CNET

How to tell when it’s time to replace your router

If you’re having Wi-Fi issues at home, your router might be to blame — here’s how to find out, and what to do about it. 0:00 Intro 0:39 The Basics 1:05 Check Your Router 2:03 Dead Zones 2:34 Range Extenders 3:37 Mesh Routers 4:11 Wifi 6 & Beyond Check out the CNET article for more:

Published

on

If you’re having Wi-Fi issues at home, your router might be to blame — here’s how to find out, and what to do about it.

0:00 Intro
0:39 The Basics
1:05 Check Your Router
2:03 Dead Zones
2:34 Range Extenders
3:37 Mesh Routers
4:11 Wifi 6 & Beyond

Check out the CNET article for more:

79 Comments

  1. noupot

    April 23, 2021 at 12:34 pm

    I’m waiting a price decrease on Wifi 6E routers.

  2. Ryan Stewart

    April 23, 2021 at 12:38 pm

    Or get the beast mode router and replace it every 8-10 years like I have.

  3. Weatheronthe8s

    April 23, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    Here’s a little tip. To check the true internet connection speed, don’t plug your ethernet into the router. Some routers only support 10/100 and may not be good enough to support the full speed over ethernet, even if it is only 100 MBPS. My mom’s old WRT54G would top out at about 70 over ethernet (and like 25 over WiFi, and both on a good day), but would do 200 wired directly to the modem. If your router and modem are separate boxes, I recommend testing your ethernet plugged directly to the modem. I’ve seen some routers even today being sold with 10/100 ethernet for no reason. It’s not a bad idea to do both though as it will help judge your ethernet connection speed also.

  4. orkust

    April 23, 2021 at 12:49 pm

    This guy should try and connect his beard before connecting the modem

    • Ry Crist

      April 23, 2021 at 2:03 pm

      Sigh. Yeah, that progress bar stalled out a long time ago, I’m afraid.

    • orkust

      April 23, 2021 at 2:13 pm

      @Ry Crist you should be in a shampoo ad. Me on the other hand have more hair on my face than my hair!! FML

  5. Bobby Hz

    April 23, 2021 at 12:52 pm

    Thank you. I needed this video. Too many internet problems in my new home. Router is probably the reason. Weak signal on other side of house. Heard wifi extenders don’t work good. But I rather take your word than from people that don’t know much about it. Whats a few good extenders or routers that aren’t gonna kill my pockets? Thanks

    • Or Nosrati

      April 23, 2021 at 1:53 pm

      Or you can use him as accses point

    • Ari Bloch

      April 23, 2021 at 9:55 pm

      Range extenders are annoying… Your phone may cling to the wrong network, even when in better range of the other one. You have to switch manually, it’s not automatic until you lose range entirely. A cheaper mesh system should be fine, such as a nest wifi system, depending on your house size

  6. R T

    April 23, 2021 at 12:52 pm

    Please don’t put your old router into the garbage. Please take it to an e-waste recycling drop-off like Best Buy. Best Buy gives you a discount on a new router if you bring them your old router.

    • Ry Crist

      April 23, 2021 at 6:48 pm

      This is a fair point and absolutely correct. We probably should have used a better b-roll shot there. Thanks for the feedback!

    • Omar Dominguez

      April 23, 2021 at 8:39 pm

      @Ry Crist COVID lock down got him hard, Life in isolation. Thanks to the vid

    • Ari Bloch

      April 23, 2021 at 9:52 pm

      Even better, resell it so it can be used by someone else

  7. 123abc

    April 23, 2021 at 1:03 pm

    I got a new router and got the full speed after switching to 5 ghz from the defualt 2.4. No dead zones after that. I still have my previous router which has lots of IOT devices connecting to it via an extender so the new router isn’t taxed with just a couple of devices that have later wifi in them. I piggy backed the new router on the old router with an ethernet cable. Only drawback is devices on the new router can’t talk directly to devices on the old router so things like airplay mirror would require me to move my ATV to the new router or just connect my phone to the old router which has both networks.

  8. TechKnow NYCkey

    April 23, 2021 at 1:14 pm

    Wow, I didn’t know the Vinnie Barbarino look is back in style. Welcome back, welcome back, welcome baaaaaack…Ry Crist

  9. 山乇丂ᑎIᑕᕼOᒪ

    April 23, 2021 at 1:43 pm

    Super informative, great video.!👍🏻

  10. Sacto1654

    April 23, 2021 at 1:46 pm

    If you are having bad Wi-Fi in your single-floor house, it’s time to seriously consider investing in a a good “mesh” router system.

  11. Carl Burgess

    April 23, 2021 at 2:01 pm

    A router upgrade will always be a requirement over time, you can lengthen the time between upgrades by understanding what is the projected next wi-fi spectrum and buying a router that has backwards compatibility. This will allow you to upgrade the router and keep legacy devices happy and increase their speed and security, without discovering that your old devices can’t connect and you have to purchase new devices or find a router that is older, slower, and less secure.

