Well, apparently, if you get one opinion from one Optimum technician, then you’ve gotten only one opinion. Who knows what the truth is.
The guy showed up at 1:56. (Cutting it close much??) He first checked the outside wires and recognized that one wire was rubbing against a large branch, which may have been mucking things up. So he anchored it so it won’t do that anymore.
Then he came inside and replaced the cable from where it enters the house to the modem. POinted out that there was an extra cable on the modem not connected to anything (!) so it was draining power(?) or signal(?) from the modem. Fixed that all up, as well as cables in the basement, where they first enter the house.
Told me the router they left with me – modem? router?? whatever – is crap and we really should get a mesh router system.
A lovely young man. Everything seems to be working right now, so I’m going to wait a week or so before considering the mesh router. If everything seems good, I might just leave well enough alone.
We’ll see.
Off to walk the poor, patient dog, who’s been waiting for me all afternoon.
Wow! Glad to see it all worked out. I have a mesh router system. It’s awesome, but kind of overkill. And expensive…a good mesh system can easily cost $200-$300. A mesh router system is good if you have a big house. It allows you place wi-fi points in different areas of the house so you can get the best wi-fi signal. If you have a modest size house, an ordinary router should do fine. If you see dead spots or areas of the house where you have a weak signal, then a mesh system would be beneficial. Otherwise, just save your money and a technological headache.
I’ve been happy with my eero mesh; this is the current version of what we got.
Amazon eero 6+ mesh Wi-Fi router | 1.0 Gbps Ethernet | Coverage up to 3,000 sq. ft. | Connect 75+ devices | 2-Pack | 2022 release https://a.co/d/hWyDN6Y
We have a one story house and about 1500 square feet in an L shape. The modem and main router are at the end of one leg. The remote node is at the bend.
We have at the recommendation of our tech SIL google nest with 2 nodes. I spent a lot of time testing the speeds in the house and their placement. I ended up with the main nest on the upper floor corner bedroom and the two nodes on the bottom floor near the TV and the other side of the house corner bedroom. It worked great when we had 4 WAH in our home for Thanksgiving for a few weeks.
Well, I ordered the Orbi I posted above. It will arrive tomorrow.
For the most part, our internet has been working OK, but sometimes weird things happen. I was watching today in my office when suddenly the TV screen switched from the channel I was watching to the Roku page with all the apps. I had to click on YouTubeTV, then on who was watching, and so forth. And no, I didn’t touch any remote.
We’ve also had this weird thing where the router is not blinking, as it does when it’s connected, and I can’t log on with my computer – but we’re still getting YouTube TV! The big frustration then is that in order to get my computer connected, I have to reset the router – and of course that makes the TV stop working.
I really hope the mesh system resolves these oddities.
Update: I successfully installed the mesh router system from Orbi. I did have to enter the password for all of my devices, but that wasn’t too bad. Whew. Things seem a little bit better – my computer is staying connected to the internet instead of my having to click on the internet icon and then the network every time I come back to it – but we’ll see over the next few days.
Tomorrow I happily return two routers – the old one we’ve been using for 12 years, and the new one that I could never get to work – to Optimum. Good riddance.
We have the google mesh router system (bought at Costco & inexpensive). Needed to extend wifi to the side yard for the exterior lighting and sprinklers apps.
We’re part of the Spectrum monopoly. I’d be happy to cut the cord, but H isn’t ready yet. We’ve had many Spectrum chats/technicians ranging from bad to slightly helpful (the guy who said Xumo sucks and just run the app through the smart TV or Roku).
Even with my new configuration – mesh router system, Roku stick, YouTube TV – the TV in the upstairs bedroom has been misbehaving: buffering at random moments and even telling me there’s no internet connection. Since the Roku stick was old, I decided to get a new one – a 4+, instead of the plain old 4.
I tried to install it and it didn’t recognize the wifi network.
So I unplugged and replugged the mesh satellite, then tried again. This time, the Roku stick found the wifi and logged me in, after a bunch of effort on my computer, but then I had to go through the YouTube TV smart screen again, by entering their unique code into my computer. The system finally connected and works.
That was half an hour of my life I’ll never get back.
I don’t know yet if it’s resolved the issues I was having. I’ll go upstairs after dinner and watch for an hour or so to see.
Then I came downstairs to run my Roomba in the kitchen and family room. Nope – the app wouldn’t connect; it told me to empty the dust bin. I have the Roomba “tower” so it normally empties on its own. When I opened the dust bin, out came a Post-It pad (the tiny kind). Sigh. Fixed that and we’re working again.
Then, I checked my phone. I’m getting an error message about my voicemails – “Can’t connect to your voice mailbox.” I’ll stop by the Verizon store tomorrow and see what the deal is.
