[jrref]

I forgot to mention, If you decide to get fixed wireless from Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile, be aware of the following. I was at a Villager's house yesterday helping straighten-out her network and they have Verizon fixed wireless. The problem is you need to put the wireless device in a location where it gets the strongest wireless signal which might be on one end of the house near a window. Although the service gives you pretty good speeds, if you have a large home, the wifi routermay not give you a good signal on the other end of the house because it's too far away. So, If you have no choice and feel the fixed wireless solution is best for you and you have a larger home, getting a mesh wifi system will be the solution for full wifi coverage.

[Brighthouse]

Originally Posted by MrLonzo

I live in the South, Monarch Grove. Fiber not available.

Spectrum is avilable by you. You can get 500Mbps for $30 or 1 gig for $50/month. Call their local sales rep Lysander. 352.239.3538. I signed up about 6 months from Xfinity. He came to my home and helped to make sure everything was working properly.

[rsmurano]

All isp plans are contracts, it doesn’t matter if they are 2,3,5 year contracts, they are contracts with expiration dates.
I was paying $80 a month for xfinity for 1G and I knew they were going to raise it by $50 after my contract expired so I went with spectrum. Plus, xfinity charges for their modem/router $25 a month which is on top of the monthly charge, not sure if they do this with the slower speed contracts. Spectrum doesn’t charge for their modem and I use my own routers.

WiFi thru the air is hit and miss but mostly miss because of the weak signal into the house. You have to place the wifi router in a certain spot to get a decent signal and then if you only use 1 router in your house, all the other rooms will get terrible wifi because the signal has to go thru walls. If you have an Ethernet port next to where you place the wifi router, then you can setup a wired bridged or mesh network with other routers in the other rooms in your house.

No isp will setup your private wifi network correctly. NOBODY! You will always have to change the wifi ssid’s on all your phones/tablets/computers/ecobee’s/garage door openers/etc.. instead of just using the last ssid you used with the other provider.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

All isp plans are contracts, it doesn’t matter if they are 2,3,5 year contracts, they are contracts with expiration dates.
I was paying $80 a month for xfinity for 1G and I knew they were going to raise it by $50 after my contract expired so I went with spectrum. Plus, xfinity charges for their modem/router $25 a month which is on top of the monthly charge, not sure if they do this with the slower speed contracts. Spectrum doesn’t charge for their modem and I use my own routers.

WiFi thru the air is hit and miss but mostly miss because of the weak signal into the house. You have to place the wifi router in a certain spot to get a decent signal and then if you only use 1 router in your house, all the other rooms will get terrible wifi because the signal has to go thru walls. If you have an Ethernet port next to where you place the wifi router, then you can setup a wired bridged or mesh network with other routers in the other rooms in your house.

No isp will setup your private wifi network correctly. NOBODY! You will always have to change the wifi ssid’s on all your phones/tablets/computers/ecobee’s/garage door openers/etc.. instead of just using the last ssid you used with the other provider.

Still incorrect that a single router cannot cover an entire villa or designer home. Some routers and some home designs may require additional equipment but certainly not all.

When the Xfinity installer came to my home five years ago he set the ssid to match my equipment, not the other way around as you claim. When I switched to T-Mobile the installer (me) set the ssid to match the equipment rather than the other way around. It may not happen all the time but it is untrue to say that no isp will set it correctly.

[rsmurano]

ok 1 out of a thousand installs the technician configured the router to correct way by changing the ssid to your existing ssid. Most do not and the people that called me in to redo their network, they all had the dual ssid’s and they had to change every device to their new ssid.

But I am right about WiFi speeds. Every wall in your house impacts the speed of your wifi signal, and not for the better, I don’t care if it’s a 1 bedroom or 5 bedroom. Why do 5G isp want you to place their router in a certain location in your house for better signal capture? I have friends that cameras in their garage didn’t work because the xfinity router was in a room almost the furthest from the garage. My outside grill wouldn’t connect to the wifi because of the weak signal.
Only a mesh network 6e or above can handle signals between walls because of their proprietary high speed backhaul. But the best way to connect to the internet is hard wired, from your computer, from any device, and even between any router.

[biker1]

...

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

ok 1 out of a thousand installs the technician configured the router to correct way by changing the ssid to your existing ssid. Most do not and the people that called me in to redo their network, they all had the dual ssid’s and they had to change every device to their new ssid.

But I am right about WiFi speeds. Every wall in your house impacts the speed of your wifi signal, and not for the better, I don’t care if it’s a 1 bedroom or 5 bedroom. Why do 5G isp want you to place their router in a certain location in your house for better signal capture? I have friends that cameras in their garage didn’t work because the xfinity router was in a room almost the furthest from the garage. My outside grill wouldn’t connect to the wifi because of the weak signal.
Only a mesh network 6e or above can handle signals between walls because of their proprietary high speed backhaul. But the best way to connect to the internet is hard wired, from your computer, from any device, and even between any router.

