Talk of The Villages Florida

Talk of The Villages Florida (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/)
-   The Villages, Florida, General Discussion (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/)
-   -   Internet provider recommendations? (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/internet-provider-recommendations-361520/)

jrref 09-27-2025 07:33 AM

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 09-27-2025 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrLonzo (Post 2463546)
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 09-27-2025 09:05 AM

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 09-27-2025 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsmurano (Post 2463772)
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 09-27-2025 10:09 AM

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 09-27-2025 10:10 AM

...

retiredguy123 09-27-2025 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsmurano (Post 2463785)
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 09-27-2025 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsmurano (Post 2463785)
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.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:10 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO v2.0.32 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2025 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.