  12. Farjad ALi

    April 23, 2021 at 2:30 pm

    Wifi signal strength app can help you understand the range of router

  13. Bill Kinkead

    April 23, 2021 at 2:52 pm

    I want salon quality hair and talk about wifi. 😛

  14. Ansel Zandegran

    April 23, 2021 at 3:35 pm

    Crrrrap!!! My router halves the speed.
    Wired is 915Mbps and
    Close range wireless is 493 Mbps

    • Ari Bloch

      April 23, 2021 at 9:54 pm

      That’s typical, unless you have a high end wifi 6 router

  15. Cassie Cat

    April 23, 2021 at 3:50 pm

    It’s definitely Spectrum here, poorly maintained infrastructure, neighbors have same issues.

  16. nobrainerneeded

    April 23, 2021 at 3:51 pm

    Came for content. Liked for Jesus from 70s look.

  17. chelsea7xhf

    April 23, 2021 at 4:08 pm

    Router is like a microwave oven to me, as long as it works, I will not bother to replace it, you never know if the next one is better or worst ( quality)

  18. Mark Johnston

    April 23, 2021 at 4:12 pm

    I normally only buy a new router when I have enough devices that make use of a newer WiFi standard.

  19. Marc-André Surette

    April 23, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    Omg, that Lanny McDonald look! Lol

  20. rwstarke

    April 23, 2021 at 5:44 pm

    I have 1 Gbps fiber optic internet service. I have two Asus RT-AC66U B1 routers connected using AiMesh. I added an older RT-AC56R as an Access Point. All connections between routers is ethernet. Asus is pretty good at Firmware updates.

  21. Jaganpreet singh

    April 23, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    90% of us don’t need a WiFi 6.

    • White Mail Privilege

      April 24, 2021 at 4:27 pm

      You think

  22. Vee Pee

    April 23, 2021 at 6:47 pm

    good tips, thanks

  23. AJ

    April 23, 2021 at 9:46 pm

    poor advertising

  24. Ari Bloch

    April 23, 2021 at 10:02 pm

    I have a google wifi system, and it definitely is showing it’s age. Nest wifi seems like a minimal upgrade. I want to get an orbi ax6000 but it’s pretty expensive. I can still sell my google system for more than half of the purchase price, which is pretty good. Issue is that when I purchase google wifi system, our speed was 150mbps… A year later comcast upgraded us to 400mbps, and then 500mbps, and now we’re at gig speeds. Definitely not possible with this system. It’s like having a sports car on crappy tires.

  25. Andrew Walker

    April 24, 2021 at 12:31 am

    *Video sponsored by Netgear, Linksys, TP-Link , D-Link and Asus*

  26. HuaweiBoulder

    April 24, 2021 at 1:59 am

    Talks about how mesh internet systems have come way down in price to something reasonable… and it’s 699$

    • respdoc

      April 25, 2021 at 11:30 am

      Yes, the one shown was a pricer one but if you did a little research on your own, you’d see what he said was accurate.

  27. RAINBOW SPONGEBOB COOL

    April 24, 2021 at 2:12 am

    I don’t wanna do all this stuff yet but my wifi is good from router

    • RAINBOW SPONGEBOB COOL

      April 24, 2021 at 2:12 am

      And it’s old one I belive

  28. Helen Samuel

    April 24, 2021 at 3:08 am

    People will be kicking themselves in few weeks if they miss the opportunity to buy and invest in Bitcoin as it’s retracing…BE WISE

    • Flemming Kjaergaard Jensen

      April 24, 2021 at 4:23 am

      He’s really amazing with amazing skills he changed my 0.3btc to 2.1btc

    • Alex Connor

      April 24, 2021 at 4:30 am

      @Ella Reichstein Is he really that good I have been seeing his success stories most people think its a scam but never the less I will give this one a try taking a leap of faith

    • Cheryl Peter

      April 24, 2021 at 4:32 am

      If you’ve started trading with this Expert then you’re not far from making profits and making a good cashflow

    • Helen Samuel

      April 24, 2021 at 4:35 am

      @Alfredo Cruz Wow that is really good…How do I start trading with him? is the phone number dropped in my comment the right number?

    • Juan Diego Flores Salom

      April 24, 2021 at 4:38 am

      a few minutes ago I took the contact dropped here and I have started investing with Russell and he is a true gentleman

  29. Chris Gates

    April 24, 2021 at 3:49 am

    Great Content 👍👍

    • White Mail Privilege

      April 24, 2021 at 4:27 pm

      You think you matter

  30. David Thomas

    April 24, 2021 at 4:07 am

    Nice one keep it up

  31. Dmon !

    April 24, 2021 at 6:28 am

    I feel like there is a lot of info that is missing.

