My office was moving to a new space and my company was gonna toss this legend in the e-recycling bin. I couldn’t stand to see it suffer that fate, and gave it a good home where it can be comfortable in retirement.

Recently there was a lightning storm near my house and a tree very close to the house was struck. Ever since then, the internet has been a little spotty.
It still works most of the time, but every now and again, the internet speed just slows to a halt for about ten seconds, then it's back to normal.

It doesn't happen too often, maybe once or twice within a 2 hour period, and it doesn't impact all devices as once. For example my phone may start stuttering, but my computer is working fine.

I tried unplugging the router and the modem and plugging them back in, but the issue persists.

Any trouble shooting advice on how to diagnose and fix?

This is a pre-made cable but I dont understand the configuration and also why it works as a straight through cable. I plan on using a klein ethernet tester tomorrow.

Have the following router in mind to buy in the next week or so:

ASUS ROG Strix GS-BE12000

ASUS ROG Strix GS-BE7200

ASUS RT-BE88U

Home is around 1300sf. ATT gateway is behind 2 walls. 1 Gbps service. Devices are a mix of iphone 16s and an old work laptop with an Wireless-AC 9260 wireless card.

They are similarly priced $250-300. the BE88U is the only dual band while the others are tri band.

I know the ROG are more gamer focused, but basically the a router at the end of the day.

Long story short, my signal coverage throughout my house has been inconsistent. Not sure if it’s because of the thick original walls or what. So far, I have tried these:

- nighthawk x6s (strong coverage when close by, but quickly loses coverage when walking away from it)

- TP-Link Deco x55 AX3000 (currently using, have the three pack setup, but WiFi is still very inconsistent and usually have to disconnect from it for my phone to load whatever it’s loading)

Any recommendations or suggestions to improve what i’m currently using are appreciated! Thank you!

Hi everyone,

Since you all have been so helpful before, I am back to ask another question!

Brand new home with Cat6e throughout the house. I crimped all the ends coming out of the house and for now have only connected the line from the modem to my office outlet... Just so my gaming PC is hard wired in.

Anyways, its about time I connect all the outlets to the modem so all the outlets can work.

So my question is, what do I need to purchase and install to get all the outlets in the house working? Is it called a switch or something? There are 6 outlets in the house, so I need one at least that big.

My main problem is, there is no outlet or any kind of electrical inputs anywhere near where all the cords all connect. I am probably eventually going to hire a contractor to move them inside, but that's not in the cards just yet. Also why I have only connected the main line with my office, a simple connector doesn't require any power.

Any solutions to my problems and any products I should look into would be great. Thanks!

​Alright, I’m probably overthinking this, but I’d appreciate a sanity check on my setup plan. ​I'm trying to get reliable Wi-Fi out to my metal shop, which sits about 150ft from my main house. Inside the house, I’m running TP-Link HX510 mesh routers. Unsurprisingly, the metal building acts like a giant Faraday cage—as soon as the shop doors close, I lose all signal. If I roll two of the doors open, I can pull 2–3 bars, so the signal is reaching the exterior of the building.

​I looked into using an outdoor directional AP—specifically a TP-Link CPE210/510 or CPE710—mounted on the outside of the shop, set to Client Mode to grab the house Wi-Fi, and then running Ethernet inside the shop to a router/AP.

​Before I start buying gear and drilling holes, I have a few questions:

1. ​Will a single CPE510/710 in Client Mode actually work well here? Since I'm already getting 2–3 bars at the shop doors from the house's indoor HX510s, can I get away with just one CPE on the shop pulling that signal, or do I really need a matched pair of CPEs (Point-to-Point) on both buildings?

2. ​Seamless roaming / Same SSID: If I wire the CPE into an interior AP/router inside the shop and give it the exact same SSID and password as the house network, will my phone seamlessly hand off between the house and the shop, or is it better to just set it up as its own dedicated shop network?

3. ​Repurposing old gear: I have some older 2nd Gen Google Nest Wi-Fi mesh routers sitting in a box. Could I hook one of those up to the CPE inside the shop to act as the indoor AP (in bridge mode) so I don't have to buy another router, or is mixing the Google hardware with the TP-Link setup going to cause headaches?

