[HN Gopher] Does our "need for speed" make our wi-fi suck?
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Does our "need for speed" make our wi-fi suck?
        
       Author : jamies
       Score  : 62 points
       Date   : 2025-10-10 18:55 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
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 (TXT) w3m dump (orb.net)
        
       | PaulHoule wrote:
       | I did some experimentation with UniFi hubs and came to the
       | conclusion that if you can give each device its own WiFi channel
       | that would be ideal -- contention is that bad and often an
       | uncontended channel with otherwise poor characteristics will beat
       | a contended channel that otherwise looks good.
       | 
       | The other bit of advice that is buried in there that no-one wants
       | to hear for residences is the best way to speed up your Wi-Fi is
       | to _not use it_. You might think it 's convenient to have your TV
       | connect to Netflix via WiFi and it is, but it is going to make
       | everything else that really needs the Wi-Fi slower. It's a _much_
       | better answer to hook up everything on Ethernet that you possibly
       | can than it is to follow the more traveled route of more channels
       | and more congestion with mesh Wi-Fi.
        
         | JoshTriplett wrote:
         | > The other bit of advice that is buried in there that no-one
         | wants to hear for residences is the best way to speed up your
         | Wi-Fi is to not use it. You might think it's convenient to have
         | your TV connect to Netflix via WiFi and it is, but it is going
         | to make everything else that really needs the Wi-Fi slower.
         | It's a much better answer to hook up everything on Ethernet
         | that you possibly can than it is to follow the more traveled
         | route of more channels and more congestion with mesh Wi-Fi.
         | 
         | Absolutely. Everything other than cell phones and laptops-not-
         | at-a-desk should be on Ethernet.
         | 
         | I had wires run in 2020 when I started doing even more video
         | calls. Huge improvement in usability.
        
           | typpilol wrote:
           | The reality is that most people only have a single cord
           | coming into the house
           | 
           | So they would have to do quite a bit of work to run cable.
           | Also people living in apartments that cant just start
           | drilling through walls.
           | 
           | I'd say most ppl use wifi because they have too, not pure
           | convenience
        
             | ericd wrote:
             | Eh flat Ethernet cables can easily be snaked all over with
             | adhesive clips, and if you color match cable/clips/walls,
             | it doesn't look bad.
        
               | PaulHoule wrote:
               | Visiting museum ships also showed me you can sometimes
               | route cables over living and working spaces.
        
               | 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
               | This is what I did. Takes minimal effort and then you
               | never have to worry about it again.
        
               | dpark wrote:
               | Cables routed on visible walls look absolutely terrible.
               | I wish they didn't, but they do.
               | 
               | Yes, it's better if your cable and clips and wall all
               | match, but it still looks bad.
        
             | wlesieutre wrote:
             | MoCA adapters are an option if you're already wired for
             | coax
        
             | eikenberry wrote:
             | Ethernet cables can be as long as 100meters, long enough to
             | snake around most any apartment. Add on a few rugs to cover
             | over where they'd be tripping hazards and you're all set.
        
               | passivegains wrote:
               | I got good results from running cables around the entire
               | perimeter of a room to avoid crossing doorways. Doesn't
               | work so well on bathrooms though.
        
             | GeorgeTirebiter wrote:
             | Mu-MIMO would help. The real problem is that energy between
             | a unit and an AP is not in a pencil-thin RF laser-beam ---
             | it is spread out. Other nodes hear that energy, and back
             | off. If we had better control of point-to-point links, then
             | you could have plenty of bandwidth. It's not as if the
             | photon field cannot hold them all. When we broadcast in all
             | directions, we waste energy, and we cause unnecessary
             | interference to other receivers.
        
               | sidewndr46 wrote:
               | it was quite a while back but I read some press release
               | about a manufacturer that would make an access point that
               | had mechanically steered directional antennas.
               | Unfortunately I don't think it ever made it to market.
        