    For example if the weaklink is actually your old phone/laptop and not the router then how would you tell? By your video I would blame the router

  32. Nishan Gill

    April 24, 2021 at 10:16 am

    How to get same speed upstairs?

  33. R Dixon

    April 24, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    have comcast 1.2gig internet issue is its too fast for most routers right now these wifi6e routers may have one 2.5 or 10g port but they need multiple 2.5g ethernet ports to run back to your switch

  34. Kyle Manel

    April 24, 2021 at 1:51 pm

    1:05 ;
    So how exactly does someone reboot their wifi drivers ;
    The appropriate term there is update, NOT reboot,
    These are completely different processes, and while they are associated to the sane device, this is a lot like using, turning on a computer, as a description for installing a PCIx device.

  35. Daniel Ornelas

    April 24, 2021 at 2:44 pm

    I’ve had Plume Superpods for over a year and they’ve been great. They can’t reach gigabit speeds but they’ve got WiFi 6 hardware coming soon.

  36. Tom L

    April 24, 2021 at 5:13 pm

    Solid video.

  37. J. Marr

    April 24, 2021 at 5:47 pm

    I have DSL over copper wire in my condo and the association does not want to upgrade the building to fiber optic. Is switching to cable the only option? It seems like DSL modems and routers are so out of date now.

  38. Mouka Faslouka

    April 24, 2021 at 5:52 pm

    I updated mine a few months ago. It sucks big time.

    • respdoc

      April 25, 2021 at 11:41 am

      Not as bad as you sucking to specifically explain what this mysterious “update” was to.

  39. Mohammed Rahman

    April 24, 2021 at 5:53 pm

    The other thing to consider and I’m surprised Ry didn’t touch on it is the number of devices that are constantly connected these days, like smart home devices, Tv’s, etc. I think this should also be a consideration for an upgrade to ensure all the devices are getting optimal bandwidth.

  40. MyCanon7D

    April 24, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    Trashing electronics??

  41. Wayno Guerrini

    April 24, 2021 at 8:22 pm

    Can’t watch. No captioning.

  42. A Y

    April 24, 2021 at 8:32 pm

    I wish I had the money to get a new router every year

    • A Y

      April 24, 2021 at 8:34 pm

      I’m still using one that’s been in my home for 7 years 🙁

    • respdoc

      April 25, 2021 at 11:44 am

      You should also wish for someone to teach you about making better financial decisions since I can’t think of one (real-world) scenario that a person would actually need to upgrade yearly.

  43. Sappho

    April 24, 2021 at 10:44 pm

    You know you can update the routers firmware, but hey to each their own..

    • White Mail Privilege

      April 26, 2021 at 4:20 pm

      You’re not is then the, yes?

  44. Jaelyn Banks

    April 24, 2021 at 11:13 pm

    The content is good, the hair is glorious! Welcome back, Ry! It’s been too long!

    • Ry Crist

      April 25, 2021 at 9:59 pm

      You don’t happen to know any good barbers, do you?

    • White Mail Privilege

      April 26, 2021 at 4:20 pm

      His hair is glorious or too long?

    • White Mail Privilege

      April 26, 2021 at 4:21 pm

      @Ry Crist Do you happen to know any good light bulbs?

  45. fredy yodog

    April 25, 2021 at 2:44 am

    Did u try restarting your modem? Lol

  46. Jeofrey

    April 25, 2021 at 4:57 am

    use Fresh Tomato or DDWRT your better off this way until they fix wifi 6 advertised speeds.

  47. pr0jectSkyneT

    April 25, 2021 at 6:14 am

    I’m still using 2 old Netgear R7000 routers with a modded Asus Merlin XWRT firmware. I’m linking them via wired AI Mesh connection. I’m not upgrading until WiFi 6e and at least 5gbps switches become more prevalent.

  48. Prabowo Yudha Kusuma

    April 25, 2021 at 11:37 am

    Reminds me of the dude from the BeeGees

    • Ry Crist

      April 25, 2021 at 11:10 pm

      I’ll take it.

  49. dvxAznxvb

    April 26, 2021 at 5:07 am

    I’ll replace it when dong Ngo does

  50. Simon Rommedahl

    April 26, 2021 at 7:29 am

    How come you “reboot” wifi-drivers, and then test on a wired connection? This makes no sense

  51. otogigamer

    April 26, 2021 at 8:36 am

    Easiest way to tell is when you pay for 500meg download and you get that with a direct connection, but your router is only capable of moving 100 megs.

  52. cyberjoe77

    April 26, 2021 at 4:16 pm

    Is there anything one should do with the old or out dated router before tossing out or giving away? Any security concerns or other issues to consider? Thx.

  53. Shahzad Mughal

    April 26, 2021 at 6:49 pm

    No it’s time to change my residence place, because my ISP can provide maximum 25mbs and I just can pay for 4mbs.

  54. Achhuana Hk the player

    April 27, 2021 at 12:05 am

    No need replacing if you use a fibre connection

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending

Exit mobile version