​Note: Running burial-grade Ethernet/fiber isn't on the table right now, so I'm sticking to wireless options. Thanks in advance for the input!

I got a bunch of these from work after they were replaced. Some have 8 ports, some have 24. There's no manufacturer name anywhere and the web UI is pretty terrible. Are they any good?

Howdy,

So the current situation is a storm rolled through my town 4 days ago. Since then I've been having internet issues, but not just normal outage but specific upload problems.

My internet is Coax, 1Gbps down, 40Mbps up. Internet speeds all currently reflect this and don't show any slowdowns. Ping, bufferbloat, and packet loss tests all shown as fine. ISP testing from their end show that the modem is connected and fine, along with the connection health.

However:

Through video calls and online gaming, I'm having issues. I'm not noticing any lag on my end, everything appears and moves normally, however to others (and verified through many others) I am lagging quite a bit. Sometimes it would be so bad where the call/match would time out and I would be kicked.

This implies to me that there's an upload problem?

Since then I've done these things to attempt to isolate the problem to no avail:

* Brand new Modem and Router

* Different device usage, both wireless and Ethernet to the network

* Connected desktop PC directly via Ethernet to the modem, excluding the router

* Fresh install of Windows 11

* Reinstall of all network related drivers

* ISP rebooting/refreshing the connection multiple times

The only thing left I can imagine doing is getting an ISP technician out here, but like I said above the ISP help desk says they see absolutely no issues on their end via the software.

Are there things I can do to identify the problem more specifically? Ways to test my infrastructure to see if its problematic?

I live in an apartment block so I don't know if there is an issue somewhere else in the building line wise.

Thank you

Getting 900 mbps through ethernet. I have never gotten packet loss and now when i play Fortnite i get random packet loss stutters. I need help figuring out the issue. Definitely not the Ethernet cable i switched through a fee and its still the same issue.

For context i am using a spectrum 1 gig plan with a asus rog ax11000 pro router

Hi, I’m reaching out with a request. I’ve had a SIM card router for about a year—it worked the whole time, but now it’s not working. I read that the SIM card might have damaged gold contacts, but it worked in my cell phone and was recognized, so I replaced it anyway, and the router still won’t read it—even though it reads a different SIM card from another carrier, so I just don’t get it. Router: Strong 5grouterax3000; O2 SIM card—it’s a Czech brand. Please advise; I don’t want to buy a new router when it seems to be working fine.

Yeah I know that my wifi is absolutely horrendous. No 5g box wifi wasn't much more better enough to justify paying more with a monthly limit aswell.

it's a 2 story house, we see around 40 ish downstairs and very low (5 mbps) speeds upstairs but it is okay for scrolling reels. The real problem is with my new laptop, it's a thinkbook 16p with a Be200 wifi7 card and it basically can't get any wifi upstairs and it is a quite bit slower than my phone downstairs too. When I connected it to my phone's hotspot and my phone to wifi it worked a bit faster so I figured the culprit was the wifi 4 2.4 GHz router.

So long story short, which makes more sense? H30g is wifi 5 and ik 50mbps is nothing for wifi 5 and even 4 but idk maybe it'll still help and maybe my laptop could get along better with it? But maybe having 3 might be better?

Also I don't think new routers have VDSL, AI told me that I should use the old router as a bridge or something, that will work and cause no issue yeah? (The router was a airties 5650)

Title says it all. For more context, I’m just trying to get away from my Cox panoramic gateway to drop the $15/mo charge. Moved into a new house with a pre-existing Nokia modem I believe, purchased the Flint 2 router and set up last night only to find out my speeds are about half the level I was already getting (signed up for 1 gig speeds, generally get 300-500 mbps, Flint 2 giving me max 150 up and down). Not to mention I know next to nothing about how to get the most out of the thing, but that’s a skill issue I guess.

So, wondering if a mesh WiFi system is actually worth it here. I know folks love hardwiring and I get it, but I’m not in a position to either run wires thru my house or hire someone to do it; my question is, would something like the Netgear Orbi mesh system be a legitimately good idea instead of, say, a “regular” Asus router?