             | jdeibele wrote:
             | We downsized from a house built in 1914 with phone jacks
             | everywhere to a house built in 2007 with coax and ethernet
             | ports in every room, some rooms with two.
             | 
             | At the 1914 house, I used ethernet-over-powerline adapters
             | so I could have a second router running in access point
             | mode. The alternative was punching holes in the outside
             | walls since there was no way to feasibly run cabling inside
             | lath-and-plaster walls.
             | 
             | I don't know how 2025 houses are built but I would be
             | surprised if they didn't have an ethernet jack in every
             | room to a wiring closet of some sort. Not sure about coax.
             | 
             | My son has ethernet in his dorm with an ethernet switch so
             | he can connect his video game consoles and TV. I think
             | that's pretty common.
        
               | runjake wrote:
               | _> I don 't know how 2025 houses are built but I would be
               | surprised if they didn't have an ethernet jack in every
               | room to a wiring closet of some sort. Not sure about
               | coax._
               | 
               | Speaking from a US standpoint, it still not common in new
               | construction for ethernet to be deployed in a house. I'm
               | not sure why. It seems like a no-brainer.
               | 
               | Coax is still usually reserved to a couple jacks --
               | usually in the living room and master bedrooms.
        
               | sidewndr46 wrote:
               | Adding cat5e or cat6 to each room is just a cost.
               | Builders generally compete on cost.
        
             | ipython wrote:
             | Well, unless you're multihomed, you'll always only have one
             | cable coming in.
             | 
             | It's what you do with that cable that matters :)
             | 
             | Even the telco provided router/ap combo units usually have
             | a built in switch, so you don't even need another device in
             | most cases.
        
           | fragmede wrote:
           | And the big one I want to point out, is that this AI stuff
           | has me downloading so many ten gigabyte model files to run
           | them locally that I'm really feeling the lack of speed that
           | my setup has.
        
           | marssaxman wrote:
           | The house I live in was built with ethernet, but of the
           | fourteen outlets the builders saw fit to include, not one is
           | located where we can make use of it. The two devices in our
           | house which use a wired connection are both plugged directly
           | into the switch in our utility closet.
           | 
           | (We do have one internet-connected device which permanently
           | lives about an inch away from one of the ethernet sockets,
           | but it is, ironically, a wifi-only device with no RJ45 port.)
        
             | baby_souffle wrote:
             | > The house I live in was built with ethernet, but of the
             | fourteen outlets the builders saw fit to include, not one
             | is located where we can make use of it.
             | 
             | I had a similar situation a few years back. It was a rental
             | so I didn't have access to the attic let alone permission
             | to do my own drops. It'll depend a _lot_ on your exact
             | setup, but we had reasonably good results with some
             | ethernet-over-power adapters.
        
         | jeffbee wrote:
         | Ethernet pretty much sucks and has not improved substantially
         | in consumer devices since the previous century. It also has
         | pretty severe idle power consumption consequences for PCs,
         | unless you are an expert who goes around fixing that.
        
           | kjkjadksj wrote:
           | You still get the best speeds over ethernet today because of
           | how wifi standards are slow walked, both on the router and
           | the device connected with the router. Ethernet standards are
           | slow walked too of course but we are talking slow walking a
           | 2.5g or 10g connection here, even otherwise crappy hardware
           | is likely to have 1g ethernet and it's been that way for at
           | least 10 or 15 years.
        
             | jeffbee wrote:
             | If you want to transfer the contents of your old mac to
             | your new mac, your best options in order of speed are 1)
             | thunderbolt, 2) wifi, and 3) ethernet. You do not, in any
             | sense, get "the best speeds" from ethernet. The market
             | penetration of greater-than-1gb wired networks in consumer
             | devices is practically nothing.
        
               | astrange wrote:
               | I have all 2.5gbit at home with some 10gbit SFP copper
               | connections, it wasn't particularly difficult. The
               | devices with built-in Ethernet ports are all gigabit of
               | course, but the ones with USB-C ports have 2.5gbit
               | adapters.
               | 
               | I could go to 10gbit but the Thunderbolt adapters for
               | those all have fans.
        
