Spoiler Alert

A new WiFi unit was required to replace the existing unit that was acting as both an Internet modem and a WiFi unit in order to resolve the issue.

The Home WiFi As A Utility

How many times have we been in a position where the kids yell the WiFi is slow? They seem to always be the first to complain when TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat is slow to load or upload videos. As parents or grandparents who have very little control or knowledge of the WiFi network, knowing where to begin to resolve the issue becomes a major uphill battle. The Internet is now being perceived as a utility due to its nature of being an important part of everyday life. It, however, doesn’t function as such, unlike power or gas utilities where they are either on or off, the Internet has a third state of being both off and on. In this state, it can be frustrating to use. Form YouTube videos constantly stalling while loading more video streams in the background (buffering) to websites taking a long time to load.
Out of all my experiences, the one common issue I have identified impacting the WiFi performance is not the actual Internet service being provided by the service provider but the actual WiFi Radio.
Take, for example, my family and I were down in the States for a big family gathering at my Sister-in-law’s place. The first thing we all asked for as always was the WiFi password! As time went on I began to notice performance issues relating to how slow webpages were loading. Not to mention I was not able to successfully load and play games on Google Stadia. While discussing with my sister-in-law she mentioned she is subscribed to about 130Mbps upload and download service with AT&T. And surely when she uses AT&T’s speed test tool from her online account she gets 130Mbps in both directions. Here are two-speed tests from the WiFi network showing extreme variance in performance with speeds nowhere close to 130Mbps.

It is at this point where I concluded this being a localized issue. Further investigation on the WiFi Modem revealed that this version of Modem AT&T Arris NVG589 only has the 2.4 GHz WiFi Radio. Though the 2.4 GHz supports service at longer distances from the WiFi device, it does so with limited bandwidth. This alone doesn’t mean WiFi performance is bad, 2.4 GHz speeds are decent at 54Mbps but if consistently at this rate. The main issue came when the total number of active devices on the network grew to more than 20.
The only solution was to purchase a WiFi unit to manage WiFi devices leaving the Modem to perform the function of the Cable modem and router. Taking that I like my Sister-in-law I upgraded her network using the same brand I have grown to trust and recommend every time. Ubiquity Unifi WiFi products, the UniFi AP-AC-LR model to be specific. Why did I go for the LR edition? I needed a single unit to cover the whole house. Captured below is another speed test of the new WiFi network with more than 28 devices attached. Not to mention being able to seamlessly play games on Google Stadia.

To conclude it’s not all the time the service provider is the bad guy though it was not the actual Internet connection, it was the WiFi unit provided with the cable modem. I suppose we can still conclude it’s the service provider’s issue, I mean who still provides a cable modem with an old 2.4GHz radio in it…

Yet another free consult! Feel free to reach out, drop me a tweet or Instagram dm.

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