Router is in the basement of a ~2600 sqft two-story house, so not expecting perfection regardless, but just need to know if essentially a “plug & play” mesh system is superior here to a more conventional router.

Appreciate the help, can’t stand to look at one more “Best Router of 2026” list!

Has anyone upgraded to this? Is it stable? Why the huge gap from 1.8.0 - the previous release?

More to the point are there any features worth updating for?

Why do they always forget to update https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/download/deco-x55/v1/#Firmware

Does anyone know of where I can go or look at to find free or sold for cheap network equipment, especially racks, in the Birmingham, AL or nearby areas?

Hi guys. I’m kind of a beginner when it comes to routers and stuff. I’m moving into a new house next week and i was planning on buying a sim card and paying monthly with an unlimited data plan and putting it into a router. Is this possible? Is there anything i should look out for like what routers are compatible with sim cards etc? I’m worried i’m going to buy the wrong router. I live in the UK. Thanks guys.

Earlier this week I ordered a new mesh router (TP-Link BE85 3 pack) over Amazon and it was delivered the following day. Everything arrived in "new" condition - the box was still wrapped in cellophane and everything appeared normal. As soon as I powered up the first router and turned on the Deco app I got a message stating that there was a login from a device I don't usually use. Turned out to be a Google Pixel 8a phone and this happened the previous day - about 3 hours after I placed my order. The location of the phone was shown to be near an Amazon fulfilment center. This was prior to me loading my wifi SSID and password so I felt it was safe to continue with the installation.

I am now wondering how this could have happened - the router was never powered up so I don't see how anyone could have connected to it. There was no indication that any of the packaging had been tampered with.

I’ve had an intermittent connection on a builder-installed Cat5e run to my home office for a while. The builder terminated the wall keystone and I crimped the basement end myself. I always blamed the switch; after swapping it, things have mostly been stable and the link negotiates 1 Gbps every time.

I recently bought a FNIRSI LPM-10A tester (prepping for PoE APs and cameras) and decided to check this run properly.

What I’ve found:

• The tester’s included patch cord passes, so I’m using it at the keystone.
• QC test on my basement crimp passes (both ends are wired T568A; the tester just labels it B).
• Cable test shows pins 1 and 2 shorted, with the same result from either end. The diagram doesn’t seem to flip, so I can’t tell which end is the problem.
• Length test: 3-6, 4-5 and 7-8 all read about 540 in. Pair 1-2 read 0 in once, then 519 in on every later test from both ends, so no clear location there.
• I re-punched the keystone and kept the tails well apart. Same result.
• Despite all that, the link still negotiates 1000 Mbps full duplex.

Plan for tonight:

1. Get iperf3 running against my NAS to see if there are real throughput problems or retransmits.
2. Pull 1 and 2 off the keystone and check continuity with a multimeter. If they’re still shorted, cut off the crimp and test again to narrow it to the jack, the crimp, or the cable in the wall.

Questions:

• Has anyone seen this tester flag a 1-2 short on a run that still links fine at gigabit? Could it be a high-resistance or partial short rather than a dead one?
• Any better way to locate it before I start cutting?
• If it’s in the wall, is it worth trying to fix, or should I just pull a new run?

Photos of the tester screens and the keystone are attached.

I’m looking for advice or solutions regarding a P2P connectivity issue between me and a friend after he switched ISPs to Dot Internet (a local fiber provider in Bangladesh).

• Before: Connected on Radmin VPN via direct UDP with 5–7ms latency. Parsec worked fine.
• Now: Radmin connects via "Relay" with 80–100ms latency, and Parsec fails to connect entirely.

It looks like Dot Internet is blocking direct UDP traffic.
I have asked Dot Internet for Public IP and They strictly denied.

Any Solutions?

I currently have a 2-unit Netgear Orbi RBK50 mesh system (1 x RBR50 router + 1 x RBR50 satellite) which I purchased 2018. It's a WiFi 5 product with a 5 GHz backhaul and I'm very happy with the coverage it provides.

However it has reached end of support so am looking to upgrade.

I've noticed that current mesh systems tend to use a 6 GHz backhaul instead of a 5 GHz backhaul, I suppose because this provides faster speeds.