               | pbronez wrote:
               | If you're the kind of person who wants better than
               | gigabit Ethernet, it's very available. 2.5Gbe is just a
               | USB adapter away. Mac Studio comes with 10GbE. Unifi
               | networking gives you managed multi-gig and plenty of
               | others do unmanaged multigig at affordable prices. Piles
               | of consumer NAS support multigig.
               | 
               | I think this market is driven by content creators. Lots
               | of prosumers shoot terabytes of video on a weekly basis.
               | Local NAS are essential and multi-gig local networks
               | dramatically improve the editing experience.
        
               | kulahan wrote:
               | brb ima turn on my microwave halfway through your
               | transfer
        
               | bobbiechen wrote:
               | To this day I expect my wifi to drop whenever I hear a
               | microwave, thanks to the one in my parents house:
               | https://digitalseams.com/blog/microwave-ovens-wi-fi-and-
               | http
        
               | kjkjadksj wrote:
               | Yes thunderbolt is best but look at costs. Apple is
               | selling a 4ft cable for $130. I have a ton of random cat
               | 5e and cat 6 and they go for a couple dollars.
               | 
               | Now lets talk about my actual "old mac" and "new mac" Mid
               | 2012 mbp and my m3 pro. The 2012 only can do 802.11n so
               | not gigabit speeds. It does have a gigabit ethernet
               | however.
               | 
               | Even if I was going m3 pro to m3 pro, I'm only getting
               | full wifi 6e speeds if I actually have a router that
               | makes use of 160hz channels. My router can't. It is hard
               | to even gleam router offerings to see which are offering
               | proper wifi 6 because there are like dozens of skus sold
               | even to different stores from the same brand getting
               | slightly different skus. Afaik my mac does not support
               | 160hz wifi 6 either.
        
               | kstrauser wrote:
               | This is so insanely wrong that I almost feel like we're
               | being trolled. Yes, a direct Thunderbolt connection would
               | be best. Failing that, a guaranteed 1Gb Ethernet
               | connection, which is ubiquitous and dirt cheap, and has
               | latency measured in microseconds, is going to wipe the
               | floor with real-world Wi-Fi 7 speeds. And for what you'd
               | pay for end-to-end Wi-Fi 7 compatible gear, you could be
               | using 10Gb Ethernet, which is in a different league of
               | stability and actual observed throughput compared to
               | anything wireless.
               | 
               | I have Firewalla Wi-Fi 7 APs connected via 10Gb Ethernet
               | to my router. They're brilliant, very expensive, very
               | high quality devices. I use them only for devices which I
               | can't hardwired, because even 1Gb Ethernet smokes them in
               | actual real-world use.
        
               | jeffbee wrote:
               | > wipe the floor with real-world Wi-Fi 7 speeds.
               | 
               | I see that you have never tried this. By the way, Mac
               | Migration Assistant doesn't need Wi-Fi infrastructure at
               | all.
        
               | kstrauser wrote:
               | Sure have, within the last 2 weeks when I helped a
               | coworker migrate to a new machine! Both were November
               | 2024 MacBook Pros, so Apple's current top-of-the-line
               | laptops.
               | 
               | Running over Wi-Fi dragged on interminably and we gave up
               | several hours in. When we scrounged up a could of USB
               | Ethernet dongles and started over, it took about an hour.
               | 
               | So yeah, my own personal experience confirms exactly what
               | I'd expect: Wi-Fi is slow and high-latency compared to
               | Ethernet, and you should always use hardwired connections
               | when you care about stability and performance more than
               | portability. By all means, use Wi-Fi for routine laptop
               | mobility. If you have the option, definitely run a cable
               | to your stationary desktop computers, game consoles, set-
               | top boxes, NASes, and everything else within reach of a
               | switch.
        
               | tass wrote:
               | My isp-supplied router had 10gbe on both wan and lan
               | sides. I swapped it for my own, but that is what modern
               | consumer equipment looks like.
               | 
               | You can find a 2 port 10gbe+4 port 2.5gbe switch for just
               | over $30 on Amazon.
               | 
               | If the run isn't too long this can all run over cat5.
               | Handily beats wifi especially for reliability but
               | Thunderbolt is fastest if you only have 2 machines to
               | link.
        
