Episode 1888
Holiday Ready: How to Supercharge Your Home Wi-Fi Connection!
Are you struggling with slow internet speeds at home? This week's weekday update dives into practical tips and tricks to help you achieve faster internet without breaking the bank. From conducting simple speed tests to checking in with your service provider about potential upgrades, we've got you covered on how to optimize your home network for the holiday season. We also discuss the benefits of investing in a mesh Wi-Fi system if you have a larger home, ensuring you stay connected throughout. Join us as we explore these essential strategies to enhance your internet experience just in time for your holiday gatherings!
The latest installment of AROUND THE HOUSE dives deep into optimizing your home internet experience, especially as the holiday season approaches. With families gathering and increased online activity, ensuring high-speed internet access is more crucial than ever. Eric G. shares insightful tips on assessing your current internet speed, highlighting the importance of running a speed test and comparing results with your service plan. He emphasizes that many consumers might be overpaying for slower internet, suggesting a periodic review of service plans with providers to ensure you're getting the best deal.
Eric also addresses common issues that can lead to slow internet speeds, such as outdated hardware or interference from household appliances. He provides practical solutions, including rebooting your modem and utilizing a mesh Wi-Fi system for larger homes. The discussion also touches on the latest advancements in Wi-Fi technology, urging listeners to invest in modern systems that can handle increasing demands. Whether you're streaming holiday movies or video chatting with family, this episode is packed with actionable advice to enhance your internet connectivity, making it a must-listen for homeowners looking to improve their digital experience.
Takeaways:
- Check your internet speed using an online speed test and compare it to what you're paying for.
- If your internet speed is slow, try rebooting your modem and testing again.
- Consider upgrading your internet plan if you've not checked it in a while.
- For larger homes, a mesh Wi-Fi system can significantly improve your wireless coverage.
- Always prefer running ethernet cables for devices that need a stable connection, like streaming TVs.
- Be cautious when purchasing smart home devices; choose brands that have a proven track record.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Monument Grills
- Comcast
- Xfinity
- Charter
- Starlink
- TP Link
- Brilliant
- Lutron
To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.
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Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
It's AROUND the house.
Eric G.:When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know.
Eric G.:But we've got you covered.
Eric G.:This is AROUND THE house.
Eric G.:Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.
Eric G.:I'm Eric G.
Eric G.:Thanks for joining me today.
Eric G.:We're going to be talking about some fun stuff here to be doing over the holidays.
Eric G.:But first, this hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.
Eric G.:If you're looking for that brand new barbecue, you still have time to order online and get it to your house probably just in time for the holidays, check them out@monument.com today I thought we're all going to be home for the holidays or traveling or people coming over to our houses or doing stuff.
Eric G.:This time of year, people slow down, everybody's at home and all of a sudden your Internet system gets totally overloaded.
Eric G.:Things slow down and there are some easy fixes to get your Wi fi speeds back up running again and looking really good.
Eric G.:So today we're going to talk about that in our weekday update here so we can get you dialed in for the holidays.
Eric G.:And some of this stuff is super easy.
Eric G.:Some of it is a little bit harder.
Eric G.:But let's talk about the basics here.
Eric G.:So doesn't really matter where it's coming from.
Eric G.:Starlink might be the only exception here.
Eric G.:But really with most of our providers out there, whether it's Comcast, Infinity, Xfinity or if it's Charter or Sheesh, all the different companies out there, you got all the wireless companies, you got all this stuff, all this stuff going on.
Eric G.:You've got basically a signal coming into your house via fiber optic or coax cable or maybe something coming in.
Eric G.:There are other systems out there that are using 5G.
Eric G.:Those guys are doing it.
Eric G.:But really we've got to get that stuff distributed around the house the best way we can.
Eric G.:So the first thing I want you to do is jump on your computer.
Eric G.:If it's if you've got something you can plug into, like with a laptop into the modem, that's a little better.
Eric G.:Or if your service provider gives you an app, you can check it there first.
