOS and pick up some skids.

 

I'm nothing when it comes to computers (which is why I've stayed out of this conversation) but it's my understanding that the 5 ghz is faster but the 2.4 offers more range away from the router.



BTW, we had better luck when our router was upstairs too.

 

That sounds awesome