               | kllrnohj wrote:
               | I have a U7 Pro XGS hooked up to a Pro HD 24 POE switch
               | (all 2.5gb ports or faster).
               | 
               | The only way I've managed to convince _any_ Wifi 7 client
               | to exceed 1gbps is by freshly connecting to it over 6ghz
               | while standing physically within arm 's reach of the AP.
               | That's it. That's the only time it can exceed 1gbps.
               | 
               | In all other scenarios it's well under 1gbps, often more
               | like 300-500mbps. Which is great for wifi, but still
               | quite below the cheapest ethernet ports around. And 6ghz
               | client behavior across OS's (Windows, MacOS, iOS, and
               | Android) is _so bad_ at roaming that I actually end up
               | just disabling it entirely. The only thing it can do is
               | generate bragging rights screenshots, in actual use it 's
               | basically entirely DOA.
               | 
               | And that's ignoring that ~$200 N150 NUCs come with
               | 2.5gbps ethernet now.
        
           | tryauuum wrote:
           | even with 1Gbit/s ethernet, measure latency. It will be
           | smaller and more predictable than any wifi you can have.
        
           | p_j_w wrote:
           | >Ethernet [...] has not improved substantially in consumer
           | devices since the previous century.
           | 
           | We've gone from 100 Mbps being standard consumer level to 2.5
           | or 10 Gbps being standard now. That sounds substantial to me.
        
             | jeffbee wrote:
             | There is not any meaningful sense in which 2.5gb ethernet
             | is "standard". There are no TVs with 2.5gb ethernet ports.
             | Or even 1gb ports. Yet they all have WiFi 5 or better.
        
               | dpark wrote:
               | In practical terms, WiFi 5 is slower than 1gb Ethernet.
               | 
               | It is bizarre that they are putting 100mbps Ethernet
               | ports on TVs though.
        
               | baby_souffle wrote:
               | > It is bizarre that they are putting 100mbps Ethernet
               | ports on TVs though.
               | 
               | It's a few pennies cheaper and i'm sure they have some
               | data showing 70%+ will just use WiFi. TCL in particular
               | doesn't even have very good/stable drivers for their
               | 10/100 NIC; there's a ton of people on the Home Assistant
               | forums that have noticed that their android powered smart
               | TV will just ... stop working / responding on the network
               | until it's rebooted.
        
           | lxgr wrote:
           | Compared to what?
        
         | avree wrote:
         | Unfortunately, Unifi only supports DFS channels (which is the
         | only real way for 'each device to have its own wifi channel in
         | a crowded area) on some of their models.
        
         | mlinhares wrote:
         | Yeah, we built our home and i made sure whenever there would be
         | devices on the wall there was an ethernet cable there, best
         | decision ever.
        
         | GeorgeTirebiter wrote:
         | yes, and... convenience says 'use WiFi'. No wires! I've said,
         | if it moves - wireless. If it doesn't -- wired. Counterexamples
         | that 'work': AM / FM / TV / Paging big transmitters to
         | simple/cheap receivers. For the 1-way case, that works. But for
         | 2-way....
        
         | paulddraper wrote:
         | There are two kinds of networks: wireless networks and reliable
         | networks.
         | 
         | Wired connection is an absolute hack.
        
           | lxgr wrote:
           | I hear people say this often, but when you look into what
           | they actually mean, it's often a comparison of having a
           | single mediocre ISP CPE in a corner of an apartment, at most
           | with a wireless repeater in another, vs. Ethernet. Of course
           | the wire wins in that comparison.
           | 
           | Now put an access point into every room and wire them to the
           | router, and things start looking very differently.
        
