I’m autistic and not very good at either understanding or if I do it’s hard to repeat the information to other people. I’m asking this to explain how it works for my mom and dad.
Edit to explain a bit more sorry.
I want to change the router to improve the strength and speed. Hopefully this pins it down a little bit better at what I’m after. Thank you for people that have already commented.
In: 3
Are you asking because your internet provider is sending an upgrade? or… why do you want to replace your wifi router? In any case:
Most home wifi routers these days are combination devices – they are both a wifi hub (the thing that provides wifi for your house) and a gateway/router (the thing that provides internet for all devices in your house, whether they’re directly plugged in to the router OR over the wifi) AND lastly an internet modem – the thing that converts the digital signals from your computers and phones and tablets into the signals that go out over the phone or cable wires to actually connect to the internet. Back in the day these were 2 or 3 separate boxes, but now most home internet just has a single box that does all 3 things.
Why replace it? It could be your internet provider is upgrading their equipment (faster, better, whatever) – and they have to upgrade your wifi/router/modem so it can talk (or talk most efficiently/fastly) with their equipment. Or, you might want to upgrade/replace your wifi/router/modem because you want to improve the wifi signal strength or speed in your home. If you have recently upgraded to a new faster home internet plan (maybe 75GB/s from 25GB/s or whatever), that means their equipment can already handle the faster speed, but your modem can’t, so it had to be upgraded.
I will love to help you, but please try to tell more about your question. Your question is fairly big because it can mean several things:-)
technology exponentially get better
new fast
old slow
some service providers upgrade it for loyal customers for the same price
if they don’t
just switch it should be better at least in theory
if we have fair competition
I’m from England. I’m autistic too. I can’t be certain the following is true for elsewhere. If you aren’t, let me know and I’m happy to research the topic, as this is a kind of interest of mine.
First check your router is running as intended. Most routers have a light that shows this. Most internet companies have online manuals you can check.
ADSL-wifi sends the data through your telephone line, to the router in your home, which sends the data to your device.
Fibre Optic / Full Fibre wifi sends the data through a specialised cable, into your router in your home, which sends the data to your device.
Fibre wifi will almost always be quicker than ADSL wifi.
However, fibre wifi is not available everywhere, especially in areas without many people nearby, because the wifi companies have to put these fibre wires into the ground. Many companies will allow you to check if they have fibre cables on your road (and you are therefore eligible to get fibre wifi). Go to their websites.
I’d always recommend someone to have fibre wifi if it’s available.
Keep in mind that there are other things that will affect your internet speed, although Fibre/ADSL is the biggest factor:
Have you considered an Ethernet cable? This question is really only for printers, tvs, or desktop computers)
How far is your device away from the router?
What stuff is between your device and the router?
Does your device have a working wifi-adapter? (This question is really only for printers, tvs, or desktop computers)
Who else is using the wifi when you’re using it too?
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