How do I convince my parents that good signal strength is important for internet speed.

[Naruzeldamaster]

So we have 1.2 Gigs on our regular internet speed. (good luck convincing them to get fiber) Problem is my media room is all the way across the house from the router, and the router has a lot of things between it and my devices. (including fairly thick solid walls and obviously the door to my media room, we're also planning on adding another door between my side of the house and theirs) My parents think because it's 'working' it's fine, nothing needs to be done. I haven't tried anything online yet to see if they're right, but most of my devices in my media room don't have full bars of signal strength, some of them don't even consistantly have two.

There are multiple ways to 'fix' this issue, one of which is completely free (move the router to a more optimal location) but they won't do it because the internet 'works' and their devices are getting full signal strength.

Right now the router is in a very bad spot, it's tucked away in a corner behind some furniture hidden from view, as if guests will explode if they see it or get too close to it. (my mom's idea, because she doesn't know how routers work) Never mind my media room being a good bit away from said router and having thick walls and a solid door between it.

The internet guy even told us on outset that our kind of house would have interference in distance from the router in different rooms. Now I don't game online often, but when I DO game online, I would prefer to be able to use the full force of our internet speed with good signal strength to each of my devices, especially if I can accomplish this while their devices are unaffected.

 

[pmmg]

Look into power line adapters or moca adapters.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Look into power line adapters or moca adapters.

The problem isn't doing it, it's not like we can't afford it, the problem is convincing them to do it.
They think because it works, it's fine (and for general web browsing it is) but I don't wanna risk having bad online gaming experiences because My Switch 2/PC has 4 Bars instead of 5, It really affects download speeds too. Missing one bar not so much, but missing two or more has a pretty harsh impact.

There are free options (moving the router to a better location like I said) and there are paid options ( Boosters and Extenders) but they won't do any of it because they don't care enough. They're pretty bad about brushing my 'problems' aside if it's not putting me in the hospital.

Nintendo's online is not exactly the best as is (most notably splatoon games) but anything I can do to ensure things are good on my end I'd like to do.
Other companies' online is much better even with our old internet plan, but that's because the max signal strength on our router could reach my media room.

All of their devices have max signal strength on their part, and it's not like I'm asking for the world here.

 

[ThinkerX]

Run a physical cable between the router and your computer. Outside wall of the house if need be.

 

[Mad Swede]

Signal strength is not the issue. Your wireless network capacity and hence network speed is determined by the number of channels being used. If you all have several devices connected (PCs, cell phones etc) then network speed will decrease. Using a physical cable might help, but you'll still be sharing the basic 1Gb/s connection with everyone else. One final thing, on modern home networks (wireless or wired) download speeds depend mostly on the server you are connected to, not your own network.

 

[pmmg]

You wish for me to produce arguments to convince your parents that the internet sucks?

Just having a kid complaining is probably enough to do that.

There are many reasons why wireless sucks, and it is true that if you are losing signal, you are dropping packets and your games will stutter and be jittery. But convincing your parents of that feels like something you have to do. I dont know that listing out all the technical reasons will even help.

As a general rule, parents, especially dads, don't like the house to be unhappy. If someone is complaining, it gets filed away as something to fix. But it probably looks impractical. You need a wired connection. Can you run a wire from where the router it is where your game console is? My guess is no. So...when you get down to solutions, powerline adapter may do the trick.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

You wish for me to produce arguments to convince your parents that the internet sucks?

Just having a kid complaining is probably enough to do that.

There are many reasons why wireless sucks, and it is true that if you are losing signal, you are dropping packets and your games will stutter and be jittery. But convincing your parents of that feels like something you have to do. I dont know that listing out all the technical reasons will even help.

As a general rule, parents, especially dads, don't like the house to be unhappy. If someone is complaining, it gets filed away as something to fix. But it probably looks impractical. You need a wired connection. Can you run a wire from where the router it is where your game console is? My guess is no. So...when you get down to solutions, powerline adapter may do the trick.

Running an ethernet line directly to the router? Probably out of the question. Moving the router closer to the media room is a possibility but it depends on where the house's other internet jacks are.

However if we had one of those range extender pods that you plug into the wall, I could plug both my computer and console into that since it would be isolated into my media room. Plug the pod into a socket in my room and then connect directly to the router from that pod.

I've looked at the pods, and for most brands, it looks like the good ones are around $120, thing is, most of the time they're a one time fee, Xfinity's own pods come with two ethernet ports and aren't too terribly large, the problem is (again) convincing my parents to buy one for my media room. Even if say I pay for it, I still gotta convince them that it's worth the investment.

They only moved the router to a more 'appropriate' spot for wifi signals when their devices started having issues, god forbid it's just mine having problems.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I agree with pmmg that technical arguments or specifications generally don't convince most people. We're emotional beings after all.

You could just try persistent complaining. Each time at dinner after a gaming session, complain that the signal was bad. People tend to pick up the hint after a few weeks of this.

Also, if you're paying for this yourself, why do you have to convince them it's worth the money? Couldn't you just say I'm doing this with my money, it's not impacting you?

Alternatively, you could try wrapping your router in alluminium foil for a week and complain loudly about how bad the signal is. And then move it to a new spot and remove the alluminium again...

In the end, you know your parents best. You're better at figuring out what convinces them than we are.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I agree with pmmg that technical arguments or specifications generally don't convince most people. We're emotional beings after all.

You could just try persistent complaining. Each time at dinner after a gaming session, complain that the signal was bad. People tend to pick up the hint after a few weeks of this.

Also, if you're paying for this yourself, why do you have to convince them it's worth the money? Couldn't you just say I'm doing this with my money, it's not impacting you?

Alternatively, you could try wrapping your router in alluminium foil for a week and complain loudly about how bad the signal is. And then move it to a new spot and remove the alluminium again...

In the end, you know your parents best. You're better at figuring out what convinces them than we are.

Navigating these convos with my parents is very tricky because they are very much 'in charge' (I know they're already in charge, being my parents, but you know what I mean) and they think their opinion is the only 'right' one. (unless proven otherwise) Even if my opinion is the correct one I practically have to hire a lawyer to get them to agree with me. Either that or have hard evidence that their opinion is mistaken.

One night we were THIS close to switching to a different internet provider (who only had 100 MB of speed) because they couldn't fix the problem. Throughout the event they ignored my advise other than the fact that the 100 mb isn't even half of what we had in our previous plan.

 

[SamazonE]

I had a router USB device, once upon a time, and that was fine for signal strength, and needed no other attachment. I suppose if all else fails, you could try and reroute one to your parent’s account.

I think that if you live in a different wing or such, or an extension, you could talk to your parents about moving into a trailer park or some other apartment, like by the beach or the CBD. There is that parental instinct in them to have you needing to remain close enough to the router to have access, maybe the root of the problem they have specifically is the need for you to live outside their care.

You could say to your parents, not that you think you are moving out, “but, how about that cousin, or such and such,” to have the ground work laid for a secondary conversation, that has you claiming, “gee, I miss my old room, but the space is just what I need and want.” Then if they don’t figure it out on their own, ask them to watch a movie with you, with an appropriate theme, claiming nonchalantly, that there is no connection in your device.

Aliens might have something to do with it, or a singular alien... You could ask them about their theories, or bring up an age or generationally appropriate theme of fiction or art, that gets their gears greased. Then get them drunk, ask them about nursery rhymes or something, then skirt around the point - but don’t ask them to hang a picture above the router or anything.

I used to think about having no television in my room, but I was super interested in reading books, it took a while for my parents to ween me off that one, but now I am set up with all the frills.