         | ipython wrote:
         | > the best way to speed up your Wi-Fi is to not use it.
         | 
         | So true!
         | 
         | Other tips I've found useful:
         | 
         | Separate 2.4ghz network for only IoT devices. They tend to have
         | terrible WiFi chipsets and use older WiFi standards. Slower
         | speed = more airtime used for the same amount of data. This way
         | the "slow" IoT devices don't interfere with your faster devices
         | which...
         | 
         | Faster devices such as laptops and phones belong on 5ghz only
         | network, if you're able to get enough coverage. Prefer wired
         | backhaul and more access points, as you're better off with a
         | device talking on another channel to an ap closer to it rather
         | than tieing up airtime with lots of retries to a far away ap
         | (which impacts all the other clients also trying to talk to
         | that ap)
         | 
         | WiFi is super solid at our house but it took some tweaking and
         | wiring everything that doesn't move.
        
         | rbranson wrote:
         | > It's a much better answer to hook up everything on Ethernet
         | that you possibly can than it is to follow the more traveled
         | route of more channels and more congestion with mesh Wi-Fi.
         | 
         | Certainly this is the brute-force way to do it and can work if
         | you can run enough UTP everywhere. As a counterexample, I went
         | all-in on WiFi and have 5 access points with dedicated
         | backhauls. This is in SF too, so neighbors are right up against
         | us. I have ~60 devices on the WiFi and have no issues, with
         | fast roaming handoff, low jitter, and ~500Mbit up/down. I built
         | this on UniFi, but I suspect Eero PoE gear could get you pretty
         | close too, given how well even their mesh backhaul gear
         | performs.
        
           | xmprt wrote:
           | I'm not super familiar with SF construction materials but I
           | wonder if that plays a part in it too? If your neighbors are
           | separated by concrete walls then you're probably getting less
           | interference from them than you'd think and your mesh might
           | actually work better(?)... but what do I know since I'm no
           | networking engineer.
        
             | rbranson wrote:
             | It's all wood construction, originally stick victorians
             | with 2x4 exterior walls. My "loudest" neighbor is being
             | picked up on 80MHz at -47 dBm.
        
           | sidewndr46 wrote:
           | you have five access points and 60 devices? How many square
           | feet are you trying to cover?
        
         | lxgr wrote:
         | > You might think it's convenient to have your TV connect to
         | Netflix via WiFi and it is, but it is going to make everything
         | else that really needs the Wi-Fi slower.
         | 
         | TV streaming seems like a bad example, since it's usually much
         | lower average bandwidth than e.g. a burst of mobile app updates
         | installing with equal priority on the network as as soon as a
         | phone is plugged in for charging, or starting a cloud photo
         | backup.
        
           | vel0city wrote:
           | Kind of true, but potentially also untrue. If that TV is
           | running a crappy WiFi chip running an older WiFi standard on
           | the same channel, it'll end up performing worse or not
           | playing as nice with other clients during those bursts of
           | buffering. That'll potentially be seen by other clients as
           | little bursts of jitter.
           | 
           | That's true of any client with older and crappier WiFi chips
           | though, but TVs are such a race to the bottom when it comes
           | to performance in so many other things.
        
         | drob518 wrote:
         | That tip about not using it also works with Ethernet and other
         | technologies, BTW.
        
       | semiquaver wrote:
       | The thing about speed tests causing a bad experience because they
       | hog airtime felt like a non sequitur (since performing them is
       | rare and manual) until I saw this:                 > Many ISPs,
       | device manufacturers, and consumers automate periodic, high-
       | intensity speed tests that negatively impact the consumer
       | internet experience as demonstrated
       | 
       | But there's no support for this claim presented frankly I am
       | skeptical. What WiFi devices are regularly conducting speed tests
       | without being asked?
        
         | thewebguyd wrote:
         | > What WiFi devices are regularly conducting speed tests
         | without being asked?
         | 
         | ISP provided routers, at least Xfinity does. I've gotten emails
         | from them (before I ripped out their equipment and put my own
         | in) "Great news, you're getting more than your plan's promised
         | speeds" with speedtest results in the email, because they ran
         | speed tests at like 3AM.
         | 
         | I wouldn't be surprised if it's happening often across all the
         | residential ISPs, most likely for marketing purposes.
        
