Although a replacement cable modem will be arriving this week, I'm still fiddling with my current home network setup. This is the kind of fun that bored, techie nerds enjoy. I am positive that I'll be buying a wifi router this summer to replace my existing, one-device setup. I don't really know when though. I could buy a TP-Link Deco X60 today. Or I could wait until Google updates their aging 2019 Nest Mesh hardware. I will simply wait and see how things play out.
However, before any of that, I wondered if I could try to eke out performance improvements from the current setup. My existing Technicolor TC8717T can never max out my Internet bandwidth nor can it handle the number of Google Home devices now in our apartment. Therefore, I have tried playing with a Wifi extender.
I have not been happy with the results when naming the extender the same as the main WINDTALKER name. I tried this in order to avoid resetting my smart home devices. I did not see an acceptable improvement with this method though.
So yesterday, I renamed the extender's two network bands, essentially doubling the number of home networks. Then, I changed over all the devices in that room to the new WINDTALKER_BEDROOM SSID for the 2.4 GHz band. This seemed to have provided a moderate improvement. I was so pleased that I ran to Walmart today to buy yet another wifi bulb for Jay's bedside table.