Eric G.:And no, those apps aren't always correct, but at least it gives you an idea of what's going on.
Eric G.:So I want you to just do an initial speed test and jump on Google Find Speed test.
Eric G.:Maybe your app has one, but you can just do a simple speed test to see what the speed coming in and out is.
Eric G.:And then I want you to Compare that to your bill.
Eric G.:What are you paying for?
Eric G.:Now, here's a little side mark on this.
Eric G.:If you are paying for Internet, when was the last time you jumped on and talked to those folks and updated your plan?
Eric G.:Because about every year, sometimes even every six months, they redefine the plans because it gets faster and faster.
Eric G.:So if you've been years for you since you've taken a look at that, you're probably paying too much for your Internet and you're paying too much for a slower speed.
Eric G.:So if you're looking at it, jump online and pretend like you're a new customer.
Eric G.:Take a look around and see what they're offering today for you to sign up.
Eric G.:That's going to give you an idea, at least of what you're paying.
Eric G.:And maybe you're paying too much.
Eric G.:So that's a simple phone call.
Eric G.:You might be able to get that rectified.
Eric G.:Now, the next thing here that I'm looking at, that I want to talk about, though, is if you look at it and go, wow, that is way slow coming to my house.
Eric G.:I'm paying for this.
Eric G.:I'm only getting this.
Eric G.:Now, it could be that you've got a slow old laptop, and that's as fast as it's going to go, and that could be a hardware issue on your end.
Eric G.:But the next thing I would do is jump on your phone, on your wifi and test it there, see if it's similar.
Eric G.:Do the same speed test on your phone using your wifi.
Eric G.:Now, the next move.
Eric G.:If it's still slow, go ahead and reboot that modem, restart it.
Eric G.:If you can jump in your app and restart it, great.
Eric G.:If not, you're going to unplug that thing for 30 seconds, let it shut down, plug it back in, and see if it boots up and gets you better speed.
Eric G.:Sometimes it's that easy of a fix.
Eric G.:Now, the next thing I would do is go back and test it again.
Eric G.:And if you test it again and it's still slow, give customer service a call and say, hey, I'm getting slow Internet speeds.
Eric G.:I thought that I had just my.
Eric G.:I was on.
Eric G.:I'm still on Comcast, Xfinity.
Eric G.:So I went, ah, it's just my neighborhood.
Eric G.:We get old lines.
Eric G.:Everything else.
Eric G.:No, I called them.
Eric G.:They came out and a squirrel had eaten into the line over by my neighbor's house, and they had to replace it.
Eric G.:It was that simple.
Eric G.:My speed was not going to get any faster, but I was blaming the school down the street.
Eric G.:No.
Eric G.:Yeah, everybody's at Home now, it was just getting overloaded and it was damaged.
Eric G.:Didn't cost me anything.
Eric G.:So get on the phone.
Eric G.:They can do some tests from their angle to your modem most likely and tell you what's going on.
Eric G.:And that's a key right there.
Eric G.:Next up, if you get that dialed in, what do you have around your house?
Eric G.: e and you've got a house over: Eric G.:And what I would say is what a mesh WI fi system is first is what this does is this gives you multiple points around your house.
Eric G.:So what that does is that gives you three places around the house many times if you get three points.
Eric G.:So if you have stuff outside, you could put something in your garage, you could put something on the first floor, something on the second floor, something in the basement, that kind of thing.
Eric G.:And then all of a sudden you're good to go.
Eric G.:What that does is it wipes out all of the things, for instance, like your fireplace or appliances or your H Vac that gets in the way, increases, creates these shadows behind things.
Eric G.:So you can really get, if you get a powerful system, you can get something that'll work all the way out to the street.
Eric G.:So if you've got cameras outside, you can get high speed Internet out there and they're not too bad.
Eric G.:You can get on Amazon and take a look.
Eric G.:I use the TP link system at my house and it has worked really well.
Eric G.:So that's one of those things that get, and look at the speed on these.