           | kjkjadksj wrote:
           | I have noticed Spectrum internet shits the bed at 12:30am
           | pretty reliably.
        
             | typpilol wrote:
             | Really? My spectrum has been super reliable in Michigan.
             | Way better than when I had Comcast here
        
           | gm678 wrote:
           | Pretty sure Verizon does this as well, when I had a tech come
           | out he had access to historical speed test results from my
           | router (I didn't ask any questions about it at the time so
           | don't have any more info).
        
           | lxgr wrote:
           | That would be a speedtest between the router/modem and CMTS
           | then, not one between a Wi-Fi connected device and the ISP,
           | no?
        
         | esseph wrote:
         | Ubiquiti UniFi used to, I don't know if it still does.
        
           | pbronez wrote:
           | It's configurable
        
           | nativeit wrote:
           | At least in my UniFi instance, this is only done when
           | manually triggered, but I seem to recall a setting where it
           | could be automatically updated daily.
        
         | joshstrange wrote:
         | Eero does this automatically (mine says it was last run 2 days
         | ago at 5:08am) and I had software on my DD-WRT router
         | (OpenLede) that did it, though obviously not many people
         | (overall) are running that.
         | 
         | I used to run a docker than ran a speed test every hour and
         | graphed the results but I haven't done that in a while now.
        
         | jeffbee wrote:
         | Google Nest access points do this, but they do it only when
         | networks are idle, so I fail to see the negative consequences.
        
         | dlcarrier wrote:
         | DOCSIS cable modems perform perform regularly scheduled tests,
         | but it's only between devices, and shouldn't affect available
         | bandwidth, because there's far more bandwidth within the DOCSIS
         | network than between the network and the Internet.
        
           | lxgr wrote:
           | > there's far more bandwidth within the DOCSIS network than
           | between the network and the Internet.
           | 
           | Really? DOCSIS has been the bottleneck out of Wi-Fi, DOCSIS,
           | and wider Internet every time I've had the misfortune of
           | having to use it in an apartment.
           | 
           | Especially the tiny uplink frequency slice of DOCSIS 3 and
           | below is pathetic.
        
       | ttshaw1 wrote:
       | I don't get what the point of the article is. Is the takeaway
       | that I should lower the channel width in my home? How many WAPs
       | would I need to be running for that to matter? I'd argue it's
       | more important to get everyone to turn down TX power in cases
       | where your neighbors in an apartment building are conflicting.
       | And that's never going to happen, so just conform to the legal
       | limit and your SNR should be fine. Anything that needs to be high
       | performance shouldn't be on wifi anyway.
       | 
       | If you want to spend a really long time optimizing your wifi,
       | this is the resource: https://www.wiisfi.com/
        
         | jerf wrote:
         | This sort of thing is definitely in the class of "are you
         | experiencing problems? if not don't worry about it".
         | 
         | If you are experiencing problems, this might give you an angle
         | to think about that you hadn't otherwise, if you just naively
         | assume Wifi is as good as a dedicated wire. Modern Wifi has an
         | awful lot of resources, though. I only notice degradation of
         | any kind when I have one computer doing a full-speed transfer
         | for quite a while to another, but that's a pretty exceptional
         | case and not one I'm going to run any more wires around for for
         | something that happens less than once a month.
        
         | tetris11 wrote:
         | I lose wifi signal consistently in my bedroom on my 80Mhz wide
         | 5Ghz wifi.
         | 
         | I just now reduced it to 20Mhz, and though there is a (slight)
         | perceptible drop in latency, those 5 extra dB I gained from
         | Signal/Noise have given me wifi in the bedroom again
        
       | 725686 wrote:
       | "The average US household has 21 Wi-Fi devices"... wtf?
        
         | lynndotpy wrote:
         | And that's not to mention everything else on the 2.4GHz band :)
         | Bluetooth, zigbee, your microwave, etc
        
         | MrZander wrote:
         | That seems very high to me. A family of four each has 5 devices
         | connected at the same time?
        