However, I'm wondering if 6 GHz backhaul also means I might have to move my nodes closer together, and therefore might have to go for a 3-unit system instead of a 2-unit system? Particularly interested to hear from those who have already upgraded from a 5 GHz backhaul tri-band system to one which uses a 6 GHz backhaul. Did the change have any impact on the number of nodes you needed to cover the same area?

Thanks

I am having trouble linking my Reolink WiFi NVR to my gateway. I can add the cameras as stand alone and can access them remotely. However, when I load them on the NVR, the gateway won't connect. I've tried setting up a separate 2.4G network and tried linking it but haven't had any luck. Suggestions appreciated. Thank you!

Hey everyone! I’m upgrading to 10GbE and have narrowed it down to two PCIe cards from my local reseller. It’s a bit hard to find good comparisons between the two chips, so I figured I’d ask here.

From what I’ve seen, the RTL8127 runs cooler and draws less power, but I’m wondering about driver stability and whether an x2 card can hit full 10G speeds.

System: MSI MPG X570 Gaming Pro Carbon WiFi, free PCIe 4.0/3.0 x4 slot, Ryzen 5800X3D, Windows 11.

Cudy PE10G (AQC113), PCIe 3.0 x4 per Cudy’s spec sheet:
https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s1/product/cudy-10g-pci-express-adaptermarvell-aqc113-mini-pci-express-network-cards-49840182

Zyxel XGN100C V3 (RTL8127), the listing says x4 but I think it's actually an x2 card:
https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s1/product/zyxel-xng100c-v3-10g-rj45-pcie-netzwerkkarte-mini-pci-express-pci-e-x4-pcie-network-cards-70741762

Has anyone used either one on Windows, which one would you guys pick?

I’m troubleshooting very low throughput through a Google Nest Wifi Pro, model G6ZUC, running software version 3.78.518349. (this isn’t an oh-so-common WiFi device positioning issue — though I wish it was!)

My connection is 1 Gbps symmetrical fiber through a SonicWall TZ470. The Nest’s WAN port connects by Cat 6 directly to a SonicWall LAN port. The SonicWall reports that connection as 1 Gbps, full duplex.

I initially noticed approximately 50 Mbps on my MacBook Pro over Wi-Fi. To remove the Mac’s wireless connection from the test, I connected the MacBook by Ethernet to the Nest’s LAN port. Multiple speed-test utilities/websites still returned approximately 50 Mbps.

Then I unplugged the upstream Cat 6 cable from the Nest’s WAN port and connected that same cable directly to the MacBook, using the same Ethernet adapter. The same tests immediately exceeded 930 Mbps in both directions.

The Google Home app’s built-in internet speed test also returns only 48 Mbps download and 53 Mbps upload.

The unit I tested is the original primary router. It has always had an Ethernet uplink to the SonicWall, previously through an unmanaged gigabit switch and now through a dedicated SonicWall port. What changed was I went from a slow Spectrum business line to a high-speed fiber service — so the problem was no longer masked.

I have examined the settings in the iOS Google Home app and found no indication of an active prioritized device. UPnP is enabled.

Has anyone encountered this kind of approximately 50 Mbps wired-throughput limitation with this model or firmware? What diagnostics would distinguish a Nest problem from a SonicWall policy or an interaction between the two devices?

I’m a software engineer with over 40+ years of experience — but damn — this one’s got me at wit’s end!

So I’m in NE Dallas TX and I’ve purchased a house built in 2021. Supposedly it has fiber internet, currently provided by Spectrum but I plan to go with Frontier since I’m already a customer with them.

Unsurprisingly, I’ve got questions…

First pic is an exterior wall where on the other side is the garage. Is this where the “fiber” comes up? I ask because to me that looks like Cat5 or Cat6 cable.

Second pic is the “spaghetti” mess of an interior panel very close to being perfectly in the center of the home, in a laundry room to be exact. Does anyone here see an actual fiber optic cable, perhaps close to the Spectrum box (FOT?) towards the bottom of the panel?

I plan on purchasing Frontier 5gb fiber service, so I’m curious how all this will work out if that’s cat5/6 running to the house and not actually fiber?