Eric G.:This is an important one as well is take a look and see how fast they are.
Eric G.:What is the system that you're using?
Eric G.:So what I mean by system is there's different speeds out there every year.
Eric G.:They come up with better stuff.
Eric G.:So like they have Wi Fi 6, it's a mesh system basically.
Eric G.:And they keep going up, you're going to get into seven, you're going to get into, I think eight is the latest right now.
Eric G.:And all of a sudden it just keeps getting better, better and better.
Eric G.:There's 6E.
Eric G.:So really get into the latest system as you can because that's going to get you faster stuff.
Eric G.:Now the problem is sometimes, and these are things that you have to think about, if you've got a cable coming in and maybe you're hardwired into your office, make sure that all your hardware can take the faster speeds sometimes basically any of the boxes or anything else.
Eric G.:If you've got stuff that's only good to a gig and you're paying for a 1.5 gig service, that could be your issue.
Eric G.:That little router could be a problem.
Eric G.:That ethernet switch that's old could be a problem.
Eric G.:So take a look and make sure that you have everything working correctly.
Eric G.: you're over, if you've got a: Eric G.:One that works really well is the TP link, the Deco series.
Eric G.:It's WiFi 6 mesh.
Eric G.:It's fine, but it covers up to 6,500 square feet.
Eric G.:It works really well and it's got gigabit ports in the back.
Eric G.:So there's a lot of things you can do with that.
Eric G.:Take a look at your system, make sure it's working correctly and when in doubt, call the people to come out there.
Eric G.:That way you can do it now versus waiting over the holidays when it's going to be tough to get anybody out there.
Eric G.:I'm about ready to call and get mine because I've got some issues now on mine where I'm sitting there and I've got some issues with the, with the service on it where it's spooling up.
Eric G.:I don't know what's going on.
Eric G.:It might be that, that my router is having issues or something else.
Eric G.:But at night, all of a sudden the TVs are freezing up, which means I got work to do on my system.
Eric G.:So now's the time to get it done.
Eric G.:And that way you're not getting lined up in the service thing over the holidays when everybody else's havit issues as well.
Eric G.:But take a look at that.
Eric G.:And that's really the key to getting this whole thing working right, is making sure that everything works correctly and together.
Eric G.:And when in doubt, if you can run, if you're doing projects, if you can run cable to that instead of using WI fi, it's always better off.
Eric G.:Don't be afraid to use.
Eric G.:If your house was pre wired, use those cables.
Eric G.:They're going to be faster than the WI fi and you're going to have more reliable.
Eric G.:So if you're going to have a TV that's streaming, if you can run ethernet cable into that, do it and be better off.
Eric G.:Just going to be a better system overall.
Eric G.:So don't be afraid of that.
Eric G.:And then one other little side note, I've really noticed that we're starting to see out there in the smart home tech Stuff we're starting to see.
Eric G.:Five years ago, we had all these companies coming out with all these new switches and all this new stuff.
Eric G.:A lot of those companies are now that were these new startups are starting to wither away.
Eric G.:There's a lot of them that have gone away.
Eric G.:I've got stuff in my house here.
Eric G.:I've got one company, I went through and took out two of their switches that I've been testing for a few years because they closed up.
Eric G.:And when they closed up, they shut their servers down and these smart light switches got dumb really quick.
Eric G.:Now I've got another company that I have their switches all around my house.
Eric G.:I've got one, two, three of them.
Eric G.:And they've been on the show before.
Eric G.:Brilliant.
Eric G.:They shut down this last May, laid off everybody, and they're trying to sell the assets.
Eric G.:Hopefully somebody picks up.
Eric G.:It's a really cool system.
Eric G.:And as of.
Eric G.:Well, right now at least the servers are working, because my switches are working okay.
Eric G.:But hopefully those guys get out there.
Eric G.:But I think one of the problems we see with many of these companies out there and the ones that seem to have failed are the ones that tried to go direct to consumer, direct to builder.