           | paxys wrote:
           | Smartphone, laptop, tablet, watch - that's 4 already. And
           | this isn't just counting personal devices. Include TV,
           | streaming stick, game console, printers, bulbs, plugs,
           | speakers, doorbell, security cameras, thermostat and you'll
           | hit that number pretty quick.
        
           | kllrnohj wrote:
           | Check your network and see how many wifi devices you have.
           | I'm up to 60+ thanks to a handful of IoT devices, smart
           | speakers, etc... It adds up quick.
        
         | IshKebab wrote:
         | Doesn't seem unreasonable. Look at your router. I have 17 and I
         | would say we're a totally normal household - the kids don't
         | even have phones yet.
         | 
         | We have 2 phones, a tablet for the kids, a couple of Google
         | homes, a Chromecast, 2 yoto players, a printer, a smart TV, 2
         | laptops, a raspberry pi, a solar power Inverter, an Oculus
         | Quest, and a couple of things that have random hostnames.
         | 
         | It adds up.
        
         | isaacdl wrote:
         | I live alone, and just counted, I have 10 in regular use. A few
         | more that can connect to WiFi but aren't (why would I want my
         | tower fans on the internet, anyway?)
         | 
         | I had probably 20 prior to swapping out some smart light bulbs
         | and switches for Zigbee.
         | 
         | 21 for an average household isn't nuts.
        
         | gnabgib wrote:
         | Doesn't take long to add up. Family of 4 - every phone,
         | including prior generation which might be off in a draw: 3-8
         | 
         | Router, and extenders (multi floor house): 1-4
         | 
         | Chromecast|Sonos|Apple
         | speaker/Chromecast|google|firestick|roku|apple TV/smart
         | speaker/hifi receiver/eaves dropping devices: 2-10
         | 
         | Smart doorbell/light switch/temperature sensor/weather
         | station/co2|co detector/flood detector/bulb/led strip/led
         | light/nanoleaf/garage door: 4-16
         | 
         | Some cars: 0-2
         | 
         | Some smart watches speak wifi: 0-4
         | 
         | Computers.. maybe the desktops are wired (likely still support
         | wifi), all laptops, chromebooks, and tablets : 3-8
         | 
         | All game consoles, many TVs, some computer monitors: 3-8
         | 
         | Some smart appliances: 0-4 (based on recent news of ads, best
         | to aim for 0)
        
         | tempestn wrote:
         | 34 devices connected to my router at the moment, 8 wired and 26
         | wifi. About 8 of the wifi devices are phones, tablets, and
         | laptops; the rest are various iot things: locks, plugs, alarm,
         | thermostat, water heater, doorbell, etc.
        
         | seemaze wrote:
         | I just checked;
         | 
         | I currently have 23, my parent's house has 19
         | 
         | People have all kinds of stuff on wifi these days - cameras,
         | light bulbs, dishwashers, irrigation, solar, hifi..
        
       | rpcope1 wrote:
       | Honestly what's unsaid in a lot of this is that it would be
       | really nice if there were more and wider ISM bands. So much makes
       | use of 900Mhz, 2.4GHz and 5GHz in novel and innovative ways, that
       | if the government and FCC really actually wanted to spark
       | innovation including augmenting wifi performance, they'd stop
       | letting telcos and other questionable interests hoard spectrum
       | and release it as ISM (and no, they shouldn't steal from ham
       | bands to make ISM bands either).
        
       | lxgr wrote:
       | > Many ISPs, device manufacturers, and consumers automate
       | periodic, high-intensity speed tests that negatively impact the
       | consumer internet experience as demonstrated.
       | 
       | Is that actually a thing? Why would any ISP intentionally add
       | unnecessary load to their network?
        
         | sidewndr46 wrote:
         | I've only met around 10 people that even know what a speed test
         | is. I'm not sure how most consumers would even go about
         | automating one. What would be the first step?
        
       | somanyphotons wrote:
       | Is there a good guide on what the right things to do are?
        
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