Gear
What to buy, and what not to.
Most home-network spending goes to the wrong thing — a faster plan when the bottleneck is indoors, a mesh kit when the router is in a cupboard, three nodes where two would do better. These pages are about the judgement, not the listings.
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Start with a measurement
A slow video call can be the plan, the Wi-Fi, or both. Test one wired device and one wireless device in the same room before you spend money. The guide on why your Wi-Fi is slow separates those two results. When the wired test is already slow, a new router leaves the plan unchanged.
Match the hardware to the failure
Mesh Wi-Fi is the coverage purchase. Buy it when one access point leaves rooms with a weak signal. The specification that matters is backhaul: how the nodes talk to each other. A kit that only repeats the same Wi-Fi signal uses the airtime twice.
A Wi-Fi router is the replacement when its generation or its ports are the limit, after the placement test. No single laptop can use the sum of every radio band at once. The Wi-Fi Alliance dates Wi-Fi 5 to 2014, Wi-Fi 6 to 2018, and Wi-Fi 7 to 2024 (checked Sep 24, 2026).
An owned cable modem can make sense when you expect to keep cable service and the provider supports that model on your tier. Fiber and fixed wireless usually leave the provider's gateway in place, so there is no separate modem to buy. CableLabs lists DOCSIS 3.0 at 1 Gbps down and DOCSIS 3.1 at 10 Gbps (checked Sep 24, 2026). An older modem can sit below the plan you pay for.
Ethernet, MoCA, or powerline takes devices that stay put off the shared Wi-Fi. Ethernet is the first choice. Where a new cable run is impractical, MoCA 2.5 uses the coax already in the walls and lists 2.5 Gbps (checked Sep 24, 2026). Powerline is the fallback when neither Ethernet nor coax will reach.
| Standard | What the publisher lists | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi generation | Wi-Fi 5 in 2014, Wi-Fi 6 in 2018, and Wi-Fi 7 in 2024 | Wi-Fi Alliance |
| DOCSIS | DOCSIS 3.0 at 1 Gbps down. DOCSIS 3.1 at 10 Gbps. | CableLabs |
| MoCA 2.5 | 2.5 Gbps over in-home coax | MoCA Alliance |
Gear that assumes a cable modem is the wrong buy when the address has no cable line. Check plans at your address before you order equipment.
These pages print no price, no star rating, and no review count. The current price and stock are on the retailer page each category opens.
Coverage
Mesh Wi-Fi systems
What a mesh system solves, why backhaul is the specification that matters, and how to tell whether you need mesh or a better-placed router.
Core hardware
Wi-Fi routers
How to read router specifications: which numbers describe real capability, which add up bands no device can use, and when replacing the router is the fix.
Buy vs rent
Cable modems
The arithmetic behind buying a modem instead of renting one, and the compatibility and support trade-offs that decide whether it is worth doing.
Backhaul
Wired backhaul
Why wiring the devices that never move frees Wi-Fi airtime for the rest, and three ways to do it when pulling new cable is not an option.
Before you buy anything
Ten minutes of measurement prevents most of the regret. Test wired and wireless separately and you will know whether the problem is the service you pay for or the network inside your walls — they have completely different fixes, and only one of them is a purchase.
Find the real bottleneck first →Sources and scope
- Wi-Fi Alliance: Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7. Checked Sep 24, 2026. Supports: Wi-Fi 5 in 2014, Wi-Fi 6 in 2018, and Wi-Fi 7 in 2024.
- CableLabs: DOCSIS 4.0 technology. Checked Sep 24, 2026. Supports: specification capacities of DOCSIS 3.0 and DOCSIS 3.1.
- MoCA: MoCA Home 2.5. Checked Sep 24, 2026. Supports: 2.5 Gbps over in-home coax.