I have never had anything but a single router. My last house in Virginia had 5 bedrooms on 3 levels, and I only had a single router, but I got a good wifi signal in every room.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

ok 1 out of a thousand installs the technician configured the router to correct way by changing the ssid to your existing ssid. Most do not and the people that called me in to redo their network, they all had the dual ssid’s and they had to change every device to their new ssid.

But I am right about WiFi speeds. Every wall in your house impacts the speed of your wifi signal, and not for the better, I don’t care if it’s a 1 bedroom or 5 bedroom. Why do 5G isp want you to place their router in a certain location in your house for better signal capture? I have friends that cameras in their garage didn’t work because the xfinity router was in a room almost the furthest from the garage. My outside grill wouldn’t connect to the wifi because of the weak signal.
Only a mesh network 6e or above can handle signals between walls because of their proprietary high speed backhaul. But the best way to connect to the internet is hard wired, from your computer, from any device, and even between any router.

I’ve posted my speed test results before - the same 300Mvps results standing next to the router as I get standing in the corner of my garage two walls away.

Frequency makes a difference. That’s why the 2.4GHz WiFi band is not as affected by walls as the 5GHz band is. 5G cell signals exist in a band particularly affected by structural materials so putting the modem close to a window helps. Once the 5G cell signal is converted to 2.4GHz WiFi the walls don’t matter as much.

[allsport]

[QUOTE=MrLonzo;2463450]I've been paying $55/mo. to Xfinity for internet/WiFi service, and looking for a better deal when my 2 year contract ends next month. Any suggestions?[/QUOT


No better deals unless you don't care how fast your internet is. Cheaper is slow and hit and miss.

[jrref]

A couple of comments:
1) From my experience either with new installs or helping fix installs that I'm not involved with, most techs will try and place the wifi device in the most central location as possible such as above the Kitchen cabinets or Living room and will set the network name and password to the existing one and try and get all the customers devices on-line. But the tech has only a certain amount of time to spend on the install so usually, when a customer has a lot of devices such as cameras, door bell, streamers, printers, etc, if any don't come back on-line, it's up to the customer to get that done. Some cameras and doorbells or smart switches will need to be re-installed even if you use the same network credentials and most techs will not have enough time to do all that work on your install. Forget about if the customer has multiple networks or some sort of complicated set-up. With every provider, Xfinity, Spectru, Quantum, etc., there will always be that "lazy" tech that will install the wifi device in the easiest location and hopes for a wifi signal all over the house. I can say with Quantum, I have not run across any "lazy" techs and they are reqired and do a wifi network survey after the installation to make sure you are getting "adequate" speeds all over your home or they can't close out the job.
2) I agree with a single wifi device it's difficult to get good coverage throughout your house. But if the wifi device is placed properly, I've seen very few houses here in the Villages where you couldn't get a good signal all over the home. This year I've helped 45 Villagers with their Quantum install and have a 100% sucess in getting a good wifi signal all over the home by placing the Quantum main wifi pod in the best location. I know that's not a large sample but it's large enough to make the point.
3) There is no way to get full speed wifi all over your home with a single device. Granted, if you have 100Mbs or 300Mbs, yes you can see that speed everywhere on a smaller home but you won't have that same result with 500Mbs or 1Gbs, or other faster speeds, especially with the upload speed. If you want full speed wifi all over your home you are going to have to need a mesh wifi or other equivalent system.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by jrref

…
3) There is no way to get full speed wifi all over your home with a single device. Granted, if you have 100Mbs or 300Mbs, yes you can see that speed everywhere on a smaller home but you won't have that same result with 500Mbs or 1Gbs, or other faster speeds, especially with the upload speed. If you want full speed wifi all over your home you are going to have to need a mesh wifi or other equivalent system.

I get the full speed of my WiFi throughout my house using a single device. I didn’t consider 2000sqft to be small but…

500Mbps may need additional equipment because that speed requires the 5GHz band which has a shorter range than the 2.4 band.

What common applications require >300Mbps anyway?

[jrref]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

I get the full speed of my WiFi throughout my house using a single device. I didn’t consider 2000sqft to be small but…

500Mbps may need additional equipment because that speed requires the 5GHz band which has a shorter range than the 2.4 band.

What common applications require >300Mbps anyway?

