-----Original Message-----
From: Audiobookfan
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 12:46 AM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: An accessible router

I thought I'd let y'all know how I resolved my router issues.

I continued to experience the problem with my 5GHz band crashing, so I
decided to try a wifi 6 router. I purchased a Netgear Nighthawk. (I
don't recall
the model number.) And set it up with my wife's sighted assistance. All
went well except my Lenovo Flex laptop simply didn't see either the 2.4
or 5 GHz
bands. I called Netgear support and waited for literally hours to talk
to customer (dis)service only to get disconnected without a solution. I
wasn't going
to wait around for several more hours, so I returned the Netgear router
and purchased a TP-Link Archer AX50.

I encountered a few glitches with its setup as well, but I got them all
resolved. First, I had the same problem with the AX50 not being seen by
my Lenovo
laptop, so I had my wife help me set it up using her iPad. We had some
trouble getting our preferred password to work. I think the iPad was
substituting
some special characters which the router didn't like.

Since my laptop was the only device that didn't want to connect to the
network, I figured it was probably a driver issue, so I went looking for
a driver
update. I first checked Windows update, but it said my driver was up to
date. I then went to the Lenovo website, but couldn't find anything that
looked
like a driver update for the wireless adaptor in my Flex laptop.
Finally, I scoured the Intel website and after much hunting around, I
found a driver update
for my wireless network adapter. I installed it and restarted my computer.

At last, all my devices connected to my new wifi 6 router, including my
Lenovo laptop. And so far, (crossing fingers) no crashes! And I was able
to enter
my preferred password from my laptop.

To summarize, my Lenovo laptop needed a driver update in order to work
with a wifi 6 router. The Netgear probably would have worked with the
driver update,
but I'm happy with the TP-Link and it was actually a bit less expensive.
I have noticed that I don't get quite as fast download speeds, but that
could
be due to any number of reasons, such as a busier Internet or even the
driver update. Getting a slightly diminished download speed is way
better than having
to reboot my router several times a day.

I guess time will tell whether I made a good decision in choosing this
router.

Jeff


On 4/15/2020 7:37 PM, Audiobookfan via groups.io wrote:

I think I might be in the market for a new router myself. I got my stimulus payment and figure it's a good way to use some of it.

However, I'm not as concerned with accessibility as I am with performance. I'm experiencing an issue with my current router where the 5 GHz band frequently crashes, disconnecting all the devices and requiring a reboot of the router. I can't figure out what is causing this and am completely baffled as to how to troubleshoot it.

I'm hoping that upgrading to new hardware will resolve the problem. I have about 15 wifi devices connected simultaneously, a third of them are connected to the 5 GHz band.

Since I'm investing in a new router, I'd like to get one that offers wifi 6 support, but I live in a 1 level apartment that's less than 1000 square feet, so I don't need a mesh router. What I want to know is which features should I be considering to support this many devices with room to expand. Does a triband router support more devices? I've read something about streams and the speeds a router will provide. What should I be looking for in a router? Brand recommendations would also be helpful.

Thanks,
Jeff