Covid 19 and slow Wi-Fi

With more and more of us staying in place at home, away from Covid-19,  our usage of Wi-Fi is going up and the speed of Wi-Fi is going way down, sometimes to a trickle. Video gets the hiccups.

What to do?

Being at home, we have more time to think about it and do something.

The first thing I did was to take my shared printers offline and connect them directly to computers.  I found an inexpensive Brother laser printer with ability to connect direct to 

Ethernet.

Next I connected everything else possible direct to ethernet. My routers are of necessity next to my TV, so that I simply extended cables wherever practical, up to 25 feet away to another room.

When re-carpeting is done later this year, I will have flat cables installed under the carpet.

I used USB to ethernet converters with laptops. I ordered a special lightning converter for my iPad and iPhone.

I then checked the age of my routers only to discover they were way out of date and slow.

Much better routers are available under $50, and I purchased a TP

-link unit as a replacement. This is highly rated, speedy, and has four antennas.   I put down ethernet cable to a central location.

I will need to switch my Alexa switches over to the new network, which can be done on the Alexa site.

I installed Endless Linux on my tower in addition to slower Windows.  

I put older tablets aside and purchased a fast up-to-date touch screen RCA Cambio tablet for $99.   Why pay more?  Also an up-to-date Chromebook with strong Wi-Fi and ability to run Linux.

Where I don't need a large screen, I use a smartphone which does not need the slow refresh on a large screen and therefore runs faster.

I then settled down with a best-seller for when Wi-Fi does not work at all.  For that I put an old nook and new Walmart tablet back into use again.