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I turned an old dual-band Wi-Fi router into a dedicated IoT access point, and my main network is finally clean
My smart home was causing problems.
I paid for gigabit internet and discovered almost nothing in my house can actually use it
You don't need such an expensive plan.
My Wi-Fi was sharing a channel with 14 of my neighbors, and a free app showed me where to move it
Sometimes a new router isn't the solution.
Your old router is being rented to cybercriminals, and the FBI knows it
Don't keep using abandoned hardware.
Your router's default IP range is sabotaging your WireGuard VPN
The problem with defaults is everyone uses them
Getting a public IP undid a year of CGNAT workarounds I'd built to survive it
CGNAT is gone. The setup isn't.
I built a mesh network from old ESP32 boards instead of buying a new router, and my smart home coverage is better now
Turning spare parts into a private mesh
Pangolin lets me reach my own apps from anywhere, and I didn't have to open a single port
So, is Pangolin worth the trouble?
Replacing my ISP's router was the single biggest upgrade I made to my home network
It made a bigger difference than changing any router settings I had access to
My Wi-Fi drops every day at the same time, and I finally understand it's not my router
Your Wi-Fi may be suffering due to all the network activity around it
These obscure settings on my router fixed more than a mesh network ever could
Sometimes you don't need to switch your entire network setup to improve performance.
Mixing managed and unmanaged switches broke my network in ways I never expected
Don't let the time you spent setting up VLANs and other features go to waste
Changing your DNS doesn't hide anything, it just copies the list somewhere else
That doesn't mean you should keep using your ISP's DNS, however
USB 3.0 is quietly breaking your Wi-Fi, and Intel warned everyone years ago
It can even interfere with your wireless mouse, keyboard, headphones, and controllers.
My smart TV annoyed me for months, so I hunted down every mystery device on my network
Unplugging everything from the wall isn't feasible but this (mostly) worked instead
Your speed test looks fine, but bufferbloat is why your Zoom calls still lag
A single setting can fix a lot