What are those for? My laptop has internet, but I don’t need to plug it anywhere for it to work. Is this for computers like they had in the really old movies like Back to the Future?
When you have a lot of wireless devices, for every one you take off wireless, you have less radio traffic, less interference, and everyone else has a better connection :-)
In my network, unless something has to be wireless, I run a cable :-)
Especially for things like streaming boxes which want a good connection and use high bandwidth.
I save the wifi for things that really need it, and they should be faster as a result.
i would argue that being seemingly extreme here is worthwhile. If possible, run it inside rigid conduit. Some more cost now, but conduit makes it a much more maintainable system. Solid yet upgradable digital infrastructure, for the home or small office.
I once did this for a small office space which I had the freedom and budget to do as I wished. After that, everything was rock solid for years. Floods, critters, insane humidity... survived it all. If somehow a cable went bad, it could be used to pull through its replacement.
If in 10-20 years fiber became the new LAN cable, then just pull it through yourself without an electrician. If you need to hire an electrician who has the clbest tools for termination, their billable hours will be much lower.
Rigid conduit every room, maybe even two walls per room since you are already paying a pro to be under/over there already.
If it's a retrofit then maybe it's too late, but a renovation or new build... I would always spend that extra money if at all possible.
Microwaves always kill wifi for me if they’re in the path between device and AP.
Light bulbs with tiny bits of filament in the bulb, holes drilled in the cage by fire safety morons, faulty doors etc.
I handed him one of my old Ubiquiti M-series APs, the ones with the spectrum analyzer function built in. Showed him how to use it on his laptop, how to turn in a circle and estimate the azimuth of the source, etc. He went home that evening and as soon as his connection dropped, he fired up the analyzer. Very quickly localized the source to the driveway side of the house.... to the neighbor's kitchen.
At that point he called me for advice, and I said to knock on the neighbor's door, because this is really unsafe. He put me on speakerphone and I was able to tell them what we found, and they cut me off, saying they knew the door seal was damaged -- it got torn a few weeks prior when someone caught something in the door -- they just had no idea it was a big deal. (It's normal to feel a warm draft near the corner of the unit since the fan exhaust blows out down there, so the warm-sunshine feeling wasn't distinct enough to alarm anyone.)
They replaced the microwave the next day and the problem went away.
Is this for computers like they had in the really old movies like Back to the Future?
Yep, exactly that. We used the 1.21 Gigawatts standard, which was only half as groovy as today's 2.4 Ghz WiFi.
Especially when the laptop does not have an Ethernet port. For me it's USB-C to Ethernet adapter when my laptop is in my office room, and pathetic WiFi elsewhere.
I take it I should try one of these USB-C to USB-C magnetic things (a la Magsafe): don't know if they're any good.
Using the phone keyboard?