I need a crash course in wifi routers.

[AndyS]

I'm changing Internet providers to pick up more speed and less $$. The new service requires me to rent a wifi router if I want to use wifi. $15 a month. I see routers listed on Amazon from $30 up so I'm thinking buy one instead of renting.

My house is 1100 sq feet and two story (600 sq feet per floor, live on top floor), I stream using ethernet on the Smart TV and my desktop; the rest is a cell phone, a tablet I use as a cookbook and a laptop I use for email and light browsing as I drift off to sleep. The longest distance from the router would be 50' max. I live alone and max number of devices on wifi would be 3 with one active.

Advice on selecting a wifi router?

[pwb]

1. I bought a Netgear router

at Target. It works great upstairs and down.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Buy the router, good idea.

Upgrade as you need.

[James48]

3. A single router should be enough

For that space. Get a dual-band router, you will be fine.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

4. Typically if it's a $15/month rental it's not just for the router

It's for an internet modem/wifi router combo.

So if you want nothing on rental, you'll have to buy both pieces.

That's what I did with my cable internet, and I'm very happy with the setup. Bought the modem on Craigslist for $15 and a friend gave me his mesh wi-fi setup when he upgraded, for free. Worked out awesome and it's WAY better than using the crap modem/router that Cox Cable wanted to charge me 10-something a month for.

You can almost surely buy the cheapest options available given what you describe as your use case. Guessing you're not getting like gigabit service, correct?

[AndyS]

6. I'm currently operating on 15 mbps and upgrading to

100 mbps. I don't need that speed but it's the least available. My current bill is $83/month and the new bill will be the same with the rental. I'll talk to the installer about exactly what I'm renting and see if I need to buy a modem as well.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

8. There you go! Or if they're giving you the modem (certainly possible) just take that

and get the wi-fi router of your own as you planned, obvs. With 100mb/s and a small place and just a handful of connections, you can pretty well get the cheapest wifi router no problem, it will not be a limiting factor.

[sprinkleeninow]

5. Eero at Amazon. I bought my own instead of renting.

[CloudWatcher]

7. Cable modem? DSL modem?

Note a WiFi router is often just Ethernet-to-and-from-WiFi. I'm guessing you're looking for a cable-modem + WiFi or a DSL modem + WiFi. In which case you need to be careful your new box is compatible with your ISP.

[AndyS]

10. DSL to the home. nt

[Lithos]

9. Unless you have a lot of wood or metal which would block, get the single dual band router.

Metal as in water heater or air conditioner, wood as in a heavy beam. Change the password and keep it updated.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. I'm terrified of changing my router setup

I tried to configure the printer on the router, epic fail. That was about 2 years ago.

I want to go with cable router, but I think the liability is $500 or something like that. I have Verizon ISP. It's barely adequate. But cable would be 20x faster, and no more landline required.

Also with the cable, you have to setup your own router or network. Can I use the router I have?