The following article is an excellent source of information on WiFi in your home and why you may have problems. This is good for newer users but a good refresher for us older users as well. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.
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I’m a hard wired streamer…but I still approve this message! 
Being old, not electronically adept, and new to all of this, I have a few router questions. Where I live, there is no access to fiber optics. I have two choices of providers and one had very old lines where that went out all the time. They told me it was too expensive to replace, so I went with a three letter provider with a & in their name. That being said, is it okay to use their provided router or should I purchase a router? Thanks in advance.
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Hey @Pops What speed is your DSL from AT&T? And…how much do they charge you per month for equipment rental? We’ll go from there…
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I do both, 2 PCs wired one Wi-Fi, and cameras. Aso 12nd router. I have a basement and two floors which the Nighthawk handles well.
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I pay nothing for equipment. The router is a 5286ac. I average around 70mbps download and 21 mbps upload with no vpn. Not the fastest, I know. It drops to around 45 with IPVanish. This is the fastest they offer in my area. Old lines and all. No Fiber and Cox was worse.
I understand the “old lines & all” situation…my Sis is in the same boat where she lives out in the boondocks of NW LA…sounds like you might be rural also…? I do know that AT&T is upgrading the DSL hardware in their roadside comm boxes around the country where they’re still using older copper lines…so if they haven’t already with you, they maybe will sometime. You can contact them on that…I chatted with a couple of the subcontractors doing the job & they filled me in. If you’re not paying any rental on your gateway I’d just keep what you’ve got. Your speeds with a VPN are still sufficient for pretty much everything & Pace is a good brand (also bought out by Arris). If you have $$$ burning your pocket & want a new toy…they yeah, there are some more high tech gateways out there…just don’t know how much better they would be. 
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If I was in a rural place, I would understand. I just live in an older neighborhood built early 70’s. It was approximately 8 years ago that AT&T arrived in my neighborhood. Before that, I had only one option and they kept going out. Speaking to the old provider, they said not worth the money to upgrade on my dead end street. AT&T also said that they would not upgrade in my area. Rock and a hard place. I appreciate the information and will save my money for something more important, like gasoline.
Copy that Pops…I also live on a dead end street (built in the late '50s) where fiber was recently laid on the “main” road a block or so down, but won’t be coming down my street either, due to small amount of potential customers (less than 20 homes on my street)…luckily, I have a relatively stable cable line running down the street so I’m good to go. Don’t know if you’ve looked into T-Mobile Home Wifi or not, but depending on where you are in relation to one of their towers, it might be an option. Regardless, GL2U
Unlimited High-Speed 5G Home Internet Service Plans | T-Mobile 5G Home Internet?
Just wanted to pipe in on the T-Mobile home internet, i’ve been with them for a while now, and pretty happy with the service. my speeds with nordvpn running are about the same as Pops, sometimes faster, but on average it’s all good. very little to no buffering with my iptv service, and the same with netflix(a free account thru T-Mobile 
) xumo, crackle, ect…it’s $50 a month unlimited so not bad. if it’s available in your area you can try it for 30 days and return it if it doesn’t work for ya…
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