I'm not doubting your claim and I'm glad you mentioned it. My comment was to point out with slower speeds is far easier to get close to full speed over most of the house expecially if its a frame home with a single wifi device. I don't know statistically what speeds most Villager's purchase but with the Quantum installs I help with, most get the 500Mbs speed because it's the cheapest and way more bandwith than they will ever need. I can tell you with 100% certainty, you are never going to get the full 500Mbs download and upload everywhere in the home with a single wifi device installed in an optimal location in most homes here in the Villages. The reason is because once the wifi signal has to pass through a wall or your lanai glass sliders for example, the signal and data rate will drop. How much? It depends on the layout of your home. When someone says full speed all over the home, I'm including the main living space, the garage and the lanai. Many like to have good wifi in the lanai and the glass sliders do a good job degrading the signal and thus the speed. I'm sure there are some exceptions as in your case.

[biker1]

500 megabits per second is not the lowest cost; 200 megabits per second is their lowest cost offering. I suspect most people do not understand their real requirements and blindly spend more than they need to.

Originally Posted by jrref

I'm not doubting your claim and I'm glad you mentioned it. My comment was to point out with slower speeds is far easier to get close to full speed over most of the house expecially if its a frame home with a single wifi device. I don't know statistically what speeds most Villager's purchase but with the Quantum installs I help with, most get the 500Mbs speed because it's the cheapest and way more bandwith than they will ever need. I can tell you with 100% certainty, you are never going to get the full 500Mbs download and upload everywhere in the home with a single wifi device installed in an optimal location in most homes here in the Villages. The reason is because once the wifi signal has to pass through a wall or your lanai glass sliders for example, the signal and data rate will drop. How much? It depends on the layout of your home. When someone says full speed all over the home, I'm including the main living space, the garage and the lanai. Many like to have good wifi in the lanai and the glass sliders do a good job degrading the signal and thus the speed. I'm sure there are some exceptions as in your case.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by biker1

500 megabits per second is not the lowest cost; 200 megabits per second is their lowest cost offering. I suspect most people do not understand their real requirements and blindly spend more than they need to.

I knew someone was going to point this out but anything less than 500Mbs from Quantum is only offered in certain parts of the Villages.

So for example, here in Osceola Hills, you can get 200Mbs, 500Mbs and 1Gbs. But in Liberty Park, Bonita, and those surrounding aread you can get 500Mbs, 1Gbs, 3Gbs and 8Gbs speeds.

My guess is Quantum is trying to be competitive with cable in some areas by offering a $45/month service?

But the point I was trying to make is with the Quantum installs that I've been involved with, 100% of the time the Villager wants the 500Mbs for $10/month more than the 200Mbs offering, their choice. I think part of the problem is those moving from cable to fiber are conditioned where they feel they need to have more speed, some get the 1GBs cable service, so when the shared cable system slows down during peak times, they still have enough bandwidth to not get buffering. As we have discussed, with fiber there is no need to pay more for faster speeds with a dedicated connection since the speed will remain fairly constant even at peak times. I may be wrong, but this is the "feeling" I get when talking about speed when someone is considering moving from cable to fiber, no matter which company we are talking about.

[biker1]

If you call Quantum they may very well offer the lower rate. They can provide any level of service they want, including asymmetric bandwidths. I suspect the reason most people pay for more bandwidth is because they no idea what they need and assume more is better (it isn't better, it is just unused capability). In reality, 50 megabits per second is more than enough for the majority of people. If I could downgrade from 200 megabits per second to 50 megabits per second for $5 less per month I would. Those who actually need more probably know. The vast majority of people have no clue that 1080p video streaming only consumes about 5 megabits per second. ISPs love to upsell. Their "guides" on their websites to help you decide are fundamentally dishonest.

Originally Posted by jrref

I knew someone was going to point this out but anything less than 500Mbs from Quantum is only offered in certain parts of the Villages.

So for example, here in Osceola Hills, you can get 200Mbs, 500Mbs and 1Gbs. But in Liberty Park, Bonita, and those surrounding aread you can get 500Mbs, 1Gbs, 3Gbs and 8Gbs speeds.

My guess is Quantum is trying to be competitive with cable in some areas by offering a $45/month service?

But the point I was trying to make is with the Quantum installs that I've been involved with, 100% of the time the Villager wants the 500Mbs for $10/month more than the 200Mbs offering, their choice. I think part of the problem is those moving from cable to fiber are conditioned where they feel they need to have more speed, some get the 1GBs cable service, so when the shared cable system slows down during peak times, they still have enough bandwidth to not get buffering. As we have discussed, with fiber there is no need to pay more for faster speeds with a dedicated connection since the speed will remain fairly constant even at peak times. I may be wrong, but this is the "feeling" I get when talking about speed when someone is considering moving from cable to fiber, no matter which company we are talking about.