Switched to gigabit fiber a few months ago and the actual internet speeds have been great. The WiFi, not so much.
Every few days something will randomly disconnect or a video will just sit there buffering until I restart the app. Sometimes it’s my laptop, sometimes my partner’s phone. There’s no one device that consistently causes trouble.
I’m in a fairly busy condo building, so I figured neighboring WiFi might be part of it. The ISP already helped me separate the bands and change a couple channel settings. That made a noticeable difference, especially on 5 GHz, but the occasional dropouts are still happening. I’m debating whether to replace their router with my own setup, but I don’t really want to spend a few hundred dollars just to discover the router wasn’t the problem. Anyone dealt with something similar? What would you check next?
First thing I’d care about: does anything actually break when you’re wired? If Ethernet stays solid while WiFi freaks out, stop treating this like an ISP/fiber problem. Your WAN can be perfect while the RF side is a dumpster fire.
@user_Jacob_J Mostly agree, but I’d also check whether the router itself is rebooting or the radios are restarting. “Different device drops every time” could still be the box doing something stupid.
@Fast_pony_XXX Wired has been boringly reliable so far. And I haven’t noticed the router rebooting. When one device drops, other stuff usually stays online.
@curious_pioneer Then yeah, I’d be looking pretty hard at WiFi before calling the fiber connection guilty.
I use the ISP gateway in bridge mode and run my own router/APs. Not because third-party gear has magic anti-neighbor powers, but because I can actually control what the wireless side is doing and updates don’t randomly reset half my settings. If you’re in a condo, though, don’t expect buying a $400 router to suddenly give you clean spectrum.
The fact that changing the 5 GHz channel already helped is probably the biggest clue in the whole post. Before replacing hardware I’d look at the RF environment properly.
@FuelProfessional75 Yep. This. People buy a new router, leave it on Auto, and then it happily chooses the same garbage channel as six neighbors.
NetSpot is decent for exactly this kind of sanity check on. Look at what channels the surrounding networks are actually using, their signal strength relative to yours, and how things differ around the condo. I’d also check 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz separately if the client/router supports them. Don’t just stare at one snapshot beside the router.
Welcome to condo WiFi, where your neighbors are all involuntary members of your network design team. You can improve your setup a lot, but you don’t control what 40 other APs decide to do at 8pm.
I’d hold off on the new router for a minute.
You’ve already learned that:
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wired is fine
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channel changes helped
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narrower width helped
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the issue isn’t tied to one client
That’s enough to justify checking the wireless environment before throwing hardware at it.
If the ISP router turns out to have lousy controls or keeps making bad automatic choices, then replacing it makes more sense.