Eric G.:Because these days, when you're seeing home construction, you're seeing there's in the mix.
Eric G.:And integrators are your new plumber, your new electrician.
Eric G.:They are your smart home integration people.
Eric G.:And they're like any other trade out there.
Eric G.:They are the ones planning the systems out.
Eric G.:And if they don't put it in front of the integrators, many times it doesn't get used because they don't know how to work with it.
Eric G.:They haven't seen it.
Eric G.:And direct to consumer, they're just not playing with it like the brands they're familiar with.
Eric G.:And familiarity for a integrator is key because they wanted to make sure it works with everything.
Eric G.:They don't want to put something in that creates headaches all down the line.
Eric G.:And when you've got a $399 light switch, it better work with everything.
Eric G.:So I'm a huge brilliant fan.
Eric G.:Hopefully somebody picks that up and does something with it.
Eric G.:But that is one of the things with these smaller smart home product companies out there that you got to watch for because some of these guys have learned the hard way that it didn't go as planned.
Eric G.:So that's one thing to consider if you're out there doing some smart home shopping stuff and some of them aren't all they're cracked up to be.
Eric G.:I'VE had a couple of things that I've tested out here.
Eric G.:I've got some lights that I'm going to tell you about here in a upcoming episode, some patio lights.
Eric G.:And I thought these are the best things ever.
Eric G.:I guess they didn't plan for them to be used even though they're exterior rated to be used in the Pacific Northwest weather because they are failing like nobody's business.
Eric G.:And they've only been up for six months.
Eric G.:So we're only halfway through our rain for the year here in that season of them being up and already it seems they can't handle the weather.
Eric G.:So we'll be talking about that in a future episode.
Eric G.:But just something to think about when you're out there shopping around for smart home stuff.
Eric G.:Take a look, get a familiar brand.
Eric G.:I'm a huge Lutron fan.
Eric G.:Those guys are going to be around forever.
Eric G.:They've got easy stuff.
Eric G.:But as soon as you start getting into some of these other programs on the more retail side, be careful, may not, might not work as well as you think.
Eric G.:And on that, we got a great show coming up this weekend.
Eric G.:It's going to be a lot of fun.
Eric G.:We've got a last minute shopping guide coming up for some stuff that if you're out shopping, some favorite tools of mine, not a sponsored segment, just something that we're going to be talking about a little bit.
Eric G.:It's not going to take over the whole show and that's going to be key right there.
Eric G.:And just some quick stuff there.
Eric G.:And then hour two is going to be great.
Eric G.:We're going to be talking about ways to save in your home for 20, 25 things you can do to save some serious money.
Eric G.:All that and more.
Eric G.:All right everybody, I got a busy work day ahead today and I wanted to get this out to you this morning.
Eric G.:Happy Wednesday all of our new listeners out there, thanks for tuning in.
Eric G.:And if you ever are listening to the podcast here and you're like, man, I hate these commercials, guess what guys, Commercials are what pay to keep this thing going and I'd rather put it there than to hide it in the show someplace.
Eric G.:I just said I'd never do that.
Eric G.:But our sponsors are our sponsors and you can hear them in the commercials.
Eric G.:If you don't like the commercials, four bucks a month.
Eric G.:We have our premium membership and excludes those commercials.
Eric G.:That's the around the house insider.
Eric G.:So take a look there.
Eric G.:All right everybody, have a great rest of the week.
Eric G.:Happy holidays.
Eric G.:Two weeks till Christmas from today.
Eric G.:I can't believe it.
Eric G.:We're creeping up.
Eric G.:Is your shopping done?
Eric G.:If not this weekend, I got a show for you.
Eric G.:Thanks for tuning in to around the House.
Eric G.:We'll see you Saturday.
Eric G.:I appreciate you.
Eric G.:Somewhere unseen and undiscovered Anywhere beyond the me love is a love song let's be lovers we're all over the radio Take my hand out Nowhere to go all over the radio with.
