Five minutes that fix most evening buffering
Before you call anyone, do these in order: restart the streaming device rather than the TV, check whether a second device is downloading updates, switch the TV to the 5 GHz network if it is sitting on 2.4 GHz, lower the stream quality once to test, and finally power-cycle the router for a full sixty seconds. If the picture is stable after step three, the problem is band selection, not your provider.
- Restart the streaming stick, not just the television
- Look for background downloads on consoles and phones
- Move the TV to the 5 GHz or 6 GHz SSID
- Test one quality step lower to isolate bandwidth
- Power-cycle the router for a full minute
Where a router should really live
Signal travels badly through masonry, water and metal — which means a router in a basement, behind a TV or inside a media cabinet is fighting your house. Put it central, at chest height, out in the open and away from microwaves, cordless phone bases and fish tanks. If the cable enters at the far corner of the house, run one ethernet cable to a better spot rather than buying a bigger antenna.
- Central, high and out in the open
- At least three feet from large metal appliances
- Never inside a closed cabinet
- One ethernet run beats three extenders
- Antennas vertical for single-storey, mixed for two-storey
How to tell a tech-support scam from real support
Legitimate support never calls you out of the blue about a virus, never asks for gift cards, wire transfers or cryptocurrency, and never demands permanent remote-access software before explaining the problem. We will always identify ourselves, reference an existing ticket, and be happy for you to hang up and call the number published on this site instead.
- Unsolicited calls about viruses are always fake
- No legitimate business asks for gift cards
- Never approve remote access you did not initiate
- Hang up and dial the published number to verify
- Nobody needs your banking password to fix Wi-Fi
Buying equipment without wasting money
Wi-Fi 6 is worth it if you own devices from the last four years and have more than about fifteen things connected. A mesh kit is worth it above roughly 2,000 square feet or in any house with thick internal walls. A range extender is almost never worth it. And unless your plan is above 500 Mbps, an expensive router will not raise the number your provider gives you.
- Match the router generation to your newest devices
- Mesh above ~2,000 sq ft or with masonry walls
- Extenders halve throughput — avoid where possible
- Cat 6 cable is cheap; buy it once
- Renting a provider router costs more over three years