I have my house wired up for wifi from my internet provider - U-Verse (or rather, AT&T). The router they provide is, I understand, generally pretty crappy. It provides an HD wireless signal to three TVs, and as many as 8 devices at any given time that are streaming video content. Video quality isn’t a big concern - things seem to be pretty good. My biggest problem is range - my main computer is in the office on the far side of the house (router is centrally located), and the basement gets a pretty shitty signal as well.
I’m looking at getting a new router to solve this problem, and looking for suggestions. I’m also thinking a signal repeater would likely solve my issues. I’d like to keep my budget under $150. My signal is currently getting 9.37 down, 4.64 up (if that factors in). My general computer knowledge is pedestrian at best.
Pedestrian myself, but for starters, I’d wire my computer via ethernet (or USB) directly to the router, and check download speed. That is likely to be the max delivered by your router. You will then know what kinds of speeds to aim for.
What are your download speeds when wired straight to your ISP, without the router?
Recently picked up a Nighthawk R7000 for $95 brand new in box on ebay after a lot of consideration and research. Retail is ~$170 but you can find deals for around 100-120 bucks pretty consistently on ebay.
Upgraded from a $60 Belkin n600db from 2009. It also had awful range to the garage and basement, and had started randomly rebooting itself.
Range and throughput on the R7000 is incredible. My phone doesn’t switch off wifi when I pull out of the driveway until I’m almost a block away. My brother is my next door neighbor and his kids use their PS3 and phones on my network from their house with signal levels comparable to the levels I was previously getting inside my own house with the old router.